Trump’s Oval Office Clash With Zelenskiy Was a Win for Putin
By humiliating the Ukrainian president and betraying Ukraine, the US president played right into Russia’s hands.
Scenes from a betrayal.
Photographer: Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg
Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, are already spinning today’s Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a show of American strength toward an ungrateful supplicant. But their joint dressing down of Zelenskiy will go down in history — indeed, will live in infamy — as a shameful moment of American betrayal.
Trump and Vance berated the leader of a nation that’s been fighting for its existence for three years. “Have you said thank you once?” Vance asked Zelenskiy. In fact, Zelenskiy has thanked the US, as well as Trump, scores of times since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war of aggression against Ukraine. (And he did so again today.) It’s just that Zelenskiy always adds that he needs even more support for his nation to survive, and more security guarantees in any future peace negotiations to deter Putin. As Zelenskiy pointed out in the meeting, Putin has broken previous cease-fires.