LETTER: When did we become a Russian ally?

Watching the unprecedented browbeating of an ally by President Donald Trump and then hearing Republicans accuse Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being disrespectful to Mr. Trump meets the definition of gaslighting.

House Speaker Mike Johnson castigated Zelenskyy’s behavior as “interrupting the host” when he should have been expressing gratitude. Republican sycophants bemoaned Zelenskyy’s resistance to a ceasefire, indeed “peace.”

No. That’s not what happened. What happened was an American president for the first time in history allied our country with an invading dictator while demanding surrender and blackmail from a democracy victimized by that dictator.

The behavior of Mr. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance was arrogant, dishonest and impolitic. Please do not tell Americans what they saw was something else.

Mr. Trump says all he wants is peace when he essentially already gave Vladimir Putin everything he wanted without any security guarantees. This is really appeasement, not peace.

What does it say that every Western democracy saw the meeting as Zelenskyy did, while support for the Republican version came only from Russia? When did we become a Russian ally?