No, no, no, Mr President. Volodymyr Zelensky is not a dictator. Ukraine did not start the war. The Ukrainian people are right to defend themselves against Vladimir Putin’s aggression. And it is time to speak the truth – without equivocation.
Donald Trump’s words on the war in Ukraine cannot be half-accepted or negotiated around. They must be rejected. Truth is too important. And the truth is that Mr Trump is turning the values of the American republic on their head. He stands at the head of a nation founded on the idea that a people have the right to decide their own future. That noble idea cannot be given up without a fight.
The signs are that we may be witnessing nothing short of a revolution in world affairs: the switch of the United States from an ally of Europe to an ally of Russia. From an ally of freedom and democracy to an ally of dictatorship, oppression and brutality.
JD Vance, Mr Trump’s vice-president, came to Europe and delivered an ill-informed lecture on the supposed lack of freedom of speech in Europe, while staying silent about Putin – the man who poisoned the Skripals on the streets of Salisbury and had Alexei Navalny, the courageous campaigner for Russian democracy, murdered in jail.
Rick Wilson, the US Republican Party strategist who worked for George W Bush, said yesterday that Mr Trump sees Putin as “the perfect peer”.
If Mr Trump had his way, he would like to treat critics the same way as Putin does – by locking them up or having them mysteriously fall out of windows, said Mr Wilson.
The Independent believes this is a moment for British politicians and others to face up to the reality of Mr Trump’s dangerous presidency.
Of course, our leaders have to tread carefully and maintain relations with Mr Trump, in the hope that he can be persuaded – to adopt a phrase used by Mike Waltz, US national security adviser, of Mr Zelensky – to tone down his language and act more responsibly.
Which is why we applaud Sir Keir Starmer for defending Mr Zelensky while continuing to show, in dealing with Mr Trump, the lawyerly prudence we have come to expect from the prime minister, as he prepares to visit the US next week.
But that does not mean that others unburdened by the responsibility of directly negotiating with the US – politicians not in power, thinkers, those in the media, we at The Independent – should not tell it like it is.
In recent days we have witnessed the unedifying sight of leading British figures who have supported Mr Trump wriggling to avoid upsetting him, as he becomes ever more wild in his statements.
Yes, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage – we are talking about you.
Both have gone out of their way to refrain from criticising Mr Trump, and have tried to suggest that he does not really mean what he says. It is equally plausible, however – indeed, it is growing harder to avoid the conclusion – that he does mean what he says. Mr Johnson should know better than anyone: words matter.
Their behaviour in timidly defending Mr Zelensky while remaining reluctant to condemn Mr Trump is akin to that of schoolchildren who, on seeing a playground bully beat up a smaller child, offer the child a hankie while telling them the bully is a decent chap really.
The stark reality is that they are frightened of upsetting him. Parts of the British media are no better. The current edition of the Spectator magazine, edited by Michael Gove, contains an article saying that “Trump is right” about Mr Zelensky.
The White House had the temerity to suggest that Mr Zelensky had brought Mr Trump’s rage on his own head merely by politely defending himself against the “dictator” jibe.
The same White House that lectures Europe on the need for freedom of expression threw a tantrum and threatened revenge when the Ukrainian leader spoke up for himself and his country.
The hypocrisy is breathtaking.
Mr Trump’s behaviour is little better than that of a baby throwing its toys out of the pram when it does not get what it wants. Unfortunately for us all, the petulant baby is in the White House, and is changing the course of history in Europe and the world for the worse in front of our very eyes.
It is time to make a stand. Mr Trump is wrong, and the world must say so. He is taking the United States down a disastrous path, favouring the dictator of Russia over the elected leader of the Ukrainian people. Worse, he is favouring Putin’s gangster state over the democracies of a free Europe. He is standing alongside murder and tyranny, and against democracy and liberty. His is an historic inversion of America’s destiny.
The Independent will not stay silent in the face of Mr Trump’s dangerous and twisted assault on truth and democracy.
