One TV star visits another more powerful thing on stage sets where he becomes president, and tries to introduce a kind of plot twist. What’s not going well?
The High Stakes White House showdown unfolded Friday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a detrimental setback against Donald Trump’s goal of US security guarantees building a peace deal and US dictator Vladimir Putin’s victory by US political commentators.
And others in the United States, working closely with Trump, cast a meeting of Zelensky and President as a victory for his “America First” reorganization goal.
The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board said on Saturday that “it is embarrassing to see Trump’s allies defend this catastrophe as a show of some American strength,” and that it aims to limit Russia’s expansionism without the use of US troops.
The outlet warned that “handing over Ukraine to Putin will be devastating for the country and for Europe, but it will also be a political disaster for Trump.”
After invading Ukraine in 2022, “Friday’s views will not stop (Putin) from the onslaught.”
The New York Times evaluated the derailed elliptical office meeting as pointing out Trump’s “resolution to abolish American traditional sources of power: like-minded democratic alliances), bringing the country back to an era of great, live electricity negotiations.
“The three-year wartime partnership between Washington and Kiev has been shattered,” the paper added.
Some conservative politicians have also hit fellow Republicans Trump and Vance that they are dealing with meetings. “I hate to say this…but the US is not the good guy of this right now,” said Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican House member of Illinois who once served on a House committee that investigated Trump supporters’ attacks on the U.S. Capitol in early 2021.
Whether Ukraine’s diplomatic relations could be repaired remained a question held on Saturday. However, the conflict shows the dangers of conducting diplomacy in public, despite a reputation from Trump that his clash with his former actor, a Ukrainian counterpart, made “a great television.”
“It would be very difficult to return to the hostility we saw in that room today and return some of those statements,” Republican strategist Carl Roeb told Fox News. “If the cameras weren’t running, it could have been, but today’s only winner is Vladimir Putin.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent revealed that after the showdown, a meeting with Zelenskyy just days before KVIV led to a fierce exchange. After Friday’s meltdown, Bescent called Zelensky’s approach “one of the great diplomatic self-imposed goals in history.”
“Obviously, it’s very difficult to get an economic contract with a leader who doesn’t want to go through a peace agreement,” Bescent told Bloomberg.
“I don’t know what he was thinking,” Bescent said of Zelensky, who was eventually asked to leave the White House from Marco Rubio after a Ukrainian diplomatic aide texted him that he was ready to sign an agreed economic rare earth mineral mineral trade.
Stephen Miller, deputy chief of policy chief of staff at the White House, summoned what he called Zelensky’s “unsuspect,” describing the showdown as “one of the great moments in the history of American diplomacy.”
“Today, today, the hearts of millions of America have bulged with today’s enormous pride to see President Trump put Zelensky in his place,” Miller said.
Foreign policy Rabbi Agrawal wrote: Agarwal noted that Trump had been testing the boundaries of attention all week in a “freewheel” debate in front of cameras around the world.
Such commentary came when Fox News host Brett Bayer asked Zelensky. Whether he wants to apologize to Trump, the Ukrainian president said, “I don’t know if we’ve done anything wrong.”
“I respect the President, I respect the people of America, and… I think we have to be very open and very honest,” Zelensky told Byer.
However, Zelenkie, who arrived in London on Saturday ahead of the summit of British and European leaders, thanked the US and its leadership, voiced her hopes for a strong relationship. “We only want strong relationships with America. We really hope we have them,” he said.
European leaders, along with German president Frank Walter Steinmeier, stood behind Zelensky, saying, “He probably didn’t believe that one day we had to protect Ukraine from America.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said that if someone is gambling with World War III, it wasn’t Zelensky, as Trump accused Zelensky of doing it on Friday.
“If everyone is gambling with World War II, his name is Vladimir Putin,” Macron said.
