The next Ukranian President to enter the oval office (assuming that happens before January 20, 2029) will be wearing a suit and tie (or be otherwise appropriately dressed).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky showed up to the White House on Friday in casual clothing and proceeded to disrespect the United States during a meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, and quickly found out that his usual methods don’t play well with actual leaders. …
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. One would think that after three years of war Zelensky would have learned that lesson.
The plan for Friday was for President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign the announced minerals deal, followed by a joint press conference. However, after an extraordinarily tense exchange in the Oval Office between the two and Vice President JD Vance, the deal remains unsigned, and Trump has announced via Truth Social that Zelensky is headed home. …
Additionally, Zelensky’s motorcade reportedly has pulled up to the White House, and he was just seen leaving the White House.
Per Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich, the Ukrainian delegation was begging to continue discussions, but Trump was not having it.
…I have no idea what Zelensky was thinking. This was not a situation where President Donald Trump was beating him over the head or demanding he submit to a specific narrative surrounding the war in Ukraine. On the contrary, the meeting was essentially over when Zelensky decided it’d be a great idea to try to publicly embarrass Trump and Vice President JD Vance in front of the press. …
Here’s the deal. Fairness or being “right” doesn’t factor into a situation like this. Zelensky is in a desperate spot, and Trump had largely acquiesced to a very Ukraine-friendly deal over the last few days (including lowering the repayment amount to just $90 billion). The negotiations were over. All the Ukrainian president had to do was show up, shake hands, smile for the cameras, and sign the deal. His attempt to lecture Trump and Vance for the cameras was an ego move that he didn’t have the leverage to pull off. …
What this really comes down to is how Zelensky handled this. If he has issues with Trump negotiating a deal with Putin, then he should express those behind closed doors, which is something Vance pointed out during the exchange. By trying to embarrass and undermine the U.S. president in public, he destroyed an already frayed relationship. In doing so, he might have cost his country its war.
We are still rightly focused on the direct news that just happened right before our eyes…but I will put this out there now: this will have some interesting dynamics in domestic politics (or, should I say, political deals?) in the coming days and weeks.
I actually feel bad for her. Her country is on fire – in a figurative and literal sense – and her boss appears to be on a coke-fueled bender or something.
I suspect Zelensky’s next couple of days are going to be rather interesting.
As this event was paused from live action for a friendly conversation in my home, this is suspiciously close to what my loved one heard from me:
[Rep. Dan Crenshaw:] If you are the leader of a country in a dire situation with no path to peace without American support, do not come into the Oval Office and argue with the President of the United States in public. Just a word of advice.
(Although, I did flower it up with a few “F” words here and there.)
UPDATE #4 (February 28, 2025 5:05 PM CST) – To no one’s surprise:
After the disastrous meeting between Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, President Donald Trump, and VP J.D. Vance, Sen. Lindsey Graham has minced no words about his thoughts on what went down. Surprising many, Graham hasn’t taken Zelensky’s behavior toward Trump and Vance, and the insult to America, very well. Any camera he’s put in front of has shown Graham applauding Trump standing his ground, and expressing pride in the President for his actions during the meeting. …
“What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful, and I don’t know if we could ever do business with Zelensky again,” said Graham. “I think most Americans saw a guy they would not go into business with.” …
It would seem Zelensky’s friends are quickly dropping in number, even those who seemed to love him here in America, but he only has himself to blame.
UPDATE #6 (February 28, 2025 5:17 PM CST) – More bad news:
We’re forced to wonder about the viability of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s continued political future. Not only is he overseeing the loss of a big portion of his country to Russia, but as of this morning, he has angered and alienated the very nation that has been sending him billions of dollars’ worth of support – the United States. This morning’s meeting with President Trump and Vice President Vance saw Zelensky effectively defenestrated from the White House to the street.
Now a former Ukrainian MP (Member of Parliament) is calling for Zelensky to be impeached. …
Ukraine’s top dog may not find himself at the front of the pack much longer. His display at the White House this morning had to be embarrassing to the Ukrainian people who were watching. He may well have dynamited any chance at a quick, relatively painless end to his country’s war with Russia – and the Ukrainian government would be justified in trying to rein him in.
[Volodymyr Zelenskyy:] Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.
[Hugh Hewitt:] Everyone who wants to comment on today has to watch this entire tape and hopefully realize that at approximately the 38 minute mark President Zelensky asks a question of Vice President Vance which isn’t really a question. (My guess is that someone gave President Zelensky really terrible advice to not fight with President Trump in public but that he could score on the VP because the VP couldn’t respond. Wrong.)
