What did Donald Trump do today?

He identified with the Russian point of view in several different ways.

The German military surrendered to Allied commanders on May 8, 1945. Today, Trump signed a presidential proclamation commemorating the anniversary of that day, which is known in the West as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day. But Trump's proclamation had an odd detail: it referred to the day as "Victory in World War II Day." This is, obviously, not correct—the Second World War didn't end for the United States until September 2, with the surrender of Japan.

But there is one nation that refers to the May date as "Victory Day" because it was not at war with Japan at the time: the Soviet Union, and its successor state Russia. Trump is politically, financially, and personally indebted to Vladimir Putin, and has frequently demonstrated a kind of worshipfulness of, or at least submissiveness to, the Russian dictator.

Of course, Trump makes up new words and phrases and spellings and rules of capitalization all the time, so it's not impossible that he just stumbled on the phrase by accident. (Trump, just a few weeks shy of 80, is not quite old enough to personally remember the surrender of Japan—although he should have learned about it in school.)

But it comes on the same day that Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, revealed that Trump had personally begged him to agree to a ceasefire with Russia over the "Victory Day" weekend. (Russia celebrates the day on May 9, because the official surrender happened just after midnight Moscow time.) Ukraine called the three-day ceasefire a political stunt, noting that Russia won't allow an actual break in hostilities. 

Trump had made a point of insisting that the "Victory Day" ceasefire was his idea, but in reality, the idea is known to have come from Putin, who used Trump to put pressure on Ukraine. Trump and Putin are functionally on the same side in the conflict, even as the United States remains an ally of Ukraine. 

Putin has been anxious to have a declaration of "peace" in place on the day that Russia traditionally holds a military parade in Red Square. The war has been unexpectedly devastating for Russia, owing to mismanagement and overconfidence on Putin's part. It has dragged on for years when it was supposed to be over in weeks, so the optics are important even for a dictator who has essentially crushed all opposition.

Zelenskyy responded with a presidential proclamation of his own, sarcastically declaring Red Square and only Red Square a safe zone from Ukrainian attacks during the morning of the parade. 

  

Why does this matter?

• It's bad that a dictator of a hostile nation can make the President of the United States run errands for him. 

• A smarter president would have learned from Putin's blunder in Ukraine and not made precisely the same stupid assumptions in a war of choice against a large, technologically sophisticated country.