Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky had a bad 24 hours when it comes to his treasured PR department.
Top officials from the Donald J. Trump administration – beginning with the President himself – flocked to social media and to the mainstream media to absolutely thrash Zelensky for his demeanor in the oval office confrontation, and his subsequent statements.
President Donald Trump has already inked some historic quotes on the subject like ‘[Zelensky] disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office… He can come back when he is ready for Peace’. Or worse, to his face: ‘You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have’.
But today, President Trump provided plenty more for us to chew on:
“If somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long’.
During yesterday’s press conference to announce the $100 Billion Investment by TSMC in U.S. chip manufacturing, the President also commented:
“Well, I just think he should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin. We’ve given them much more than Europe and Europe should have given more than us because as you know, that’s right there. That’s the border.”
When Zelensky stated that the war ‘would still continue for a long, long time,’ Trump took to Truth Social and smoked him:
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”
Vice President JD Vance was also involved in managing the Zelensky fiasco in the Oval Office, where he said: ‘I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media right now.’
Yesterday, Vance went on Fox News to talk with Sean Hannity:
“And I do think that there was just a certain sense of, there was a lack of respect, there was a certain sense of entitlement. And most importantly, look, we can look past all that stuff, but the president has set a very clear goal for his administration. He wants the killing to stop.
And I think that it’s very important that President Zelensky, and of course President Putin too, they’ve both got to come to the negotiating table, and that’s ultimately where things broke apart. I really don’t care what President Zelensky says about me or anybody else, but he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in the peace process that President Trump has said is the policy of the American people and of their president. That’s the real breakdown, is I think Zelensky wasn’t yet there, and I think frankly now still isn’t there, but I think he’ll get there eventually, he has to.”
Vance also said that Europeans Puff Zelensky up to ‘keep fighting forever,’ and alerted him that ‘When you’ve LOST Lindsey Graham, that means you need to come to the negotiating table and recognize Donald Trump is the only person who has a meaningful plan to save that country’.
Marco Rubio (Secretary of State):
“Zelensky should apologize for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became… There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic.”
Mike Waltz (National Security Adviser), had previously said that, ‘We pretty much unanimously advised the President that after that insult in the Oval Office, we just do not see how that could move forward.”
And yesterday, also on Fox, Waltz piled on:
‘It has become very clear to us that Zelenskyy is not ready to talk about peace at all. Here’s the problem: time is not on his side. Time is not on the side of continuing this conflict forever. The patience of the American people is not unlimited, their wallets are not unlimited. Our ammunition is not unlimited. We need it ourselves for any unforeseen situations around the world. It’s time to negotiate. And you know, what we hear in terms of alternatives, whether from Democrats or leaders around the world, is a continuation of this trench warfare in the style of World War I.’
He also said that Zelensky ‘missed the chance to economically tie the US and Ukraine together for a generation, and ‘tried to revise an already agreed deal on rare earth metals, provoking a conflict with the US.’
Elon Musk had already opined that ‘Zelensky had destroyed himself in the eyes of the American people.’
Yesterday, he wrote that ‘Zelensky wants forever war and a never-ending graft meat grinder. This is evil.’
Musk reported a tweet from two years ago that said: ‘The flower of Ukrainian & Russian youth are dying in trenches, with no meaningful change in territory,’ and added: ‘Stop sending men to die for nothing. ENOUGH!!’
Musk even felt like discussing ways to get rid of Zelensky: ‘True. As distasteful as it is, Zelensky should be offered some kind of amnesty in a neutral country in exchange for a peaceful transition back to democracy in Ukraine.’
Howard Lutnick (Commerce Secretary) branded Zelensky a ‘troublemaker, not a peacemaker’.
“You gotta say, we love America, we appreciate America […] But instead he [Zelensky] said, ‘I want 300 billion [dollars] in reparations from Russia. I want them off my land, I want all the land, really, all the land, and reparations, and security guarantees.’ The answer was, it’s just way too far.”
Scott Bessent (Treasury Secretary) appeared on Laura Ingraham on Fox and gave a very important interview on Zelensky, saying he refused 3 times to sign the Mineral Rights deal:
“I went all the way to Kiev because I thought it was important. President Trump sent me there to, again, bring the Ukrainian people closer to the U.S. and send a strong signal to Russian leadership that we not only shared values but now shared economic interests. It was also a signal to the American people that their tax dollars were actually going to work.
Instead, President Zelensky and I had a very, very tough 45-minute meeting at a very loud decibel level. I kept telling him, ‘Mr. President, the purpose of this is to show the Russians there is no daylight between us’.’At the end of the meeting, he said, ‘Well, I’m not signing this.’
I asked him, ‘What do you want to go out and tell the press? Because I don’t want to go out and show the Russians there’s daylight between us.’ He said, ‘Well, I’m going to go out and say I’ll sign it in Munich.’
Then he got to Munich, ran into Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio—very different from Vice President Harris and Secretary Blinken—but he didn’t sign the agreement.
Finally, we were supposed to have the signing. It was supposed to be a great day, and this is one of the biggest own goals in diplomatic history.
But I have to tell you, Laura, today, I was shocked that he would behave like this on camera, in front of the world. If he had issues he wanted to bring up with President Trump, the proper venue for that would have been 15 minutes later. We were going to walk into the White House dining room and have lunch—just 16 of us—and he could have voiced his concerns privately.
I actually think the Democratic side of the ledger is saying, “Oh, this was a setup. Vice President Vance and President Trump set up President Zelensky.” I actually think he was always going to do this, and I think he was surprised by the forceful reaction he got back.”
Read more:
After Zelensky’s Ungrateful and Impertinent Display at the Oval Office, Trump Team and DOGE Move Swiftly To Audit Hundreds of Billions in US Aid to Ukraine
Read the full article here
