Most Americans that watched it don’t think he did anything wrong, either. Even a lot of conservatives think Trump’s behavior was disgraceful.
Nah bud, you good. It’s the other jackasses in the meeting that were in the wrong.
He didn’t. He was the only adult there.
It was an ambush. The only thing he did wrong was walk into it. Have to give him credit for being willing to take risks to save his country.
That is who he is…
The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride
As an American I think he did…. He forgot to slap Trump in the face.
I understand why he didn’t, obviously, but the whole time I watched that happen all I could think was, “PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE”
I assume he must have gone back to his hotel room afterwards and just screamed in frustration for a solid hour. Or had a workout of with a punching bag with Trump and Vance’s faces on them.
I’m truly astounded at the patience he showed during that event. It was infuriating to watch.
Yeah - Trump, Vance & their ghouls planned this and there is nothing Zelensky could have done except maybe selling off his country to the russians
Yeah, I though Zelensky did a decent job of managing his emotions. Most of us would have popped Trump in the mouth before that had ended. (And WTF was up with that guy asking if Zelensky owned a suit? That should have been an automatic throat punch.) Being an American is embarrassing right now. My apologies to the rest of the world. We’re a dumpster fire.
Why is this the question people are asking? It’s a classic example of Republicans setting the narrative. I saw on a certain oft-promoted news aggregator that all the Republican news sources use the same words in reaction to the oval office event - “Zelensky refuses to apologize…”
So now that’s what the mainstream media talks about, instead of the worrying Trump-Vance-Musk turn towards Russia.
Reminded me of a typical argument between me and my delusional, selfish, narcissistic parents as a teenager. Saying anything at all would make them throw a tantrum.
Trump and Vance did the same type of thing: expected complete fealty after they had voted against Ukraine to join NATO and demanded respect when the previous administration were the ones that did most of the work beforehand. Getting pouty and shouty when he didn’t agree to their shitty “deal.” Brought up meaningless arguments about “respect” and not saying thank you when he had multiple times. Utter madness.
This was about putting on a show for their constituents and they would have done the same if he went in there kissing their asses. But he refused to play the game which made them angrier.
Vance bringing up the conspiracy theory shit about Zelensky putting on a show for visitors as if he was exaggerating is what really set me off. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together saw right through this bullshit song and dance.
Well, he did try to play chess with a pigeon. I don’t know what he was expecting, but at least he made Trump seem like an asshole and a fool.
He made Trump seem like an asshole yes. And that’s why he’s cooked . Trump is not going to support Ukraine going forward because Zelensky made him look bad. You have to appeal to the child to get anything from him.
Nah, it’s too late for that. Other leaders are starting learn this too. You keep giving in so Trump asks for more, and then more. Nothing will ever be enough for him.
This is no longer about swallowing your pride and appealing to his enormous ego.
He cannot get anything from Trump no matter what happens. Trump is beholden to Putin.
There was no amount of flattery that was going to get Trump to oppose his Russian masters. The best thing Zelenskyy can do is make it clear that Trump is foolish for not backing Ukraine. It wins him points with European leaders who get to choose between backing Zelenskyy or following a fool and it increases the odds of getting a more favorable outlook from the US in 2-4 years as political tides shift (assuming the US continues holding a semblance of fair elections in the next 2-4 years)
Giving into a toddler who is throwing a tantrum, is not how you get what you want from a toddler .
It’s how you get more tantrums.
He did nothing wrong. Trump and Vance are comprised cowards. I’m sorry Ukraine.
He did nothing wrong. Trump and Vance were the ones who threw a tantrum because zelensky didn’t immediately agree to their plan.
And they were pissed he didn’t wear a suit 🤣
WTF was up with that guy?
That guy is Brian Glenn. He’s a host on “Real America’s Voice”, a right-wing to far-right station and the boyfriend of Marjory Taylor Greene.
The attending “press” has been pre-selected and it’s not a stretch to assume that these people know what’s expected of them. The narrative is that not wearing a suit is a sign of disrespect. When Trump greeted Zelensky in the beginning he also made a remark about it.
Gross. Thanks for that info. Wtf, America.
