Trump Puts International Welfare Queen Zelensky In His Place

For a long time there’s been a debate over whether cameras should be allowed inside the Supreme Court, so that oral arguments can be posted in their entirety on the internet. And every time the issue came up, Justice Scalia was one of the most vocal opponents of the idea. As Scalia put it, “what most of the American people would see would be 30-second, 15-second takeouts from our arguments. … I am sure it will mis-educate the American people.”

A lot of people dismissed Scalia’s reasoning at the time. After all, how could the media successfully distort footage that everyone has access to? But all these years later, it’s hard to think of a greater vindication of Scalia’s point of view than what happened on Friday, following Donald Trump and JD Vance’s meeting with Ukraine’s president in the Oval Office. Within minutes, footage from this meeting was available, in its entirety, all over the internet.

Yet, if you got your information from the mainstream press, you came away with a completely inaccurate version of what actually happened.

As The Atlantic put it: “The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally.”

The New York Times ran this headline: “Vance Positions Himself as Trump’s Attack Dog During Blowup With Zelensky.”

Meanwhile the BBC reported: “Vance took the lead attacking Zelensky.”

If you actually watched the unredacted, hour-long footage of this Oval Office meeting, then you immediately recognize these headlines for what they are: Outright fabrications that are intended to protect Zelensky, who repeatedly lied and antagonized Trump and Vance throughout the meeting. The actual takeaway from this Oval Office meeting, and its fallout, is that most of Europe is fully onboard with escalating the war in Ukraine, three years after it began. And they aren’t remotely worried about starting World War III in the process.

I’m going to begin by doing what most of the media still refuses to do, which is to show you the context for the meltdown in the Oval Office before it occurred. In the first twenty minutes or so, everything’s cordial. At one point Zelensky is asked whether Trump is “on his side,” which was obviously intended to bait some sort of confrontation. Neither Trump nor Zelensky took the bait. Instead Trump mocked the reporter for asking a dumb question:

 

Later on, a different reporter gave Trump an opportunity to attack Zelensky. Specifically, the reporter wanted to know whether Zelensky actually owned a suit, or any kind of formal attire. Again, the question was rebuffed. Watch:

About an hour earlier, Trump had already teased Zelensky for his ridiculous clothing, about as politely as he possibly could. That happened outside the Oval Office, when Zelensky first arrived. And it was well deserved. Zelensky looks like a complete fool attending a meeting in the Oval Office wearing sweatpants. The guy constantly looks like he’s getting ready to run in a track meet, not attending high level meetings with important world leaders. His outfits are too casual for a dinner at Applebee’s, let alone the White House. 

WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show

In any case, inside the Oval Office, Trump clearly wanted to set a more serious tone. He didn’t want to sidetrack the point of the meeting, which was to sign a minerals deal with Ukraine. 

And by the way, the proposed deal was extremely favorable to Ukraine, in that it doesn’t require Ukraine to use all of its available resources — including oil, mineral deposits, and natural gas — to repay the $500 billion we’ve spent on them. That was the original idea. But now the deal simply establishes a joint investment fund, where the U.S. will realize some profits from “new revenue sources” that are identified in Ukraine.

So you’d think Zelensky would be happy about this kind of one-sided arrangement. Instead, as the meeting went on, Zelensky began openly suggesting that he doesn’t want a mere “cease-fire.” Instead, he said he wants so-called “security guarantees,” which is another way of saying that he wants the United States to commit to a broader war if Russia violates the cease-fire. Watch:

 

This is the point where Zelensky begins lecturing Donald Trump about how untrustworthy Putin is, and how Trump can’t possibly broker a successful cease-fire. Trump then makes the point that, if you want a peace deal, it doesn’t help matters to constantly attack Putin, which Zelensky kept doing. Watch:

 

This is the setup for the international incident that you’ve probably seen by now. Zelensky keeps saying diplomacy won’t work, because Putin will break the cease-fire. Trump says that it’s the best chance Ukraine has, especially since there’s a new administration in the White House. You can tell Trump is a little annoyed that Zelensky keeps calling Putin a “killer” and a “terrorist,” because that’s not the most effective way to begin a successful negotiation.

