Say Thank You
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
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