As Friday’s fiasco in the Oval Office made painfully clear to the nation and the world, Donald Trump and his White House have a problem with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Indeed, over the last few days, there’s been all kinds of talk emanating from the West Wing about the Ukrainian leader needing to “apologize” to the American president — and perhaps even resigning.
But what is it, specifically, that Zelenskyy did that was wrong?
Zelenskyy apparently made the wrong fashion choices: Before the Ukrainian leader even entered the White House, he was greeted by Trump, who said: “Look, you’re all dressed up today.” Interest in Zelenskyy’s clothing intensified from there, especially among conservative media personalities — though they appeared far less concerned about Elon Musk wearing a baseball cap and a “tech support” T-shirt in the West Wing.
Zelenskyy apparently used “body language” the White House didn’t like: During an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said the Ukrainian president was “incredibly disrespectful” while being berated in the Oval Office. To bolster the point, he pointed to “the body language, the shaking of head … the arms crossed.”
Zelenskyy apparently had criticisms for the authoritarian leader who invaded his country and butchered his people: After the Ukrainian leader said Russia’s Vladimir Putin “hates” Ukraine, Trump chided Zelensky for “speaking badly about somebody else” — because if there’s one thing we know about the Republican president, it’s that he just cannot abide speaking badly about people.
Zelenskyy apparently “litigated”: Waltz and JD Vance have complained more than once in recent days that the Ukrainian president “litigated” in public, which apparently means he told the truth about the war in his country. Those are facts U.S. officials recognized and agreed with up until six weeks ago, and it’s not at all clear why Zelenskyy was supposed to keep the truth to himself during his White House visit. Zelenskyy apparently “Ukraine-splained”: Two days after the fiasco in the Oval Office, Secretary of State Marco Rubio complained that the Ukrainian leader “found every opportunity to try to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue.” Of course, had the American president and vice president not made so many factual errors, and had been less eager to echo the Kremlin’s talking points, it’s likely that Zelenskyy wouldn’t have felt the need to explain the basics to his hosts in ways that hurt their feelings. Each of these complaints make Trump and his team appear rather weak and easily offended — unless, of course, the White House planned to take offense from the outset, and Republican officials looked for post-hoc rationalizations to justify the positions they were going to take anyway.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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