1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

I was absolutely disgusted to see the way that JD Vance and Donald Trump treated the President of Ukraine today. His nation has been going through an incredible loss of life, property damage, siege by Russian military forces in a power grab that is willing to destroy any and all of the infrastructure and lives of Ukrainian citizens in order to take their land. Their behavior toward him was so undiplomatic, so offensive, it made me ashamed to be an American. Both men representing our government have never understood the hardship and devastation in Ukraine, and their privilege means they likely never will. I would like to know what my representatives are going to do instead of sitting idly by witnessing the death and devastation of the Ukrainian people and the disrespect of their leadership. Between that and the tens of thousands of lives lost in Palestine, we have been complicit in the wholesale murder of subjugated people up to and including ethnic cleansing. And to invite the leader of a country that has been fighting for its life, tooth and nail not to give into a fascist regime and then sit there and tell him what he is and is not doing for his country is shameful. It's disgusting. It is absolutely chilling that Trump has stepped in to negotiate with Putin and absolutely left the leaders of Ukraine out of the discussion, and then to attempt to belittle him on national television? This does not represent the values of the American people. Gone are the days when we can expect diplomatic communication and relationships with our allies across the ocean, and if we allow Trump and his administration to continue, they will burn every single bridge we have ever built. Our allyship with other countries, even Canada, Is on fragile ground right now. Trump is so delusional that he thinks bombs and missiles cannot travel over an ocean, apparently. As we lose our workers to deportation and disenfranchisement, as we lose access to goods and services that American citizens depend on, as we lose imports and resources because American businesses can afford to pay the tariffs and taxes to import them, and as we destroy trade agreements and we can our position in our global commitments to our neighbors, American hegemony ends. What are we going to do to protect the well-being of American citizens when we cannot rely on global alliances any longer? What are you going to do to ensure that our relationships with these nations say strong enough for a bright American future? And more importantly, because it is more likely, what are you going to do for the American people when those relationships all fail and they all turn their backs on us as they have already begun to do?