So everyone’s position is pretty clear by this point. But later on, when Vance tries to make the same point Trump was making, Zelensky jumps down his throat. He sarcastically asks him what kind of diplomacy Putin might respect. Watch:

By now a lot of people have looked at this footage and concluded that Zelensky went out of his way to adopt a snarky, obnoxious and inappropriate tone. And that’s obviously true. 

At the same time, not enough people are pointing out that, throughout this clip, Zelensky is lying. Other than Aaron Maté and a small number of independent journalists, no one seems to be talking about this. For example, take a look at these images from December of 2019:

 

The photographs are from a ceremony welcoming back Ukrainian captives that had been freed by Russia in a prisoner exchange — one of several that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to, in recent years. In fact, in April of 2020, Zelensky’s office put out a statement celebrating the release of dozens of Ukrainians who were held captive by Russia.

So why exactly was Zelensky claiming in the Oval Office that, as a matter of fact, Putin couldn’t be trusted when it came to prisoner exchanges? Why didn’t he mention all of the prisoner exchanges which went so well that Ukraine bragged about them?

For that matter, why was Zelensky attacking Trump and Vance for suggesting that diplomacy with Putin might work — when again, Zelensky’s own government clearly believed that diplomacy could work? Shortly after the invasion began, Ukraine’s top diplomats met in Istanbul with Russian negotiators in an effort to end the war and by their own admission, they came very close to a deal. Here’s one of Ukraine’s negotiations:

 

This is coming directly from a senior diplomat from Ukraine. To be clear, these negotiations took place after Putin broke the previous cease-fire agreements, according to the Ukrainians. And yet they were willing to sit down and negotiate with Putin. They got very, very close to a deal, too.

So why didn’t that deal go through? And why did all of those previous cease-fire agreements fail, including the agreement signed in Minsk in 2014? If you look into the specifics of that cease-fire agreement, the history is actually pretty enlightening. It turns out that Angela Merkel, the former chancellor of Germany, has admitted that the real purpose of the cease-fire agreement in 2014 was to give Ukraine some time to build up its military. In other words, Ukraine was not entering into the arrangement with the intention of securing a lasting peace. It was a ploy.

None of this came up while Zelensky was berating Donald Trump and JD Vance. Instead, Zelensky claimed Putin was solely responsible for the failures of their past cease-fire agreements. Then Zelensky began suggesting that, if the United States doesn’t fund Ukraine, then we’re going to get attacked. Watch:

 

So Trump tells Zelensky that he doesn’t hold the cards. And in response, Zelensky says he’s not playing cards. Even accounting for the language barrier, it’s pretty rough. These are high-level negotiations where one side can’t understand extremely basic metaphors.

But by the end of the meeting, it’s likely that Zelensky eventually began processing what Trump was saying, because Trump laid it down pretty clearly. Watch:

 

Taken together, the footage makes it abundantly clear that Zelensky antagonized Trump and Vance, not the other way around. Zelensky has always been an entitled, ungrateful brat. He showed his true colors again on Friday. The only difference is that he was actually called on it this time. 

Three years ago there were reports that Joe Biden became frustrated with Zelensky’s complete lack of gratitude, but of course nothing ever came of it. Watch:

Zelensky never faced any consequences for his entitlement and lack of respect, even after this became public. The Biden administration certainly didn’t do anything about it. 

I keep hearing that Trump’s behavior in the Oval Office was “shocking.” In a way, it was. It’s shocking because we aren’t accustomed to seeing American political leaders who refuse to lie prostrate on the floor and grovel for approval from other countries that need us a whole hell of a lot more than we need them. In Ukraine’s case, that imbalance is absolute. We don’t need Ukraine at all. They do nothing for us. The existence or non-existence of Ukraine is basically immaterial to the everyday lives of any American citizen who isn’t a bureaucrat or defense contractor. But on the other hand, Ukraine depends on us for its very existence. 

Even now, Ukraine’s government seems incapable of admitting that. So does pretty much every country in Europe. After Zelensky’s public humiliation on Friday, the entire continent announced their support for him.

