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 Ukranian 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 Zelensky 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 Zelensky from Brian Glenn of the very Trumpy Real America’s Voice network demanding to know why the leader of that war-torn country wasn’t wearing a suit:
