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OK, I finally watched the Oval Office news conference
as posted by The Hill. It's 50 minutes long, and for most of it Zelensky carefully thanks the United States, and flatters Trump, and talks about the importance of strength and the United States's "best air defenses in the world" and the great potential for this deal. Of course, Zelensky doesn't flatter Trump as blatantly as the One America News reporter, or two other reporters who gave him softball questions inviting him to flatter himself. And Trump never misses an opportunity to flatter himself, brag about his landslide election victory, complain about the 'Russia, Russia, Russia democratic hoax", and blame the "incompetent", "stupid", "not respected" Joe Biden for everything that's gone wrong. Zelensky points out several times that Russia invaded his country, not the other way around, and Trump mostly overlooks that dissent from his story.
And then Zelensky contradicts Trump on a minor factual point -- no, Europe has not contributed less to Ukraine's defense than the US has. (Both Macron and Stermer, a few days earlier, had also contradicted him on the same factual point, as they both also contradicted his claim that the European aid was all loans while US aid has been "no strings attached". But he keeps saying both things; why change a good story to match the facts?) There's a moment of smiling "agree to disagree".
The important disagreement is about security guarantees. Zelensky points out Putin's long history of signing agreements and then breaking them, and Putin's officially stated position that Ukraine and the Ukrainian language don't exist, suggesting that any deal without security guarantees won't hold because Putin will just invade again. Trump's response (after flattering himself and insulting Joe Biden some more) is that Putin has never broken an agreement "with me, because he respects me".
A reporter from Poland asks whether US troops will remain in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, and Trump replies "I am absolutely committed to Poland"; on a followup question about the Baltics, he pauses for the moment before saying "the Baltics... well, that's a very difficult neighborhood too. But I am absolutely committed to NATO."
One off-topic question from a reporter is about Starmer being an unreliable negotiating partner because he's lying about the UK's treatment of online free speech by Americans. Rubio, Vance, and Trump all briefly criticize Starmer and the UK on this.
Another reporter question is about security for the American mineral companies that will be working in Ukraine, including parts of eastern Ukraine that are currently under Russian control. "Who will protect them?" Trump has no concern for their security, because once we've got a deal, that's the security; why would the Russians break a deal?
Vance gives the first real attack: he accuses Zelensky of "attacking" and "being disrespectful" and "not being thankful" to the US. Trump picks up on this, complaining that Zelensky is being terribly disrespectful to the US, that Ukraine doesn't hold any cards without the US, that his country is ruined and going to continue being ruined without our help, and he should be thankful for anything he can get. Zelensky quibbles with Vance's and Trump's characterizations, inviting them both to actually visit Ukraine and see that it's not totally destroyed, people are living their lives and defending their freedom. Trump says "As you can see, they have a lot of hatred for Putin, and it's not easy to make a deal when there's that kind of hatred, but let me tell you, the other side isn't exactly in love with him either." More abuse from Vance.
The last question, from a reporter with a Slavic accent, is "What if Russia breaks the ceasefire?" At this Trump loses patience and gets unhinged.
"What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now? What if they broke it? I don't know, they broke it with Biden, because Biden, they didn't respect him. They didn't respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch-hunt, where they used him and Russia, Russia Russia Russia, you ever hear of that deal? That was a phony, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, Shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam, and he had to go through that, and he did go through it. And we didn't end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff, he had nothing to do with it, it came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom, it came out of Hunter Biden's bedroom, it was disgusting. And then they said 'Oh, oh, the laptop from hell, was made by Russia, the 51 agents', the whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that, he was being accused of all that stuff. All I can say is this: he might have broken deals with Obama, and Bush, and he might have broken them with Biden -- he did, maybe he did, I don't know what happened -- but he didn't break them with me. He wants to make a deal. I don't know if you can make a deal. The problem is, I've empowered you [looking at Zelensky] to be a tough guy, and I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States, and your people are very brave, but you're either gonna make a deal or we're out. And if we're out, you'll fight it out. I don't think it's gonna be pretty, but you'll fight it out. But you don't have the cards. But once we sign that deal, you're in a much better position. But you're not acting at all thankful, and that's not a nice thing. I'll be honest: that's not a nice thing."
Trump is convinced that he's playing with the big boys now, and they respect him as an equal, so they'll keep an agreement with him that they wouldn't keep with anybody else. Especially since Putin "went through a lot" with him. I'm not at all convinced that KGB-trained Vladimir Putin "respects" Donald Trump as anything more than a useful buffoon. And of course Putin didn't "have to go through" anything: nobody in Russia criticized him for interfering in the US Presidential election, because (a) of course he did, that's what he does, and (b) anybody in Russia who criticizes Putin for anything falls out of a skyscraper window or succumbs to a poisoned doorknob or something. But if Trump hadn't already viewed himself as "on Putin's side" after Putin helped him win the White House, the subsequent investigations of that sealed his loyalty to Putin.
