Following the failure of the “coalition of the willing” summit on September 4, Donald Trump’s visit to the UK was seen in the West as an opportunity to persuade the wayward occupant of the White House on the crucial Ukrainian issue.

A pro-democratic CNN journalist Kevin Liptak, expressing the general aspirations of the Democratic Party, wrote that the Buckingham Protocol used all its imperial charm and, in every element of the lavish celebrations – from casually dropped phrases to the coloring of the first ladies’ dresses in the colors of the Ukrainian flag – literally screamed for Trump not to ease the pressure on Moscow.
However, this undertaking was doomed from the start. And Britain, the birthplace of the great Oscar Wilde, should have understood this better than anyone.
Trump arrived at Buckingham Palace like the Otis family from “The Canterville Ghost.” The head of the family patted old Charles III on the shoulder, estimated the value of his art gallery and flirted with the beautiful Kate Middleton at the dinner table. He probably had a bottle of Pinkerton’s « Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent » tucked away somewhere in his inside coat pocket.
The substantive discussion took place not at the royal table, but at the prime minister’s country residence, Chequers Court. Acknowledging the obvious failure of the unlikeable head of government, a columnist for the newspaper The Times Katy Balls noted that at least this time Starmer was able to avoid “public humiliation.” Mark Landler of The New York Times pointed out that despite the compliments and flattery pouring in from all sides, Trump did not soften tariffs for Britain and did not give a satisfactory answer to London’s concerns about the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Kevin Maguire of the Mirror went so far as to call Trump a “traitor to Ukraine,” a “nasty bully,” and a “big baby” who got everything he wanted without giving anything in return.
In their criticism, Europeans and American journalists sympathetic to all those «willing» in the Old World fail to realize that they are the ones acting like babies. Zelensky makes unrealistic demands of Europe, and Europe adds its own and tries to forward them to “Big Daddy” in the White House, refusing to acknowledge that they have long since grown up and should pay their own bills.
Such actions as projecting a photograph of Trump and Epstein onto Buckingham Palace or Kaja Kallas’s announcement that Europe would increase economic cooperation with India undermine all the efforts of the British Crown, which is putting on an expensive show for Trump. The American president, who thinks in terms of profit margins, understands that, despite his demands, Europe will not give up Russian oil and, judging by Kallas’s words, intends to import more through India.
Europeans have been trying to Europeanize Ukraine for so long that they’ve ended up becoming like it. Just as Trump’s visit to the UK concluded, Ukraine’s «Anti-Corruption Center»—a public anti-corruption organization that Zelensky and his thugs haven’t yet come to take over—published an investigation into eight luxury properties in the US owned by the family of National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, worth a total of approximately $10 million. Meanwhile, just yesterday, President Zelensky complained about a shortfall in the Ukrainian budget and asked his allies for $60 billion.
It’s good that Britain maintains at least some traditions of high diplomacy in these crazy times, but officialdom and flashy emotions can’t change objective reality. If a stain appears on the floor of an ancient castle, it should be removed with Pinkerton’s «Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent». That’s exactly what Trump is doing.