The Week: Ukraine—Shut Out from Peace Talks, Slammed by U.S. | February 21, 2025

Plus: With inflation still persisting, the Fed would be wrong to cut interest rates further.

THIS EDITION OF THE WEEK IS SPONSORED BY NATIONAL REVIEW FEBRUARY 21, 2025 NATIONAL REVIEW FEB 21, 2025 ◼ Elon Musk should combine his new and his old passions, and launch some federal agencies into the sun.   ◼ The Ukrainian government has objected to its exclusion from recent peace talks Trump administration officials held with their Russian counterparts. It is now getting slammed by the United States, its ostensible ally. President Trump lambasted Ukraine for its frustration, saying Ukraine "should have never started" the conflict that began when Russia invaded and should have "made a deal" to end it. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back, Trump called him a "Dictator without Elections" (Ukraine is under martial law) who "probably wants to keep the 'gravy train' going." Yet Ukraine is much more committed to democracy and the rule of law than Russia, whose malign autocratic leader Trump has never called "a dictator." Ukraine is not the problem here—except to the Kremlin, which objects to Ukraine's very existence as a sovereign state independent from Russia. Since 2014, Ukraine has endured a level of violence and criminality that reflects Russia's utter contempt for the laws of armed conflict. Some in Trump's ear contend that Ukraine antagonized Russia by seeking to join the Atlantic Alliance. Yet it was Ukraine's integration with the European Union, not NATO, that inflamed Moscow, and it was the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych, Russia's puppet in Kyiv, that occasioned the first invasion of Crimea and the Donbas in early 2014. The fact that Russia failed to conquer Ukraine in 2022 is a testament both to the determination of Ukraine's defenders as well as Russia's subpar military. But Moscow's adventurism still poses a real threat to U.S. security and that of its treaty-bound allies on NATO's frontiers. Ukraine won't get all of its territory back or join NATO. Acknowledging this is cold-eyed realism; humiliating and undercutting an ally, perhaps with worse to come in the form of a sweetheart deal for Moscow, is not.   ◼ Republicans were spooked during the campaign by the charge that they were waging a war against in vitro fertilization. Trump, influenced also by the pro-natalism of supporters such as Musk, pledged to expand access to it. He has now issued an executive order instructing his staff to devise policies to do that. The main driver of falling birth rates, though, is later marriage, and telling people that technology will make it easy for them to wait longer might backfire. There are also serious ethical problems with the current practice of IVF, especially its routine destruction of embryonic human lives. It is one thing to say that IVF should remain legal, another that it should remain lightly regulated and receive new subsidies. Congressional Republicans should remember the distinction, and insist on it.   ◼ Immediately upon being confirmed, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a flurry of directives to her subordinates. Her guidance on combating the political "weaponization" of law enforcement is largely political messaging—mainly a revisionist history of the Capitol riot, Trump's role in fomenting it, and the misconduct that led to criminal and civil probes of Trump. She proposes to weaponize DOJ's investigative processes against officials who worked on the Trump investigations and Capitol riot prosecutions. To carry out the directive's mandate, Bondi has convened a "weaponization working group," which will prominently feature Trump's personal defense lawyers, whom he has appointed to top DOJ posts (Todd Blanche and Emil Bove), as well as Ed Martin, formerly a lawyer and fundraiser for Capitol-riot defendants, whom Trump has installed as interim U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C. Bondi says the "working group" will provide regular reports to the White House regarding its progress. How's that for getting the politics out of law enforcement?   ◼ Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, directed Danielle Sassoon, the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York—a solid conservative lawyer and former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia—to dismiss the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has been personally lobbying Trump for clemency. Bove's rationale was incoherent. While claiming not to impugn the integrity of the prosecutors or question their assessment of the strength of the bribery evidence against Adams, Bove claimed that the prosecution was "politically motivated" because Adams criticized Biden's immigration policy. In truth, the investigation long predates Adams's criticism, and the U.S. attorney whom Biden appointed had minimal involvement in it. Bove further maintains that Trump needs Adams's cooperation on immigration enforcement—a contention redolent of a corrupt quid pro quo, especially given that the department is retaining the ability to reinstate charges later (i.e., if Adams fails to produce to Trump's satisfaction). DOJ now has to convince a Biden-appointed judge that the dismissal is in the public interest—and maintain a straight face as it does so. A MESSAGE FROM JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE Jesuit Refugee Service: Accompany, Serve, Advocate for Refugees Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) stands with refugees worldwide, offering education, mental health support, and emergency assistance. Through accompaniment, service, and advocacy, we help displaced people rebuild their lives with dignity. Join us in creating a world where refugees find safety, opportunity, and hope. Learn more  ◼ The president signed an executive order that finally brings the so-called "independent" agencies into the fold of the executive branch for purposes of regulatory review and administrative oversight. It's a step that seems mundane, but is vital for the sake of reining in the administrative state. This is a move that has long been championed by many conservative legal and constitutional scholars. Independent regulatory agencies, such as the National Labor Relations Board and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and others, need to be more clearly under the control of the executive branch. Their independence describes the limits on the president's ability to remove their leaders. But they have also become functionally independent of oversight from the president and his senior appointees, making them a kind of fourth branch existing at some strange remove from our three branches of government. This week's Trump order begins to return them to their proper place within our constitutional system. It will help this president and future presidents of both parties be better executives.   ◼ The (mercifully) former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg instigated a dust-up with Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy over air travel safety. "The flying public needs answers. How many FAA personnel were just fired? What positions? And why?" Buttigieg posted on X. Duffy replied with the facts: Fewer than 400 of the FAA's 45,000 workers were let go, they were all hired less than a year ago, and not one of them was an air traffic controller. Nothing the Trump administration has done has reduced air travel safety, and it was irresponsible for Buttigieg to insinuate otherwise. This particular political football should not even exist. There is no reason air traffic control cannot be provided by a private nonprofit organization funded through user fees without any politician needing to say a thing about it. Canada has done so since 1996, and it has been able to modernize its ATC technology faster than the U.S., where the FAA has been lollygagging through its "NextGen" program for the past 16 years. If the Trump administration wants a legacy of increasing efficiency and cutting government spending, Duffy should strive to be the last secretary of transportation to oversee the current, outdated, government-run ATC system and transition to a private, nonprofit, utility-style ATC system modeled on what has worked in Canada for the past three decades. A MESSAGE FROM JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE ◼ The right to free speech has long been far more robust in the U.S. than across the Atlantic. This gap has been widening, as Europe's increasingly radicalized ruling class has clamped down on expressions of dissent, notably but not exclusively relating to immigration policy and its consequences. The growth of online dissent has alarmed Europe's authorities, and hence the recent proliferation of repressive social media laws. Vice President Vance called out this illiberalism in a speech in Munich, which his critics, self-parodically, labeled "unacceptable." The refusal of Europe's mainstream to engage with voters' unease over the way their societies are changing is driving them toward harder-line parties in which an unhealthy sympathy for the Kremlin is all too common. Besides, as CBS's Margaret Brennan demonstrated later by absurdly suggesting that the abuse of free speech had led to the Holocaust, Americans could use a refresher on the case for the First Amendment.   ◼ Inflation remains stubbornly above the Federal Reserve's 2 percent target, and has been rising in recent months. Its reductions in interest rates in late 2024, totaling 100 basis points, may have been premature. President Trump is now urging the Fed to cut rates further. Yet looser money risks even more inflation, and thus also risks future rate hikes to rein it in. That wouldn't be good for the Fed, the president, or the rest of us.   ◼ Under the terms of the first phase of a cease-fire deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 Israeli hostages, 25 of them living, who were dragged into Gaza on October 7, 2023, in exchange for more than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, including murderers and terrorists, held by Israel. As of this writing, 19 Israelis have been released, along with five Thai nationals also taken hostage. Among those released were two U.S. citizens, Keith Siegel, 65, and Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36. The former hostages have spoken about their ordeal: Beatings, torture, and starvation. Kept in tunnels, sometimes chained; not seeing daylight for 15 months. They came home with scars, shrapnel, and untreated gunshot wounds. Siegel, one of the three men who emerged emaciated and weak on February 8, endured six months alone in tunnels. Eli Sharabi did not know until the day of his release that his wife and two daughters were killed on 10/7. Yarden Bibas survived only to learn that his wife Shiri and two tiny sons, Ariel and Kfir, had not returned from hell. On Thursday, in a sickening "ceremony," Hamas released four coffins; these were supposed to hold the bodies of Shiri and her children, and of Oded Lifshitz, 83. Israeli forensics identified the remains of Lifshitz and said he was murdered in captivity. Israel also identified the remains of Ariel, four when abducted, and Kfir, nine months when abducted, and said they were "brutally murdered." The fourth body does not belong to their mother; it is an unknown body. The IDF called this "a violation of utmost severity by the Hamas terrorist organization" of the current cease-fire deal. Of the 70 hostages who remain in Gaza, about half are believed to be alive. Among them are Edan Alexander, 21, from Tenafly, N.J., the last American hostage believed to be alive, and the bodies of four Americans killed on October 7. For some three dozen living souls, February brought the grim milestone of 500 days in captivity.   ◼ TV shows come and go. M*A*S*H ran for about ten years. Seinfeld for nine. All in the Family for eight (and change). Saturday Night Live just celebrated its 50th anniversary. It is embedded in American life, practically defining American comedy: Bill Murray, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, on and on. It has been overseen by producer Lorne Michaels, for this half century. The show has often irked us conservatives, with its left-leaning biases. (Young artists!) But not many would do without it, or deprive others of the pleasure. VISIT THE WEEK ARCHIVE ON NATIONALREVIEW.COM. 19 West 44th Street, Ste. 1701, New York, NY, 10036 19 West 44th Street, Ste. 1701 New York, NY, 10036 Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser. Your Preferences | Unsubscribe | Privacy View this e-mail in your browser.