So the message to Putin is "You can have Ukraine, and later you can have the Baltics, but you can't have Poland. I'll take Greenland and Canada. Have we got a deal?"
And then Zelensky contradicts Trump on a minor factual point -- no, Europe has not contributed less to Ukraine's defense than the US has. (Both Macron and Stermer, a few days earlier, had also contradicted him on the same factual point, as they both also contradicted his claim that the European aid was all loans while US aid has been "no strings attached". But he keeps saying both things; why change a good story to match the facts?) There's a moment of smiling "agree to disagree".
The important disagreement is about security guarantees. Zelensky points out Putin's long history of signing agreements and then breaking them, and Putin's officially stated position that Ukraine and the Ukrainian language don't exist, suggesting that any deal without security guarantees won't hold because Putin will just invade again. Trump's response (after flattering himself and insulting Joe Biden some more) is that Putin has never broken an agreement "with me, because he respects me".
A reporter from Poland asks whether US troops will remain in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, and Trump replies "I am absolutely committed to Poland"; on a followup question about the Baltics, he pauses for the moment before saying "the Baltics... well, that's a very difficult neighborhood too. But I am absolutely committed to NATO."
One off-topic question from a reporter is about Starmer being an unreliable negotiating partner because he's lying about the UK's treatment of online free speech by Americans. Rubio, Vance, and Trump all briefly criticize Starmer and the UK on this.
Another reporter question is about security for the American mineral companies that will be working in Ukraine, including parts of eastern Ukraine that are currently under Russian control. "Who will protect them?" Trump has no concern for their security, because once we've got a deal, that's the security; why would the Russians break a deal?
Vance gives the first real attack: he accuses Zelensky of "attacking" and "being disrespectful" and "not being thankful" to the US. Trump picks up on this, complaining that Zelensky is being terribly disrespectful to the US, that Ukraine doesn't hold any cards without the US, that his country is ruined and going to continue being ruined without our help, and he should be thankful for anything he can get. Zelensky quibbles with Vance's and Trump's characterizations, inviting them both to actually visit Ukraine and see that it's not totally destroyed, people are living their lives and defending their freedom. Trump says "As you can see, they have a lot of hatred for Putin, and it's not easy to make a deal when there's that kind of hatred, but let me tell you, the other side isn't exactly in love with him either." More abuse from Vance.
The last question, from a reporter with a Slavic accent, is "What if Russia breaks the ceasefire?" At this Trump loses patience and gets unhinged.
"What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now? What if they broke it? I don't know, they broke it with Biden, because Biden, they didn't respect him. They didn't respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch-hunt, where they used him and Russia, Russia Russia Russia, you ever hear of that deal? That was a phony, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, Shifty Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam, and he had to go through that, and he did go through it. And we didn't end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff, he had nothing to do with it, it came out of Hunter Biden's bathroom, it came out of Hunter Biden's bedroom, it was disgusting. And then they said 'Oh, oh, the laptop from hell, was made by Russia, the 51 agents', the whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that, he was being accused of all that stuff. All I can say is this: he might have broken deals with Obama, and Bush, and he might have broken them with Biden -- he did, maybe he did, I don't know what happened -- but he didn't break them with me. He wants to make a deal. I don't know if you can make a deal. The problem is, I've empowered you [looking at Zelensky] to be a tough guy, and I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States, and your people are very brave, but you're either gonna make a deal or we're out. And if we're out, you'll fight it out. I don't think it's gonna be pretty, but you'll fight it out. But you don't have the cards. But once we sign that deal, you're in a much better position. But you're not acting at all thankful, and that's not a nice thing. I'll be honest: that's not a nice thing."
Trump is convinced that he's playing with the big boys now, and they respect him as an equal, so they'll keep an agreement with him that they wouldn't keep with anybody else. Especially since Putin "went through a lot" with him. I'm not at all convinced that KGB-trained Vladimir Putin "respects" Donald Trump as anything more than a useful buffoon. And of course Putin didn't "have to go through" anything: nobody in Russia criticized him for interfering in the US Presidential election, because (a) of course he did, that's what he does, and (b) anybody in Russia who criticizes Putin for anything falls out of a skyscraper window or succumbs to a poisoned doorknob or something. But if Trump hadn't already viewed himself as "on Putin's side" after Putin helped him win the White House, the subsequent investigations of that sealed his loyalty to Putin.
So the message to Putin is "You can have Ukraine, and later you can have the Baltics, but you can't have Poland. I'll take Greenland and Canada. Have we got a deal?"