Oval Office Tiff

[Legend]

Trump, Vance, and zelinskyy get into a back and forth unbecoming statesmen in a press conference.

my take:  Trump and Vance were clearly embarrassing over all. Should have left stuff unsaid.

that said, Trump quickly sniffed out the veiled threat from zelinskyy. Zelinskyy is a guy who has finagled $100B with no strings and is playing the victim on the world stage. For him to stick a threat in the face of ANY president deserved an immediate smackdown. I’m surprised Trump didn’t tell him to fuck off right then and there.

Lots of my friends who don’t support what Trump is doing now officially really don’t support what Trump is doing.  That’s not gonna change anything. The question is whether zelinskyy survives his clear insolence.

in short:  embarrassing but in some level deserved.   Trump and Vance should have known better, but zelinskyy came off as a petulant child.

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Sic transit gloria mundi (so shut up and get back to work)

[Mick1]

Zelensky is clearly desperate…but also entitled. Yes, TrumpVance should have had an answer to Ukraine’s security concerns. There was no way anyone would accept the mineral development deal if the U.S. and Russia split Ukraine up between them.

Zelensky and Trump came at this from different angles, not understanding each other’s position. Trump thinks “we’ve paid big and have had no return and we need to get paid back. So we’ll offer to help them develop their mineral resources in exchange for a big return on investment.” Zelensky thinks “the West in general but the Americans in particular conflict with Russia, so Ukraine will partner with America and the other allies to ensure our safety. They supply arms and money, we supply the men and we fight their proxy war against Russia.” Two different perspectives.

Zelensky is the one who wanted the reporters to see the negotiations. Severe miscalculation. I guess he thought he could shame Trump, but Trump is impervious to embarrassment.

Audaces fortuna iuvat

[rogpodge]

https://x.com/thatsKAIZEN/status/1895619010982719659

Some background:

https://x.com/Eric_Schmitt/status/1895863612905853420

Here’s a Russian/Ukrainian commentator from the UK who changed his mind about the blow-up after watching the full clip.

https://x.com/KonstantinKisin/status/1895610683103781075

At the end of the day, Trump understands how to negotiate with intractable a–holes.  You can’t start from hard-line, extreme positions, and you can’t show cracks in your coalition.  Here’s the crazy thing, the media is actively trying to undermine the administration’s efforts.  They’re again trying to use the Ukrainians to further the Russia Russia Russia narrative.  They’re trotting out “diplomatic norms” and stuff that has not worked as what needs to happen.  Here’s Kaitlin Collins trying to get Secretary Rubio to denounce the person he will have to negotiate with.

https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1895857633611178398

It’s a delicate balancing game, and the media (and Zelenskyy) want the administration to try to bully and demand their way to an agreement.  Secretary Rubio does a pretty good job of explaining that the media approved approach doesn’t work in this instance, and hasn’t worked for three years.  This is not going to be a fast process, and I tend to want to give some space for the administration to try a new approach.

[Author]

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