As you can see, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Portugal, Croatia, Denmark, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania, Sweden, Spain, and Norway all put out statements of support for Zalenksy. These are countries that, in many cases, are happy to import massive amounts of natural gas from Russia, but they still want to virtue signal on behalf of Ukraine. The prime minister of the UK, however, went even further. He announced — psychotically — that the UK is prepared to put “boots on the ground” and assemble a “coalition of the willing,” which essentially means that the UK wants to start World War III. Watch:

 

So he begins with this very bold pronouncement that the UK and various European nations are going to take the lead, because America’s no longer interested in this particular proxy war. And then a few seconds later he admits that they can’t do any of this without the United States.

It’s a great way to summarize this whole situation. Both Zelensky and the Europeans are making it very clear why we should pull all foreign aid immediately. These countries despise us. They’re openly admitting that they want to replace us as the world’s most important superpower. And yet, at the same time, all of these countries come crying and begging to us anytime they need something.

Fortunately there are signs that, finally, this particular arrangement is coming to an end. Lindsey Graham — one of Zelensky’s strongest allies — came out and suggested that Zelensky may need to resign after this incident in the Oval Office. So did Dan Crenshaw, who again, has been a kind of blank-check supporter of the war effort in Ukraine. Crenshaw wrote: “If you are the leader of a country in a dire situation with no path to peace without American support, do not come into the Oval Office and argue with the President of the United States in public. Just a word of advice.”

As of today, it doesn’t appear that any of this is getting through to Zelensky. We’re at the point where it’s clear that he is not going to change his attitude, even though common sense would dictate that the onus is much more on Zelensky to show respect and deference in this context. It’s not much different from the proper dynamic between a child and his father. You live in your father’s house, he pays for your food and gives you shelter. You will be respectful to him and obey his rules. If you don’t like it, you can buy your own food and pay for your own house.

Zelensky, of course, is the child in this analogy. He depends on us. He needs us. So he should be respectful and watch his mouth, especially when he’s addressing our president. Instead he acts like a petulant brat. So it makes a lot of sense that the Left sides with him instinctively. After all, they’re a bunch of spoiled children with bad fathers who never forced them to get in line and follow the rules. So when the clips from this Oval Office meeting began coming out, they instantly saw themselves in Zelensky. That also explains the reaction from Europe, which is almost as dependent on the United States as Ukraine is. This is a dependency that, over time, breeds contempt. And now, after many years, that contempt is finally receiving the response it deserves.

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For a long time there’s been a debate over whether cameras should be allowed inside the Supreme Court, so that oral arguments can be posted in their entirety on the internet. And every time the issue came up, Justice Scalia was one of the most vocal opponents of the idea. As Scalia put it, “what most of the American people would see would be 30-second, 15-second takeouts from our arguments. … I am sure it will mis-educate the American people.”

A lot of people dismissed Scalia’s reasoning at the time. After all, how could the media successfully distort footage that everyone has access to? But all these years later, it’s hard to think of a greater vindication of Scalia’s point of view than what happened on Friday, following Donald Trump and JD Vance’s meeting with Ukraine’s president in the Oval Office. Within minutes, footage from this meeting was available, in its entirety, all over the internet.

Yet, if you got your information from the mainstream press, you came away with a completely inaccurate version of what actually happened.

As The Atlantic put it: “The president of the United States ambushed a loyal ally.”

The New York Times ran this headline: “Vance Positions Himself as Trump’s Attack Dog During Blowup With Zelensky.”

Meanwhile the BBC reported: “Vance took the lead attacking Zelensky.”

If you actually watched the unredacted, hour-long footage of this Oval Office meeting, then you immediately recognize these headlines for what they are: Outright fabrications that are intended to protect Zelensky, who repeatedly lied and antagonized Trump and Vance throughout the meeting. The actual takeaway from this Oval Office meeting, and its fallout, is that most of Europe is fully onboard with escalating the war in Ukraine, three years after it began. And they aren’t remotely worried about starting World War III in the process.

I’m going to begin by doing what most of the media still refuses to do, which is to show you the context for the meltdown in the Oval Office before it occurred. In the first twenty minutes or so, everything’s cordial. At one point Zelensky is asked whether Trump is “on his side,” which was obviously intended to bait some sort of confrontation. Neither Trump nor Zelensky took the bait. Instead Trump mocked the reporter for asking a dumb question:

 

Later on, a different reporter gave Trump an opportunity to attack Zelensky. Specifically, the reporter wanted to know whether Zelensky actually owned a suit, or any kind of formal attire. Again, the question was rebuffed. Watch:

About an hour earlier, Trump had already teased Zelensky for his ridiculous clothing, about as politely as he possibly could. That happened outside the Oval Office, when Zelensky first arrived. And it was well deserved. Zelensky looks like a complete fool attending a meeting in the Oval Office wearing sweatpants. The guy constantly looks like he’s getting ready to run in a track meet, not attending high level meetings with important world leaders. His outfits are too casual for a dinner at Applebee’s, let alone the White House. 

WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show

In any case, inside the Oval Office, Trump clearly wanted to set a more serious tone. He didn’t want to sidetrack the point of the meeting, which was to sign a minerals deal with Ukraine. 

And by the way, the proposed deal was extremely favorable to Ukraine, in that it doesn’t require Ukraine to use all of its available resources — including oil, mineral deposits, and natural gas — to repay the $500 billion we’ve spent on them. That was the original idea. But now the deal simply establishes a joint investment fund, where the U.S. will realize some profits from “new revenue sources” that are identified in Ukraine.

So you’d think Zelensky would be happy about this kind of one-sided arrangement. Instead, as the meeting went on, Zelensky began openly suggesting that he doesn’t want a mere “cease-fire.” Instead, he said he wants so-called “security guarantees,” which is another way of saying that he wants the United States to commit to a broader war if Russia violates the cease-fire. Watch:

 

This is the point where Zelensky begins lecturing Donald Trump about how untrustworthy Putin is, and how Trump can’t possibly broker a successful cease-fire. Trump then makes the point that, if you want a peace deal, it doesn’t help matters to constantly attack Putin, which Zelensky kept doing. Watch:

 

This is the setup for the international incident that you’ve probably seen by now. Zelensky keeps saying diplomacy won’t work, because Putin will break the cease-fire. Trump says that it’s the best chance Ukraine has, especially since there’s a new administration in the White House. You can tell Trump is a little annoyed that Zelensky keeps calling Putin a “killer” and a “terrorist,” because that’s not the most effective way to begin a successful negotiation.

So everyone’s position is pretty clear by this point. But later on, when Vance tries to make the same point Trump was making, Zelensky jumps down his throat. He sarcastically asks him what kind of diplomacy Putin might respect. Watch:

By now a lot of people have looked at this footage and concluded that Zelensky went out of his way to adopt a snarky, obnoxious and inappropriate tone. And that’s obviously true. 

At the same time, not enough people are pointing out that, throughout this clip, Zelensky is lying. Other than Aaron Maté and a small number of independent journalists, no one seems to be talking about this. For example, take a look at these images from December of 2019:

 

The photographs are from a ceremony welcoming back Ukrainian captives that had been freed by Russia in a prisoner exchange — one of several that Ukraine and Russia have agreed to, in recent years. In fact, in April of 2020, Zelensky’s office put out a statement celebrating the release of dozens of Ukrainians who were held captive by Russia.

So why exactly was Zelensky claiming in the Oval Office that, as a matter of fact, Putin couldn’t be trusted when it came to prisoner exchanges? Why didn’t he mention all of the prisoner exchanges which went so well that Ukraine bragged about them?

For that matter, why was Zelensky attacking Trump and Vance for suggesting that diplomacy with Putin might work — when again, Zelensky’s own government clearly believed that diplomacy could work? Shortly after the invasion began, Ukraine’s top diplomats met in Istanbul with Russian negotiators in an effort to end the war and by their own admission, they came very close to a deal. Here’s one of Ukraine’s negotiations:

 

This is coming directly from a senior diplomat from Ukraine. To be clear, these negotiations took place after Putin broke the previous cease-fire agreements, according to the Ukrainians. And yet they were willing to sit down and negotiate with Putin. They got very, very close to a deal, too.

So why didn’t that deal go through? And why did all of those previous cease-fire agreements fail, including the agreement signed in Minsk in 2014? If you look into the specifics of that cease-fire agreement, the history is actually pretty enlightening. It turns out that Angela Merkel, the former chancellor of Germany, has admitted that the real purpose of the cease-fire agreement in 2014 was to give Ukraine some time to build up its military. In other words, Ukraine was not entering into the arrangement with the intention of securing a lasting peace. It was a ploy.