President Trump had been almost indulgent of President Zelensky for 38 minutes, trying to get to the post-presser meeting with a path forward to a ceasefire intact, aware that he has to deal with Putin afterwards as well. A couple of times President Zelensky dances on the cliff (especially with the pictures which someone who doesn’t know this business told him would be an excellent stunt and wasn’t) and President Trump steers it back to a path to the post-presser meeting.
But then President Zelensky puts the VP on the spot and it escalated…
President Trump has a plan. He wasn’t in charge when Putin invaded Ukraine the first time or the second time. All President Trump can do is try and bring about a stable and enduring peace and get Ukraine enmeshed with Europe and the U.S. while also dealing with Putin. Nixon dealt with the worst murderer of the 20th century when he sat down with Mao. Reality is what it is. Presidents of the United States have to deal with whatever mess their predecessor leaves them. I’ll repeat what I said on the program today: President Zelensky should call all of his strongest supporters w/i the @SenateGOP and genuinely seek advice. And dismiss those who have been “advising” him for the past six weeks. Very publicly.
UPDATE #9 (March 1, 2025 10:45 AM CST) – A quote “from Michał Kuź, a Polish diplomat who earned a Ph.D in political science in the U.S. (Keep in mind that Poland is extremely anti-Russian and pro-Ukraine in this war)” via Powerline:
I listened very carefully to the entire (approx. 50 min.) public part of the exchange between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump and JD Vance. Sorry, I’ll be honest, Zelensky absolutely did not let himself be provoked, he was actively looking for a fight, or he knows nothing at all about American political culture. Trump, yes, nonchalantly approached the facts about European politics and history, like most Americans. However, he was relatively conciliatory for 80% of the time of the conversation, talking about himself as a businessman who had “reached an agreement” and wanted to take a middle position between the parties to the conflict. Zelensky kept correcting him, attacking him; he even countered neutral remarks about the destruction of Ukrainian cities, which could have been safely passed over in silence. Vance also initially attacked his predecessors, not Zelensky. It was Zelensky who first attacked Vance, as if he owed him something. Then everything spilled over.
No, seriously, just compare it to how Macron, for example, spoke to Trump. I understand where the hearts of Polish commentators lie. Americans are, however, extremely sensitive to a certain political decorum during such meetings, even more so than the British, only this decorum is slightly different, less rigid in language, but very, very clearly emphasizing the status of the Republic. I lived and worked in the US for years and culturally, humanly, I literally have no words for what the president of Ukraine did, my teeth hurt from gnashing when I watched it in its entirety. As I wrote, I perceive Zelensky’s behavior as an attempt to play to the public in Kiev, then he will return to negotiations. However, if there is no such return, it will be his own fault.
Yesterday, Susan Rice said of the Trump-Zelensky meeting, “There is no question this was a set up.” She revealed full knowledge of the mineral agreement, complained that it didn’t include “concrete” security agrees (meaning, apparently, commitment of US troops on the ground if conditions merit), and then mischaracterized Trump’s behavior, counting on most Americans to not have watched what transpired over the entire hour in the Oval Office. …
Zelensky repeatedly declined opportunities to sign the deal in Kyiv and Munich, and requested the meeting at the White House. It later came out that Rice and Tony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, and Alexander Vindman may have been personally advising Zelensky to do this meeting in the way he did — that they recommended him to be hostile and to try to goad Trump into blowing up. Even though he didn’t, and even though Zelensky’s actions horrified many normal Americans, the Obama team went on the airwaves to falsely characterize what happened. …
Zelensky had one of the worst stage performances of his acting career, and Trump was statesmanlike (against all odds) throughout. Zelensky followed Team Obama’s advice to be hostile to a tee, but it didn’t land how they thought it would. …
As you can see from the hostility of the bureaucracy to any Republican oversight, no matter how reasonable or minor it may be, the entrenched bureaucracy and permanent DC apparatus is quite active. That goes quadruple for the deep state in the Intelligence Community. I’d expect more and more shenanigans and to be prepared so that you don’t fall for the next information operation. …
UPDATE #11 (March 2, 2025 12:00 PM CST) – The company he keeps:
Less than an hour before entering the Oval Office, Zelensky met with several lawmakers, including Murphy and other Democrats. Based on the wording of the above post, the senator (or someone else at the table) pressed the Ukrainian president to reject a “fake peace agreement,” which is a clear shot at Trump’s attempts at diplomacy. At the very least, these Democrats encouraged Zelensky to remain defiant in that position, and we all know what happened next.
Attending that meeting and glad-handing with left-wing partisans who do not want peace because it would make them look bad was a colossal mistake by Zelensky. …
[Emphasis added]
That bold part, while true, is generous to the extreme. Bad? How about corrupt? Or evil? Or…
the philo t. custis institute 