Liberation, &c.
On WWII, Ukraine, Trump vs. Musk, Jack Nicklaus, a great high-school teacher, and more
As you probably noted, Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, met with President Trump in the Oval Office. The date was June 5. Merz mentioned that the next day was the anniversary of D-Day. Said Trump, “That was not a pleasant day for you. This was not a great day.” Merz responded beautifully, and wisely.
“In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from a Nazi dictator.”
At another point in the conversation, Trump spoke of Ukraine and Russia, painting them as morally equivalent, two children who insist on fighting. This is not Trump in his worst mode. His worst is when he sides with the aggressor, Russia, over the aggressed against, Ukraine.
In any case, Merz handled the moment adroitly. “We are both looking for ways to stop it very soon,” he said. He meant that he and Trump were trying to end the war. “I told the president before we came in that he is the key person in the world who can really do that now by putting pressure on Russia.”
Yes, adroitly handled.
But back to D-Day and Germany. For years now, I’ve emphasized that the defeat of Russia in Ukraine, and the downfall of Putin, would be a great and good thing for Russians. Their country has been held back by imperialism and dictatorship. Millions have streamed out of the country—talented people, who would have done so much at home, if allowed. You can hear the Russian language spoken on virtually every street of New York, London, and Tel Aviv. These people have voted with their feet.
There are so many problems to be solved in Russia: poverty, alcoholism, illness of various kinds. If the Russian government ever tried to uplift Russia, rather than trip up or crush other countries, Russia would be resplendent.
This is an old story . . .
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By now, you’ve read a great deal about the feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The feud and its inevitability. You know the old expression: “This town ain’t big enough for the both of us.” Can the United States, vast as it is, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, contain the egos of both Trump and Musk?
Let me raise a delicate point. Neither man strikes me as especially . . . well balanced. Neither do other leaders (such as the Health and Human Services secretary). During his first term, Trump declared himself “a very stable genius.” In my experience, no one who is either stable or a genius says that.
The older I get, the more I like sane, sober, and steady. Even staid. I like those qualities in government. If I want the operatic, I can go to the opera.
Think of Bryce Harlow, Howard Baker, and Mitch McConnell. (To name only Republicans.) Throw in another Mitch (also a Republican): Daniels.
Think, too, of a Republican–Democratic duo: Alan K. Simpson and Erskine Bowles. (Senator Simpson died earlier this year. I wrote about him here.) They headed the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, better known as the Simpson–Bowles Commission. (Both Republicans and Democrats paid it no mind, to the detriment of the nation.)
The type of person I’m talking about does not give you 24/7 entertainment. He does not put on a show. But he knows a lot about government, and cares about it.
Chávez entertained people in Venezuela, on the way to immiserating them. Lord knows AMLO entertained people in Mexico, especially in his mañanera (his morning media performance). Bolsonaro was a hoot in Brazil.
A lot of people like a caudillo. Me, I’ll get my entertainment outside of politics and government.
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Let me recommend an article in Liberties magazine, here. It is by Barbora Chaloupkova, a Czech journalist. Much of what she says reminds me of what Danes told me when I went to Copenhagen in April. I will quote Ms. Chaloupkova:
It is hard to overstate our shock during the few months of Donald Trump’s second presidency. As a Czech who has been studying in the U.S. for the last two years, I’ve felt this shock on both sides of the Atlantic. Some emotions prevail on both continents: astonishment, for example. “How can he single-handedly do this?” is the most common text my mother, a deputy mayor of a small Czech village with no special interest in American politics, sends me. I try to investigate, to find an answer for her, but often, the Americans with whom I speak are equally uncertain.
Yet, there are also differences between the way my American friends and my Czech countrymen experience the return of Donald Trump. The Americans feel anger, uncertainty, fear. But the Europeans feel something else, something like outright vertigo.
I found just the same in Denmark—especially among longtime admirers of America. Danes are obviously shocked by Trump’s threat of war against them over Greenland. But you know what they mentioned to me, over and over, independently of one another?
Let me again quote Barbora Chaloupkova. A “watershed event for us,” she says, “came on February 28, 2025, when Donald Trump and J. D. Vance berated Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.” She continues,
That scene, almost violent in its atmosphere, made clear the contempt of the current American administration for its relationship with Europe. More than anything else, those ten minutes of “good TV” broke our faith in alliance with the United States.
Some Danes told me just the same. Their own immediate problems aside, what Trump and Vance did to Zelensky in the Oval Office divorced them from America. Or, as they would put it: “America divorced itself from me.”
(For that piece of mine, from Copenhagen, go here.)
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Let me turn to a little golf. Or a little language. Or to both—both at once. A friend of mine sent me this delightful video of Jack Nicklaus, talking about his big-hitting days on Tour. (He was the longest hitter, as well as the best golfer.) Jack has lived most of his life in Florida. But he was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. And he has always pronounced “tour” “ter.” “The PGA Ter.”
That’s the way I learned to pronounce it, when I was growing up about 200 miles north of Columbus. Makes me smile. (I am full of Midwesternisms—in pronunciation and vocabulary—which leak out regularly.)
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All my life, I have seen people hold up signs that say “John 3:16” at sports events. There was a prominent sign last week at the Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’s tournament. There was another such sign—big—behind Ernie Johnson as he was signing off from TNT, for the last time.
You know one way to put people off the Bible? By doing that obnoxious, intrusive, showy BS . . .
(Bachelor of Science?)
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When you read a Matt Labash column, you can’t single out a line, for there are so many to choose from. But, in his latest column, I was struck by this: “full white-man’s-overbite dancing mode.” Once you think about it—once you picture it—you go, “Ha, yes, exactly!”
(If you ever see me doing that, please shoot me.)
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For The Dispatch, I have made some points about President Trump and his foreign policy—the slack he cuts strongmen, the contempt he has for democrats. To read that article, go here.
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And a little music? For a review of The Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky’s opera, at the Met, go here. That review is published on The New Criterion’s website. For my “New York chronicle” in this month’s print magazine, go here.
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I loved Frankie Patterson, and so did everyone else. She was one of my high-school teachers. A gracious, wise, delightsome southern woman, up in the North. She was married to Willis Patterson, a singer, who was long a professor and administrator at the University of Michigan. Among his students was Jessye Norman. He would collaborate with her on her album of spirituals. (For one of them, “Give Me Jesus,” go here.)
An obit of Mrs. Patterson gives a flavor of the woman. Here is one line: “She loved math and working with young people, and she continued to assist anyone who asked for help long after her retirement.”
I was able to talk with her on the phone a few years ago. Was able to apologize to her for being such a lousy and difficult student. (She denied that.) Was able to tell her how much I loved her.
One of those angelic figures who turn up in life.
Loved seeing Jay writing for the Dispatch. Please, Sir, I want some more.
Thank you for the link to the Labash article. I haven't been reading him regularly. I think I'll pay closer attention.