Vance leans hard into Trump's foreign policy — and sparks an extraordinary Oval Office skirmish
President Donald Trump, ready to wrap up his Oval Office meeting Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asked for one last question from the reporters gathered in the room.
President Donald Trump, ready to wrap up his Oval Office meeting Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asked for one last question from the reporters gathered in the room.
That's when Vice President JD Vance jumped in instead, responding to a previous question about Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin by praising Trump's diplomatic approach to the war in Ukraine.
His comments yielded a sharp rejoinder from Zelenskyy, steering an already tense discussion into an unexpected, full-blown, high-volume argument for the world to watch.
For the next seven minutes, Vance and Trump exchanged increasingly heated words with their visitor. Vance accused Zelenskyy of being disrespectful in the White House, of not being thankful enough for U.S. assistance and of embarking on a “propaganda tour.”
Zelenskyy pointedly questioned Vance’s authority on Ukraine, asking if he’d ever been to the country, prompting Vance to reply that he’d “watched and seen the stories.” Then Trump tagged in, coming to his vice president’s defense by demanding that Zelenskyy be more thankful and asserting that the Ukrainian leader was “gambling with World War III.”
Rating: 5