It’s amazing how men who prided themselves on strength and toughness will submit to a gangster.

In 2022, after Russian tanks rolled across an international border into Ukraine and missiles pierced the quiet of cities like Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earned worldwide acclaim for his courage and heroism. No one was more pro-Ukrainian than Sen. Lindsey Graham, who exulted in an arrest warrant the Russians had issued against him:

“I will wear the arrest warrant issued by Putin’s corrupt and immoral government as a Badge of Honor.”

Last Friday, after mad king Donald and his scheming viceroy, J.D. Vance, performed a tag-team ambush on Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, Graham sounded a different note. “Somebody asked me if I was embarrassed about President Trump. I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of J.D. Vance for standing up for our country.”

Disgusting. A politician whose identity was forged as a hawk and staunch defender of liberty and democracy now praises the most powerful man in the world for sandbagging the beleaguered leader of a bleeding ally, a victim of aggression? That’s standing up for America?

Ditto Marco Rubio, that gelding who has likewise transformed himself from a champion of freedom into an obedient toady to the man whose project is to destroy the Western alliance.

Consider that even before the Oval Office debacle, Trump and his team had been grossly disrespectful and abusive toward Zelenskyy and Ukraine. Trump called him a “dictator” (though he declined to say as much about Putin). Trump then repeated Putin’s propaganda that Ukraine, not Russia, had started the war. Vance told a European audience that he feared “the threat from within” far more than Russia or China. And then Trump proposed a “deal” that amounted to extortion, demanding the right to mine rare earth elements (which Trump called “raw earths”) on Ukrainian soil in return for … nothing. It was a shakedown. As Trump unguardedly admitted when he lost his temper, he regards Ukraine as a target for extortion because they “don’t have any cards.”

It was the most shameful moment in American history in at least a century, and a special shame attaches to the explainer class of analysts who, without even the excuse of fearing voters, perform pirouettes on their principles.

Marc Thiessen used his perch as a Washington Post columnist to excoriate not Trump for this blatant betrayal of 80 years of American world leadership but Zelenskyy.

Thiessen excoriated Zelenskyy for resisting a deal without security. “He summarily dismissed Trump’s idea of an immediate ceasefire — something that is extremely important to Trump, who is committed to stopping the killing — because he said Putin had already broken ceasefires 25 times.”

Trump is as deaf to such appeals as he was indifferent to the photos of starving Ukrainian POWs Zelenskyy had brought along. Throughout the latter part of the meeting, when it became heated, Trump’s favoritism toward Putin showed through. He scowled when Zelenskyy called Putin a war criminal, and when a member of the press asked whether Trump saw himself as “in the middle” between the warring parties or “on Ukraine’s side,” Trump said he was not on Ukraine’s side and went on to scold Zelenskyy for his harsh words about Putin.

Trump is a soulless sociopath. This is not news. But without the Vances, Rubios and Thiessens of the world, he would not be quite the danger to the Atlantic alliance, peace and security that he is.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.