The “Ocean” Myth
A security delusion behind the Trump-Zelensky clash
During that February 28 Oval Office spectacle between President Trump, Vice President Vance, and President Zelensky of Ukraine, Zelensky attempted to make an important point.
Zelensky: “[There are] a lot of questions. Let's start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you, but you have a nice ocean [in between], and don’t feel it now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless you.”
The reference to the “ocean” may have been mystifying to those tuning in for the first time. To anyone who has been listening carefully to Trump, though, it was a key, substantive attempt to counter what has been a core, frequently repeated Trump talking point about the war in Ukraine.
On February 26, Trump said in remarks before a Cabinet meeting, “as you know, we’re in for, probably, $350 billion and Europe is in for $100 billion. And that’s a big difference. So, we’re in for, probably, three times as much. And yet, it’s very important to everybody, but Europe is very close. We have a big ocean separating us. So, it’s very important for Europe. And they, hopefully, will step up and do maybe more than they’re doing and maybe a lot more.”
Trump said something similar on February 19 in Miami Beach: “this war is far more important to Europe than it is to us, and that there’s a very big, beautiful ocean as separation. This is — you know, we’re helping Europe. We’re trying to help Europe.”
He made the same point on February 18 at Mar-a-Lago: “I think Europe has given 100 billion, and we’ve given, let’s say, 300-plus, and it’s more important for them than it is for us. We have an ocean in between, and they don’t.”
Those are just a few among many examples from Trump and members of his administration. It’s one thing for Trump to say this sort of thing as a talking point in the midst of negotiations to try to get a better deal for America in a peace deal with Ukraine, Europe, and Russia. Yet if Trump isn’t careful, the American people and our allies and enemies around the world might interpret “big, beautiful ocean” as shorthand for the idea that, because of geography, America is insulated and protected from the rest of the world and can therefore safely retreat from it. If Zelensky doesn’t have the English-language communications skills or the public stature to explain to the American public how wrong this is, someone else should make an attempt. Here is a try:
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