Vice President J.D. Vance appears to have masterminded a whole blowup between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump: Zelenskyy had been invited to the Oval Office for a press conference related to the signing of a rare earth minerals deal between Ukraine and the United States, through which America could maybe begin to recoup some of its funding of Ukraine’s defense. Now, the deal has fallen apart, and relations look mighty fragile. Transcript and clips below, so you can make up your own mind. (Video of full meeting here.)
Vance: “For four years, the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is, maybe, engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president of the United States’ actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing.”
Zelenskyy: “Can I ask you?”
Vance: “Sure. Yeah.”
Zelenskyy: “OK. So he [Putin] occupied it, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of east and Crimea. So he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years—I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was [Barack] Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now, President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. You know what the—”
Trump: “2015?”
Zelenskyy: “2014.”
Trump: “Oh, 2014? I was not here.”
Vance: “That’s exactly right.”
Zelenskyy: “Yes, but during 2014 till 2022, the situation is the same, that people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation. And we signed with him, me, like, you, president, in 2019, I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, [French President Emmanuel] Macron and [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel. We signed ceasefire. Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go….But after that, he broke the ceasefire, he killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about? What do you mean?”
Vance: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
(Video of the above here.)
Then a little bit later:
Zelenskyy: “First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. But you have nice ocean and don’t feel now. But you will feel it in the future. God bless—”
Trump: “You don’t know that. You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.”
Zelenskyy: “I’m not telling you. I am answering on these questions.”
Trump: “Because you’re in no position to dictate that.”
Vance: “That’s exactly what you’re doing.”
Trump: “You are in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good.”
Zelenskyy: “You will feel influenced.”
Trump: “We are going to feel very good and very strong.”
Trump: “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”
Zelenskyy: “I’m not playing cards. I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m very serious.”
Trump: “You’re playing cards. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III.”
Zelenskyy: “What are you speaking about?”
Trump: “You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”
Vance: “Have you said thank you once?”
Zelenskyy: “A lot of times. Even today.”
Vance: “No, in this entire meeting. You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October.”
Zelenskyy: “No.”
Vance: “Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.”
Zelenskyy: “Please. You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war, you can—”
Trump: “He’s not speaking loudly. He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble.”
Zelenskyy: “Can I answer—”
Trump: “No, no. You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.”
Zelenskyy: “I know. I know.”
Trump: “You’re not winning. You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out OK because of us.”
Reactions around the web: “What unfolded between Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance turned into a political Rorschach test,” writes Eli Lake for The Free Press. “For Trump’s base, the 50-minute exchange was proof positive of America First foreign policy—an ungrateful freeloader gets upbraided by the populist tribune. For Americans who still cling to the now unfashionable notion that the international system should be ruled by rules and not might, Friday’s incident was a horror. From the perspective of Europe, it’s the beginning of the end of the transatlantic alliance.”
On that note, “libertarians, progressives, and national conservatives who’ve been pining for a de-Americanization of European military security are experiencing their most newsworthy week on that front in at least three decades,” wrote Reason‘s Matt Welch on Friday, before the verbal fisticuffs. “The Trump administration’s ongoing negotiations and public messaging around a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal, along with the weekend electoral victory of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have led to the bluntest talk since April 1993 about a future without Washington’s mutual defense commitments to the easternmost members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).” Now, this assessment looks even more correct; something is about to change, and the souring of relations between Trump and Zelenskyy—which seemed awfully architected by Vance—lends credence to the idea that Ukraine will need to rely on someone other than the U.S.
Both French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently announced increases in defense spending; “I am very curious to see how we are heading toward the NATO summit at the end of June,” said German Chancellor-to-be Friedrich Merz recently, who also seems on board with more defense spending. “Whether we will still be talking about NATO in its current form or whether we will have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly.” “The E.U. as a united political force no longer exists” is the line from Russian state media.
“The president’s verbal assault on Mr. Zelensky was a stunning display of anger and resentment toward the leader of a country that has been invaded by a larger power intent on eliminating it as an independent state” is how The New York Times puts it. “No other president in memory has lashed out at a visiting foreign leader in the Oval Office on camera in such a vituperative way, not even at an adversary of the United States, much less a putative ally.” I don’t think the apoplectic mainstream media reaction is quite correct: Both Trump and Zelenskyy behaved poorly, not to mention Vance, who appears to have a future as a foreign policy pot-stirrer. That said, if you’re Vance and you’re trying to achieve the foreign policy objective of massively reducing or totally cutting American support for Ukrainian defense, this would be one way to go about it.
Now, in another escalation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked the U.S. Cyber Command to halt offensive operations toward Russia.
Scenes from New York: New York Dolls frontman David Johansen, who was huge in the ’70s punk scene (and majorly influenced Morrissey), died over the weekend at his home on Staten Island.
QUICK HITS
- Watch the latest Just Asking Questions ft. Matt Taibbi:
- Here’s him breaking down the 60 Minutes segment on German hate speech laws:
- The movie Anora, directed by Sean Baker, won an Academy Award for best original screenplay, as well as best picture (and best actress for Mikey Madison, who plays Ani). In his speech, Baker thanked his cast, the crew, and “the sex worker community”—a frequent fascination of his, explored in the aforementioned as well as his former works (Tangerine, The Florida Project). “They have shared their stories, their life experience with me over the years,” he said. “They have my deepest respect.”
- Dems try to pivot to gun shows and tailgates:
New @playbookdc: Last month, a group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials & party leaders gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia, for a retreat where they plotted their party’s comeback.
We got their takeaways. pic.twitter.com/lA1nVshriG
— Adam Wren (@adamwren) March 2, 2025
- “President Donald Trump is on the verge of slapping new tariffs on Canada and Mexico while doubling a levy on China, moves that would dramatically expand his push to revive domestic manufacturing, tap new revenues and rebalance ties with the biggest US trading partners,” reports Bloomberg. “The long-promised tariffs scheduled to take effect Tuesday would easily be among the most sweeping of the Trump era, applying to roughly $1.5 trillion in annual imports. They would put a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico, except Canadian energy, which would face a 10% rate. He has also said he’ll double a tariff on China to 20%.”
- Tulsi Gabbard, the new director of national intelligence, “got the first big thing right,” writes Andrew McCarthy in National Review: “protecting our technology industry and all Americans from the Luddite demands of Britain’s Labour government.”
- Last week, the U.S. experienced its first measles death in a decade, amid a West Texas outbreak that has made 140 people sick so far (and spilled over into New Mexico). There are also three confirmed cases in Bergen County, New Jersey, so far, as well as two in New York City; a handful of other states are experiencing their own outbreaks as well.
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