Historian calls out Trump’s Ukraine 'protection racket': 'Not a lot of diplomatic thought here'

President Donald Trump is slated to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom he called a “dictator.” They are expected to finalize an agreement giving the U.S. rights to rare minerals in Ukraine. Historian Jon Meacham told MSNBC on Friday that Trump's approach was reminiscent of the Sopranos.

“Take us back. Is this more like a Teddy Roosevelt imperialist approach? Is this William McKinley? Who does this remind you of [Trump’s] world view when it comes to power politics?” asked MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.

“It's older than that even, it's almost medieval and Renaissance… This is a royal house with a kingdom who bases relations on personal connection, personal feeling… and basically the transfer of assets. It's very autocratic, very straightforward. I mean, let's be honest. It's kind of, I don't want to say refreshing, but the president is being very clear here,” Meacham said.

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“So one of the things that I think is really important here is to remember that we are now living — to shift from a historical metaphor to a cultural one — we're now living in the Sopranos, right? This is a protection racket. Basically, President Zelenskyy is being asked to come to Washington to pay for our protection,” he continued.

“ And one of the most revealing moments I think, of the last couple of weeks was and some comments the president made. It was about the Associated Press situation in the White House.” The Associated Press had their White House access revoked after they refused to follow Trump’s executive order to call the “Gulf of Mexico” the “Gulf of America.”

“And I believe I have this almost, almost exactly right, but it's certainly the essence of it, ‘the AP doesn't do me any favors, so I'm not going to do them any favors.’ That's the way the world works. That's the way the world works. That's where we are. And it's a there's not a lot of diplomatic thought here.”

“Now, the Associated Press, as you know,” Trump said earlier this month, “has been very, very wrong on the election, on Trump, and the treatment of Trump, and other things having to do with Trump and Republicans and conservatives. And they’re doing us no favors, and I guess I’m not doing them any favors. That’s the way life works.”

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“It's a protection racket, except, as we've been pointing out so far, no protection, just the racket. So that's why Zelenskyy will be at the White House today seeking a little bit of that protection,” Scarborough quipped.

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