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It’ll be debated for some time whether Donald Trump‘s confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was spontaneous or a pre-planned ambush, but by the end of the 15-minute exchange Friday, Trump relished how it would all play: “This is going to be great television.”
The idea that Trump has created a reality TV presidency is well-worn, but the reaction to the shout-fest, that it signals a breakdown in U.S.-Ukrainian relations and perhaps Western alliances, is hardly trivial.
“Wow, just wow,” said CNN’s Dana Bash, after the network finished running video of the exchange, before going to the network’s chief White House correspondents and then foreign correspondents to talk about the implications.
Such reactions continued throughout the day as the story dominated cable news and social media.
Trump was supposed to meet with Zelensky today to put the finishing touches on a U.S. mineral rights deal with Ukraine, something that would include some security guarantees for the beleaguered country as the Trump administration holds talks with Russia on settling the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Trump and Zelensky were to appear together at a joint afternoon press conference.
All went well for the initial part of the meeting, as members of the White House press pool, shuffled into the Oval Office, watched. As Zelensky tried to make the case that Vladimir Putin could not be trusted with a ceasefire deal, Vice President JD Vance chimed in, saying it was “disrespectful” for him to “come into the Oval Office and try and litigate this in front of the American media.”
As Zelensky warned of the impact of giving in to Putin, telling Trump and Vance that “you will feel it in the future,” the president got irate. “Don’t tell us how we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us how we are going to feel.”
It went downhill from there, as Trump didn’t just explode at the Ukrainian leader but went off on a list of past grievances. At one point, he went on about Adam Schiff and Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” as he made the case that Putin, who invaded Ukraine, was the real victim who “went through a hell of a lot with me.”
“I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy,” Trump told Zelensky. “I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States. Your people are very brave, but you are either going to make a deal, or we’re out. If you’re out, you’ll fight it out, but I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
In the hours since, the White House has blasted out reactions — one release was titled “Support Pours In For President Trump’s, VP Vance’s America’s First Strength” — while plenty of others offered stunned reactions.
“This is why diplomacy should never be conducted in public,” Karl Rove said on Fox News. “We now know that, for example, in World War II, there were heated disagreements between Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill, but we didn’t see them broadcast on TV, and what we saw were statements that came out of these big conferences in which the Allies made an effort to move forward together.”
“The only winner out of today is Vladimir Putin,” Rove said. “This is a mistake to have it broadcast. It was a mistake for Zelensky to get his dander up. And it was a mistake for the president and the vice president to be so public in their comments.”
Yet Trump seemed to relish the idea that the confrontation would be broadcast to the world, across broadcast and cable and news networks, and there’s every reason to believe that he and his allies have long been looking for some kind of a public showdown with Zelensky. Just last week, Trump referred to Zelensky as a “dictator,” while a number in the MAGA movement have long disparaged the Ukrainian leader.
In a shape of things to come given the White House’s new control over which media gets into the Oval Office, Trump’s team invited Brian Glenn, chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, to take a plum position. He asked Zelensky the pressing question of, “Do you own a suit?”
“A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office,” said Glenn, apparently forgetting Elon Musk’s attire from last week.
The Trump-Zelensky showdown was a bit of a reminder of the moment back in 2018, when President Trump, in a joint press conference with Putin, sided with the Russian leader over U.S. intelligence agencies.
But back then, the reactions were quite different. A number of House Republicans condemned Trump’s remarks; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called them “disgraceful” and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) called it a “sign of weakness” and a “missed opportunity.”
Graham was back on TV in today’s aftermath, also calling it a “missed opportunity,” but this time not for Trump but Zelensk, as he was nothing but praiseworthy of the U.S. president.
Dmitry Medvedev, a Russian official and former president, gloated over the Oval Office spat, writing on X, “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII.'”
Zelensky, meanwhile, followed up on X with a thank you to the U.S. and to Trump, but soon after thanked European leaders as they sent out a wave of supportive messages.
While the moments of today certainly made for “great television,” one that may boost the viewership and readership of the media at a moment when they really need it, Trump’s moment also was a reminder of the new era of chaos and confusion and, when it comes to the state of things to come, sheer consternation.
