It’s Hard to Fight Greed While Already Down and Out

Zelenskyy showed one way to do it

I was an adult with a growing family, in those early years of scraping to make our own bills, when my mother called. A family member had visited my parents. He was doing well now. Sober, he said. He’d found Jesus. My elderly parents listened to him in the living room while his wife excused herself to the bathroom. That’s probably when she stole my mother’s jewelry from her bedroom.

My mom didn’t notice the missing jewelry for weeks. She never wore it.

“Isn’t it just awful,” my mother said with a sigh. I knew how little she had left after decades in poverty. What little remained was either of sentimental value or costume. Either way, it was gone. What could you do?

I’m ashamed to say now that I followed in my mother’s acquiescence. Who knew what this family member would do if anyone caused a fuss?

I keep finding myself thinking about this moment now, as Elon Musk and Donald Trump, under the auspices of fraud protection and efficiency, strip our federal government down to the bare bones. At least 6,000 veterans, who make up 30% of the federal workforce, have lost their jobs so far and there’s a looming staffing crisis at VA hospitals where veterans receive care. Research labs are scrambling, as studies pertaining to cancer, brain injury and child health stall due to the freeze on federal grants. With the gutting of USAID, American farmers, who sell food to aid programs, could lose between $12.1 million and $2.1 billion in food sales, depending on what programs and grants DOGE ultimately cuts. This doesn’t even begin to reflect the toll on needy people abroad, those who live in fragile countries, where work to battle terrorism, human and drug trafficking will also be withdrawn.

All this, with nearly 40% of contracts canceled by DOGE expected to produce no cost savings.

About 1600 people per minute are calling the Congressional switchboards, many furious about Trump administration actions. Lawsuits over various executive orders are flooding the courts.

Surely, some Americans are pleased and think Donald Trump is doing what they elected him to do.

But among another swath of the country, there’s a sad resignation, folks just muscling through their days and not letting government matters weigh upon their shoulders. They can’t carry more. This is what people with any power do, anyway, right? Callously take whatever they can get their hands on and leave the rest to suffer.

Much as most of us are aware of the entitlement that comes with privilege, I think we sometimes fail to see the paralysis that is often paired with want. If surge capacity can increase our ability to withstand a temporary crisis, on the flip-side, there’s a unique exhaustion that comes with chronic strain, including with long-term poverty. I suspect that widespread sense of being tapped-out is what has made the U.S. uniquely vulnerable to this national theft.

America is home to a third of the world’s billionaires; it also ranks below average among developed countries in its measure of support for all citizens via its social safety net.

It’s hard to find the motivation to join the resistance when, for many Americans, daily survival is an act of defiance.

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Speaking of survival, last week, our president and Vice President J.D. Vance stunned the world by pretending to give a manners lesson to a man who has been holding down the eastern front of Europe for three years.

A farse of a presser devolved as Mr. Art of the Deal spoke of his desire for “raw earth” mineral rights and missed the magnitude of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s motivation in their conversation. Zelenskyy showed before and after photos of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Trump responded with “Tough stuff.”

Then, answering a reporter’s question, Trump spoke at length about the benefit of “raw earth” (a Trumpian word-mash referring to rare-earth raw minerals). He talked freely about how the U.S. does not have a natural reserve of such materials, and it will be useful for AI and military technology.

Trump seemed far more interested in the mineral rights the U.S. could earn through an agreement than in the toll of the war or the risk to the globe of Russia left unchecked. Trump claimed Europe gave much less to the war effort than Europe, and Zelenskyy gently corrected him. At that point, the two were able to play it off as a joke when Trump warned, “Don’t argue with me.”

Trump, looking to place blame for the war, complained about former President Biden’s tactics, spoke about losses to Ukrainian and Russian soldiers. Zelenskyy pressed back, referring to international rules of war and Russia’s responsibility to one day pay reparations for its unprovoked attack on a sovereign state. Trump and Vance both tried to assure Putin would hold to whatever deal they make. Zelenskyy asked why they believe that, when Putin has failed to adhere to agreed-upon terms with other leaders, with other cease fires.

This is when Vance became belligerent and then Trump jumped in to scold Zelenskyy that “you don’t have the cards to make a deal.”

Zelenskyy defended that he isn’t playing cards.

The deal began to slip away—one that would cost Ukraine precious mineral rights in exchange for security through a cease-fire Trump asserts Putin will maintain, despite plenty of historical evidence to the contrary.

Depending upon your worldview, it may have looked like a smackdown.

Most of the world appears to have seen Vance scrambling to try to make his boss look good while Trump lauded Putin. All of it, making the United States leaders look small.

Over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a halt to offensive cyber operations in Russia.

I keep thinking about what Ukraine loses with a mineral rights deal, the sacrifice its people have already made to protect their land and Europe from the encroachment of Putin’s Russia. I see a greedy figure in Trump, looking to see what he can take in the name of peace.

In some ways, Zelenskyy’s moment of standing up to Trump is a model for how to deal with a world leader fixated by his own insatiable appetites.

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There’s little evidence Donald Trump and his billionaire buddy, Musk, seek to rectify the economic imbalances crushing everyday Americans. In fact, their project thus far seems to be dismantling the essential underpinnings of liberalism—the sort that deployed FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society to increase financial regulation and social programs in an attempt to end economic and racial injustices.

Arguably, these programs were needed in part thanks to the robber barons, wealthy 19^th century businessmen who paid slave wages, exploited natural resources unchecked, broke the economy, and used their power to influence the government. (Sound familiar?)