U.S. President Donald Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, are trying to spin the Oval Office clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a show of American strength toward an ungrateful supplicant. But their joint dressing down of Zelenskyy 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 Zelenskyy. In fact, Zelenskyy has thanked the U.S., as well as Trump, scores of times since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war of aggression against Ukraine. (And he did so again after.) It’s just that Zelenskyy 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 Zelenskyy pointed out in the meeting, Putin has broken previous ceasefires.
That caveat was too much for Trump. "It’s going to be very hard to do business like this,” he told Zelenskyy, who kept his arms folded through much of the shouting. "You’ve got to be more thankful,” Trump continued. "Because let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us you don’t have any cards.”
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.