Trump and Zelensky openly clash in heated White House exchange
In an angry White House meltdown on Friday, Donald Trump accused Volodymyr Zelensky of not being 'thankful' for US support in Ukraine following Russia's invasion.
[In his meeting with US president Trump and vice-president Vance in the White House]Ukraine and President Zelensky did not have a single chance—I repeat, not a single chance—of receiving real support.
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Because it is absolutely clear—crystal clear—that in this war, Trump has firmly, unequivocally, and completely taken Putin’s side. I emphasize: firmly, unequivocally, and completely. And now, this has simply become evident. Now, there is a certain clarity.
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Since Zelensky had arrived, the goal was to ensure that the meeting ended in a grand scandal. And this scandal was skillfully orchestrated.
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It was obvious that the nature of this pre-negotiation negotiation [which was done publicly in front of the press] was designed to publicly corner Zelensky—humiliating him in front of the press, forcing him into a situation where he had only two choices: either figuratively kneel or respond in a way that would immediately escalate tensions. And as soon as that happened—boom—the scandal would erupt, and Zelensky would be blamed for ruining the negotiations
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Vance’s role was clear—he was the designated provocateur. From the very start, he threw out baseless accusations against Zelensky, claiming that he had campaigned against Trump in Pennsylvania—complete nonsense, a blatant lie. This was a long-circulating narrative meant to discredit Zelensky, even though his visits to various U.S. states were solely to secure support and persuade lawmakers to back Ukraine [...] first, Vance provoked Zelensky, then Trump jumped in. And what they were saying.
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The most famous exchange [...] was when Trump mocked Zelensky, saying he had no cards to play, to which Zelensky shot back: I didn’t come here to play cards. That remark hit a nerve, triggering visible outrage. From there, things spiraled out of control. After the heated argument, both sides retreated to separate rooms. Then Trump made his final move—he ordered the Ukrainian delegation to leave the White House.
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He [Trump] blamed Ukraine for everything that had happened. His logic? You allowed yourselves to be in a bad position—as if Ukraine was at fault when Putin invaded on February 24, 2022 [...] This is a textbook example of victim-blaming—a classic rhetorical trick. The victim is made out to be responsible for their own suffering. And Trump took it a step further, even reviving his old narrative that Ukraine itself started this war and was therefore to blame [...] Next came another familiar tactic—accusing Ukraine of ingratitude. Over and over again: We helped you, and you should be grateful. But you’re not. You don’t show enough appreciation.
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When Trump and his team openly humiliated Ukraine, Zelensky had to respond. This was all part of a calculated strategy—to push the narrative that without the U.S., Ukraine would have collapsed in days, as if Ukrainian resistance were meaningless. The claim of one million dead, the insistence that Ukraine has no more soldiers left, all of it was designed to strip Ukraine of its dignity and portray it as a helpless beggar. But if Zelensky had simply accepted this humiliation and stayed quiet, he wouldn’t just have lost the war—he would have lost the trust of the Ukrainian people.
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It’s clear now that Ukraine must win its own peace—with real allies.
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The most important outcome of yesterday’s events is the clarity that has emerged—now that the rare-earth fog has lifted. Clarity is always better than uncertainty [...] And that [...] is the one positive takeaway from this situation.
I've watched the whole thing, and it's just embarrassing. Apparently, American conservatives think this is ‘what an American president is supposed to look like’;* a mobster, essentially, and a pretty stereotypical movie one at that.
*Marjorie Taylor Greene according to De Volkskrant, can't find the original quote
There's also one moment where Trump descends into a rant that's just completely senile.
VANCE: She’s asking, ‘what if Russia breaks the ceasefire?’
TRUMP: Well what if they—what if anything! What if a bomb drops on your head right now? Okay? What if they broke it? I don’t know. They broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn’t respect him, they didn’t respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia—Russia, Russia, Russia, you ever hear of that deal? That was a phony—that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam. And he had to go through that. And he did go through it and we didn’t end up in a war. He went through it, he was accused of all that stuff—he had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting. And then they said, ‘Oh, oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia.’ The 51 agents, the whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff. All I can say is this: He might’ve broken deals with Obama, and Bush, and he might’ve broken them with Biden. He did, maybe, maybe he didn’t—I don’t know what happened. But he didn’t break them with me. He wants to make a deal. I don’t know if he can make a deal.
how on earth would ANYONE EVER pick such a buffoon as president? I mean...reading that almost makes my braincells scream and begging to commit suicide...
