Video Kremlin will ‘celebrate’: Trump berates Zelenskyy in televised Oval Office attack

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28 February

U.S. President Donald Trump talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 28, 2025.

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance ganged up on and attacked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an Oval Office meeting that aired on national television in near-real-time. Experts decried the event, with some declaring Russia would be celebrating.

Politico described the meeting as an "ambush," and an "attack" by Trump and Vance on Zelenskyy.

In one exceptionally heated exchange, Trump attacked Zelenskyy and accused him of playing with "millions of lives."

"You’re in no position to dictate what we’re gonna feel," Trump told Zelenskyy. "You’re right now, not in a very good position."

"You're gambling with World War III," Trump alleged.

"Have you ever said thank you once?" Vance asked Zelenskyy, attacking him for "campaigning for the opposition" last year.

"You’re not acting at all thankful,” Trump later added.

"So, so depressing to watch this s----show in the Oval," remarked Michael McFaul, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia.

The New Yorker's Susan Glasser, whom has written books on Trump and Putin, called it, "the most shocking behavior by Trump and Vance I’ve ever seen in the Oval Office. An ambush."

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer, responded: "VP Vance, who once said he did not care about #Ukraine, despicably provoked this fight in Oval Office. Vance is not #Russia’s agent. But he could not have done more damage and caused greater joy in Moscow were he a Russian agent."

Russian intelligence operations expert Olga Lautman of the Center for European Policy Analysis remarked, "At least Zelenskyy tried but as I said Ukraine and the rest of Europe are on their own and need to tell the Kremlin owned Trump regime to go to hell."

The Financial Times' chief correspondent in Kyiv, Christopher Miller, described the event as "really, really bad," and wrote: "Look at Ukraine ambassador @OMarkarova grab the bridge of her nose. She knows this is a disaster."

Tom Nichols, a former Naval War College professor, and expert on Russia and nuclear weapons, wrote: "This is the video that the Kremlin needed and will celebrate."

In a series of social media posts in recent days President Zelenskyy has praised the "bipartisan" support he has received from the U.S., declaring his gratitude as recently as late Friday morning.

When it was all over, Trump angrily declared, "That’s going to be great television, I will say that.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Image via Reuters

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