This was a public punishment beating for Zelensky – they must have run out of champagne in the Kremlin: PATRICK BISHOP

Last night we watched the death of decency in American politics live on our television screens.

It was meant to be a possibly historic meeting between two presidents – one weak, one all-powerful – with the potential to hasten the end of a bloody war that has bent global politics out of shape and whose outcome will effect all our futures.

Instead, it looked like a showdown between a thuggish Mafia boss and his fawning henchman and a recalcitrant shopkeeper who wasn’t coming up with the protection money.

The smiling Trump we saw on Thursday charming our Prime Minister and opening a window on a glowing future of Anglo-American co-operation and prosperity was a different human being to the Trump we witnessed last night.

Dr Jekyll gave way to Mr Hyde and the man before us was an ugly sight. He hectored, he insulted, he intimidated. Beside him sat his enforcer JD Vance, eagerly piling on the psychological pressure. At any moment you expected him to say: ‘Shall I do him now, boss?’

In keeping with the code of the Mob, one of Volodymyr Zelensky’s cardinal offences was that he had apparently shown insufficient ‘respect’.

‘What you are doing is disrespectful to the country – this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have,’ barked Trump.

Zelensky calmly interjected: ‘I’m with all respect for your country.’

Vice president JD Vance directs an emphatic speech towards the bank of journalists at the back of the Oval Office

Vice-President Vance interrupted: ‘Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting?’

Zelensky replied: ‘A lot of times.’

Vance sneered back: ‘No, in this entire meeting, have you said ‘thank you?’ Then he demanded that Zelensky ‘offer some words of appreciation for the USA and the president who is trying to save your country’ – like a Victorian schoolmaster asking a pupil to thank him for the thrashing he had just administered.

Zelensky endured the pile-on with his customary dignity. English is far from his first language, yet his responses to their verbal violence was restrained, almost sorrowful. His performance will only enhance his standing with the millions in the decent world who regard him as a hero and the quintessence of everything that Trump and Vance are not.

As ever in this story their discourse was steeped in mendacity. Trump and Vance have relentlessly promoted the malign fantasy that Ukraine provoked the terrible fate it is now suffering. In their insane inversion of the truth, Zelensky is a dictator and a thief intent on continuing the war for his own obscure purposes.

At one point in his tirade, finger jabbing menacingly, Trump accused Zelensky of ‘gambling with World War Three,’ oblivious apparently of the constant threats from Moscow promising nuclear armageddon on Europe and the US if it stepped up support for Kyiv.

They must have run out of champagne in the Kremlin. Putin’s masterful handling of his dupe in the White House has surely succeeded beyond his wildest expectations.

What more could Trump possibly give him – unless it is an offer to use tens of thousands of US troops in Europe to attack Ukraine from the rear?

I exaggerate. But we are learning that it is unwise to believe there are any limits to what Trump will or will not do. And it looks as if he is preparing for a punishment for Zelensky and his people the effects of which could have profound consequences for all of us. ‘Your country is in big trouble,’ he shouted at Zelensky.

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And so it will be if Zelensky does not conform utterly and uncomplainingly to whatever lies next in Trump’s Ukraine ‘strategy’ plans. It is now clear that Ukraine’s and Zelensky’s wishes will count for nothing. What was billed as a move to take account of Kyiv’s concerns and involve it, albeit tangentially, in the diplomacy turned out to be a public punishment beating, delivered on the global stage.

Was it a deliberate set-up, or did things just get out hand? Either way the omens suggest disaster for Ukraine.

Without American military support Ukraine can stagger on for a few months. But that will be it. Europe is in no position to fill the vast chasm that will be left in the Ukrainian inventory were Trump to turn off the taps.

Without Patriot missiles, Ukraine’s cities will be naked and defenceless against Russian missile and drone attacks. Starved of ATACMS missiles the army will be powerless to strike behind the enemy lines and be reduced to a slow death by a thousand cuts in the trenches.

Zelensky is now caught in a vice, with both Trump and Putin tightening the handle.

Even submission may now not be enough. As we saw last night, Trump’s anger against him is so visceral that he may well demand his head as the price for continuing his negotiations.

Submission would mean that all Ukraine’s sacrifices in blood and treasure have been in vain.

Even if some sort of peace is established, its fate henceforth will be as a joint vassal state shared by a rapacious Russia and an unscrupulous US.

They will not be only losers. Europe’s weakness has been shockingly exposed, and Putin will be looking for new conquests once he has digested Ukraine.

Last night’s performance, with its total contempt for the norms of decency that most of us find essential in leading our daily lives, should at least have blown away any illusions that in Donald Trump we are dealing with someone who can be handled. This man is dangerous: For Ukraine, for us and for America. The only people who can sleep easy in their beds tonight are the Russians.

Patrick Bishop is a historian and co-host with Saul David of the Battleground: Ukraine podcast