If anyone wants to show their feelings this is a great time to donate to Zelensky's fund to help Ukraine.
I hope it blows up and next time he's at the white house Zelensky can use his time in front of the media to thank us for donating huge amounts... biggest donations ever seen... Lol
The only good thing to come out of this is that the conservative European press is roasting Trump like a stuck pig at the moment. Even a significant chunk of the far-right press, actually. Here's a quote from a medium I'd flag as outright fascist: "Facing the left and keeping a critical position against the so-called progressivism doesn't mean defending Donald Trump unconditionally". They go on to claim this is a wake up call for Europe.
As of right now Le Pen hitching her wagon to this guy looks like a complete idiot and I don't think anybody to the left of Meloni thinks of the US as less than an adversary.
Still too little too late but it has to start somewhere.
Which one? Axel Springer, one of the biggest conservative Press Companies in Europe is blaming Selensky. (They're an evil Shit Company, and don't confuse them with the good SpringerNature)
Not sure about the press, since we'll probably get that in tomorrow morning, but Salvini is being the usual Trump boot licker and Meloni just said some generic rightwing shit about "the forces that want our civilizational decline" (can't blame Muslims for this one, but you can still recycle the same rhetoric).
It's beyond me how the Americans could elect this fucking moron. He can't even control his sphincters, how on earth did they expect him to run a country
politics experts suspect it was all a setup by the orange moron - a trap for Selenskyj so the pressure is solely onto him now.
Just another level of gambling
I don’t think it’s a correct line of reasoning to suggest that a majority Americans voted for donald trump. A vocal minority certainly did, but a long way from a majority. If we take voter turnout to be about 60% and assume that trump got around half of the vote, it looks to me like actually under one in three Americans actually voted for him. Still way too high. However, I would suggest that even this figure is misleading. I would bet a large, large sum of money that there was more foul play at work in the 2024 election than previous elections. We already know about the large number of voters purged from databases in swing states just before the election. I would suggest candidly that there was significant fuckery at the voting booth as well, not just in front and behind it. A more pointed question then becomes: who in the fuck thought all this was a good idea, and the answer is probably not all that complicated I expect. Complacency, panic, and apes with too many bananas. Fuck my life it’s all so terribly annoying.
I think it's exactly the right line of reasoning. It's time we held the US electorate responsible for their actions (or inaction), the same way we hold Russians or Hungarians.
My line of reasoning is that American democracy was flawed from the moment the constitution was written. Too much focus on liberty. Not enough focus on electoral systems, and the potential problems of each.
No mandatory voting + first past the post counting has resulted in extremist politics. You don’t need to gain the support of the majority of americans, just the undying loyalty of a small amount, and disnenfranchising the rest.
I can see America moving to the Alternative Vote. But even better if Americans move to Mixed Member Representation. I can’t see how America will ever move to mandatory voting though. Everytime i’ve tried to convince Americans that this is required to foster a larger, more civics educated, more engaged populace, i get shouted down that it’s unconstitutional. Yes i know it’s unconstitutional, but you guys have amendments.
And for that note, i think American constitutional law is stupid. The supreme court should not get to decide laws by interpretation. If the law is ambiguous, throw it back to congress to work it out.
Putin's demented puppet squawking what he's told to.
Pretty sure that Selenskyj is thankful for Bidens supplyment. But being thankful for one who called him a dictator without elections? Trump being petty as FUCK at Selenskyj for not cowering before a puppet who actually is a dictator.
We as Europe need to be stronger.
We need a stronger Europe... Europe won't survive 4 years if it just speak and don't act to defense itself in a VERY fast pace...
did you hear what Orban said in reaction to this mess?
We need to clean up within our own borders first. Otherwise the tumor will spread even further
What did Orban say?
Yea starting with subhuman trash like orban.