How the Zelenskyy Blowup Serves Trump’s Goals

Drama in the Oval Office. Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo/Bloomberg/Getty Images

We may never know whether Friday’s bizarre contretemps in the Oval Office involving Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy was totally planned, entirely spontaneous, or something in between. From a transactional point of view, it sure looked like Vice-President Vance was determined to pick a fight with the Ukrainian president, or at least underline the contention that Ukraine did not adequately understand its unique debt to Trump or the folly of other American presidents. But did the incident serve any useful purpose to anyone? Is Trump privately dressing down Vance for spoiling a nice mineral-deal signing, press conference, and photo op?

I don’t think so. Whatever the moment meant in terms of the rapidly evolving strategic situation of Russia and Ukraine, and the prospects for some kind of sustainable peace, the brouhaha nicely served the Trump administration’s domestic political needs. It helped dramatize the ongoing MAGA effort to get Americans to stop thinking of Ukraine and its leader as courageous victims of Russian aggression, and start thinking of Ukrainians as disrespectful ingrates. Vance repeatedly browbeat Zelenskyy for failing to adequately thank the American people for their past support of Ukraine (support that Trump angrily denounced as the work of a “stupid president” named Biden) even as the Ukrainian president tried to cite his many expressions of gratitude.

The Oval Office setting was perfect for this projection of Trump as the generous host whose uncouth guest had tracked mud onto the carpet and wiped his grubby paws on the ornate sofa. This impression was reinforced by a nasty question to Zelenskyy from Brian Glenn of the very Trump-y Real America’s Voice network demanding to know why the leader of that war-torn country wasn’t wearing a suit:

Ukraine’s enemies, of course, piled on immediately:

But Trump fans brayed about the president’s courage in the face of such incredibly rude insolence:

And even more telling, at least one prominent Republican backer of a U.S.-Ukraine alliance got the memo and back-peddled madly, as The Hill reported:

Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been one of the most outspoken advocates for supporting the Ukraine war effort, said he was “devastated” by the heated exchange between President Trump, Vice-President Vance, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House Friday …

Graham said it’s now a major question whether the United States can continue to support Ukraine if Zelenskyy remains president.

“The question for me is, ‘Is he redeemable in the eyes of Americans?’ Most Americans witnessing what they saw today would not want Zelenskyy to be their business partner, including me, and I’ve been to Ukraine nine times since the war started,” he said.

It’s unclear what happens now; Trump left the door open for a resumption of talks if Zelenskyy got his head screwed on straight:

But the incident and the Trumpworld spin on it are significant steps toward a revolution in perceptions wherein Ukraine is seen as the world’s great trouble-maker even as the U.S. and Russia work toward peace. All those Americans with Ukrainian flags hanging from their porches can expect some fresh contempt from their MAGA neighbors.