None of this came up while Zelensky was berating Donald Trump and JD Vance. Instead, Zelensky claimed Putin was solely responsible for the failures of their past cease-fire agreements. Then Zelensky began suggesting that, if the United States doesn’t fund Ukraine, then we’re going to get attacked. Watch:

 

So Trump tells Zelensky that he doesn’t hold the cards. And in response, Zelensky says he’s not playing cards. Even accounting for the language barrier, it’s pretty rough. These are high-level negotiations where one side can’t understand extremely basic metaphors.

But by the end of the meeting, it’s likely that Zelensky eventually began processing what Trump was saying, because Trump laid it down pretty clearly. Watch:

 

Taken together, the footage makes it abundantly clear that Zelensky antagonized Trump and Vance, not the other way around. Zelensky has always been an entitled, ungrateful brat. He showed his true colors again on Friday. The only difference is that he was actually called on it this time. 

Three years ago there were reports that Joe Biden became frustrated with Zelensky’s complete lack of gratitude, but of course nothing ever came of it. Watch:

Zelensky never faced any consequences for his entitlement and lack of respect, even after this became public. The Biden administration certainly didn’t do anything about it. 

I keep hearing that Trump’s behavior in the Oval Office was “shocking.” In a way, it was. It’s shocking because we aren’t accustomed to seeing American political leaders who refuse to lie prostrate on the floor and grovel for approval from other countries that need us a whole hell of a lot more than we need them. In Ukraine’s case, that imbalance is absolute. We don’t need Ukraine at all. They do nothing for us. The existence or non-existence of Ukraine is basically immaterial to the everyday lives of any American citizen who isn’t a bureaucrat or defense contractor. But on the other hand, Ukraine depends on us for its very existence. 

Even now, Ukraine’s government seems incapable of admitting that. So does pretty much every country in Europe. After Zelensky’s public humiliation on Friday, the entire continent announced their support for him.

As you can see, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Portugal, Croatia, Denmark, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania, Sweden, Spain, and Norway all put out statements of support for Zalenksy. These are countries that, in many cases, are happy to import massive amounts of natural gas from Russia, but they still want to virtue signal on behalf of Ukraine. The prime minister of the UK, however, went even further. He announced — psychotically — that the UK is prepared to put “boots on the ground” and assemble a “coalition of the willing,” which essentially means that the UK wants to start World War III. Watch:

 

So he begins with this very bold pronouncement that the UK and various European nations are going to take the lead, because America’s no longer interested in this particular proxy war. And then a few seconds later he admits that they can’t do any of this without the United States.

It’s a great way to summarize this whole situation. Both Zelensky and the Europeans are making it very clear why we should pull all foreign aid immediately. These countries despise us. They’re openly admitting that they want to replace us as the world’s most important superpower. And yet, at the same time, all of these countries come crying and begging to us anytime they need something.

Fortunately there are signs that, finally, this particular arrangement is coming to an end. Lindsey Graham — one of Zelensky’s strongest allies — came out and suggested that Zelensky may need to resign after this incident in the Oval Office. So did Dan Crenshaw, who again, has been a kind of blank-check supporter of the war effort in Ukraine. Crenshaw wrote: “If you are the leader of a country in a dire situation with no path to peace without American support, do not come into the Oval Office and argue with the President of the United States in public. Just a word of advice.”

As of today, it doesn’t appear that any of this is getting through to Zelensky. We’re at the point where it’s clear that he is not going to change his attitude, even though common sense would dictate that the onus is much more on Zelensky to show respect and deference in this context. It’s not much different from the proper dynamic between a child and his father. You live in your father’s house, he pays for your food and gives you shelter. You will be respectful to him and obey his rules. If you don’t like it, you can buy your own food and pay for your own house.

Zelensky, of course, is the child in this analogy. He depends on us. He needs us. So he should be respectful and watch his mouth, especially when he’s addressing our president. Instead he acts like a petulant brat. So it makes a lot of sense that the Left sides with him instinctively. After all, they’re a bunch of spoiled children with bad fathers who never forced them to get in line and follow the rules. So when the clips from this Oval Office meeting began coming out, they instantly saw themselves in Zelensky. That also explains the reaction from Europe, which is almost as dependent on the United States as Ukraine is. This is a dependency that, over time, breeds contempt. And now, after many years, that contempt is finally receiving the response it deserves.

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