Anybody who watched the entire Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky would know that it was not an “ambush” or a “setup” by Trump, as characterized by Democrats and malign media entities.
It was the opposite. If anyone came to that meeting in bad faith, it was clearly Zelensky, whose body language and attitude was negative from the start. Trump could not have been more cordial, having steered the complex negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to a first step where he believed peace was a real possibility.
But Zelensky had other ideas. He contradicted, interrupted and insulted Trump, even before Vice President JD Vance said a word.
It was 11 minutes in when Zelensky first contradicted Trump with a gratuitous defense of Europe’s financial support for the war, which Trump repeatedly has said was less than America’s.
“President Trump said that they made less support but they are our friends and they are our very supportive partners. They really gave a lot, Mr. President.”
Trump responded: “They gave a lot but they gave much less.” “No,” said Zelensky.
“Much less,” said Trump. “No,” repeated Zelensky. “Nooooo, no.”
Trump smiled and flicked him jokingly to make the exchange look like light-hearted banter.
“OK,” said Trump, ending it. OK,” said Zelensky smirking.
As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said later, if Zelensky wanted to contradict Trump, “the proper venue for that would have been 15 minutes later [when] we were going to walk into the White House dining room and have lunch, just 16 of us.
“I actually think he was always going to do this and I think he was surprised by the forceful reaction he got back,” Bessent told Fox News.






