In most meetings when big decisions are going to be made or deals are poised for closing all of the hashing out of details is done ahead of time, before the principals show up to make a show of it. But when one side doesn’t want the deal to close or has nefarious designs on tricking the other there’s an age old tactic used to help derail things. It’s called “The Stranger in the Room.”
The “Stranger in Room” during the Zelenskyy visit to the White House was J.D. Vance.
Here’s how the game is played.
“The Stranger” is present in the meeting, often as a second, third, or even lower functionary. Often as innocuous decoration. But “The Stranger” is brought in with the purpose of blowing things up, so that the principal doesn’t have to get his/her hands dirty.
Often it’s with an innocuous comment. Sometimes it’s with a serious question. Occasionally, though rarely, it’s with a completely defiant statement. I’m sure you’re familiar with the variant of having an assistant call someone out of a meeting for an important call at just the right time.
Vance’s role was to derail the meeting once things looked like they weren’t going The White House’s way, perhaps even scotch things from the beginning. He succeeded, but the masquerade was shorn of its cover when his principal, Trump, decided to open his mouth, and escalate things further, letting his ego take over revealing not only the game, but how ineffectual Vance was at playing his role.
It’s now quite obvious that Trump and his cadre of criminals thought they could snooker Zelenskyy. But they snookered themselves, endangering the future of Ukraine, Europe, and the world order in the process. Zelenskyy was right that they aren’t playing cards. Which is a good things, because the idiots he’s dealing with can’t even cut a deck, much less deal it.
Look, I know these are evil assholes intent on horrible things. It’s just a damn shame we don’t even have competent evil assholes. But then again, when damage is done it doesn’t matter if it was brought about by ignorance or malice.
(apologies for the weird formatting. WordPress is doing odd things today.)
You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.
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