Technically he’s the first one to say something clearly out of protocol (of course Trump and Vance said a lot of irritating things), but countries don’t break alliances over such things, and they’ve had a lot of time to discuss something without cameras, so it’s simply a prepared scene.
I just don’t know what’s this supposed to illustrate. If it’s a scene by Trump&Vance to “justify” drying out of military support, then why would Zelensky participate in it. If it’s a scene by Zelensky, then what in the world would he gain by it. If it’s a mutually agreed scene, then, again, see previous.
If it’s a scene by Trump&Vance to “justify” drying out of military support, then why would Zelensky participate in it.
Zelensky is interested in public support.
There doesn’t even have to be an agenda. It’s a press meeting as a conclusion to talks. As elected leaders and/or representatives it makes sense to participate.
If he wouldn’t have participated, how would that be better? They could still justify it - in even more of a vacuum to define their own views and spins. It would be worse.
Trump does the press conference before talks. Remember Justin Trudeau got caught on a hot mic for making fun of him for doing this.
The Agreement Zelenskyy was there to sign was never signed, because this all went down before that could happen.
You have to remember that during Trump’s first administration, there was a terrible U.S. ambassador who committed a hit-and-run in the UK, killing a cyclist. The victim’s family traveled to the U.S. to seek justice, hoping the president would revoke her diplomatic immunity since she had fled the country.
The moronic president, treating it like a reality TV stunt, had the ambassador unexpectedly pop into a meeting with the grieving family—on live TV—to say sorry. This is just how his broken brain operates.
Doesn’t explain Zelensky playing along (I can’t call his behavior anything else).
I think they do have some plan to which Zelensky consented (however reluctantly) and this was a “reality TV stunt” to make it appear plausible. Maybe to save Zelensky’s face in Ukraine to have the same partner in negotiations after ceasefire and the new Ukrainian election (has been postponed for almost a year, but that can’t go on indefinitely).
Or maybe yes. In any case this was unfitting.
What’s happening is the US is negotiating with Russia without involving Ukraine. Not too dissimilar from European powers negotiating with Hitler over German claims on Czechoslovakia without Czechoslovakia being part of the negotiations. We know how that ended.
When Trump and Putin reach an agreement (without consideration for Ukraine) they make some bold claim similar to “Peace for our time” and expect everyone to go along with it. When that happens, Ukraine can ignore the agreement and continue fighting, but if too many countries buy Trump’s version of “Peace for our time” then Ukraine could be considered the bad guy because they’re not agreeing to end the war.
But after this? Every country in the world has reiterated their support for Ukraine. Any “peace plan” promoted by Trump will be known to be all about appeasing Putin and be rightly ignored by everyone. Trump’s WWIII comment made it clear that Trump is afraid of Putin, nobody will respect anything he says about Ukraine going forward.
Putin is not Hitler. I’m not saying it’s not a problem to be solved, having taken many lives and taking more, but it’s a different problem.
Putin’s regime is not capable of growing power. It’s only capable of capturing more power. While ultimately similar inability made Nazis weak, they were capable of modernizing industries and rebuilding the military. Maybe if it were done slowly over 30 years instead of 5 years, they’d turn out a similar failure as Putin’s Russia, having corrupted Germany enough to reduce its danger. We don’t know, since they outright started killing people, putting them into prison camps and marching with knives on the streets.
Every country in the world has reiterated their support for Ukraine.
That’s not true, but suppose it were.
If all those countries sent soldiers and equipment to Ukraine, that is, declared war on Russia, it would be over.
If they are not doing this, then what they are actually doing is the degree of real support.
Then maybe Trump’s “deal” just shows it.
I think enough conscripted Ukrainians have already died, and everyone talking against such deal, be it even capitulation, should wish for Americans, Canadians, Brits, French, Germans, Italians … to be conscripted to that frontline to end the war. Or admit they just want some Ukrainians to die for their feeling of justice they have in their safe cozy life.
You cannot come up with a reason for Zelenski to play along in this “scripted interview”, yet you’re convinced it was actually planned? Isn’t there a way simpler explanation here, given the two idiots he was sitting next to?
yet you’re convinced it was actually planned?
The thing before the journalists is not all of their meeting and not the longest part. It’s usually intended to officially present results. So yes.
I’m also convinced Zelensky’s look in a sweater and sneakers is always planned. You can’t maintain that over a few years consistently if it really was a result of some tight schedule of a wartime leader or whatever. Such a person could be forgetting to shave sometimes, but not to the same degree every day, LOL. So those making fun of it are right, it’s not that PR weren’t important, it’s really part of his job, not worse than Trump in any case, but he should put more effort.
You cannot come up with a reason for Zelenski to play along in this “scripted interview”,
It’s usually scripted in this particular kind of situation. Why are you putting quotes here as if you were completely ignorant of the process and thinking I wrote something strange, I don’t know. Diplomacy is a very ritualized part of reality.
Isn’t there a way simpler explanation here, given the two idiots he was sitting next to?
I gave you the simpler explanation, what I wrote is literally the simpler explanation!
Idiots don’t raise to such power. Even Idi Amin and Bokassa and Gaddafi were not idiots.
That’s the whole point, all three people in that video are very intelligent, if immoral. It’s almost impossible for them to lack self-control enough to have a conflict before cameras.
For an idiot in power see Pashinyan, but I’m not convinced about him either.
I’m also convinced Zelensky’s look in a sweater and sneakers is always planned.
Zelensky always wears army-like stuff (e.g. the shirts/sweaters are usually green) to show his connectedness to the people fighting war in Ukraine. Before the war, he did wear suits, e.g. see here.
I know, but his shave can’t be explained like this. OK. That’s the point, it’s just doesn’t fit diplomatic etiquette.
Flying to Washington instead of Moscow was a mistake.
he’s got a big heart, and an impossible job, but he’s been naive.
I’m sure you’re a Russian troll but if the wartime leader of Ukraine flew to Moscow right now he’d not even make it to the Kremlin before dissappearing. Europe would then condemn Russia for its actions (similar to when the Saudis made that journalist dissappear) and Ukraine would be in a ton of shit.
Why would you say something silly like that ?
Fat Donnie did this to make Zelenskyy look bad (LOL) and shame him into complying on the “art of the steal” by a bully. It was also a way to make a public excuse for not supporting Ukraine and siding with his actual employer, puny putin.
Imagine if Reagan could have lived long enough to see a republican steal his “make america great again” slogan, turn it into a cult, and then use that cult to be submissive to russia.
Takes a real shitbag to make Reagan look like the better option.
And I never thought I would se a President dumber than W. But the orange cancer sure blew that one away by 10,000,000 miles.
W. was certainly not the brightest bulb and unfortunately easily swayed by truly evil people around him (like Cheney), but I think as a president he always did what he thought was best for the country and its people. Trump only ever does what he thinks is best for himself.
Why the hell do liberals rehabilitate Bush like this? He invaded sovereign countries and began a 20 year long occupation, hundreds of thousands were killed in his wars, he also stripped away out civil liberties and conducted mass surveillance, indefinite detention without trial, and torture.
“Always did what he thought was best for the people” what an absolute load of horseshit. I guess it just so happened that what he thought was best was to ship people off to kill and be killed while he and his buddies got rich off it.
Like goddamn, what do I gotta do to get people carrying water for me like that? “Yeah I robbed a convenience store at gunpoint, which was bad, but you have to acknowledge that I was doing what I believed was best for the American people. It’s not my fault, it’s just all the people I chose to surround myself with who led me to do it.” Where is your hate? You should want that motherfucker to hang!
I can always summarize my take on GW with that one time they ran a TV ad on how they added 2 new democracies to the olympic roster (I saw this fucking BS on CNN Europe live cca 2004 and it managed to make me fume even as a fairly apolitical young adult who then lived outside the US):
Besides getting a huge whipping from the International Olympic Committee for using the Olympics for political ads being illegal (so incredibly on brand) this also aged like milk.
Holy shit, I never saw that. If I hadn’t lived through it I’d think that ad was a parody. The fucking smugness of it, I stg, Bush makes me hope Hell is real.
