Zelensky Was the Real Instigator Behind the Oval Office Dispute — Not Trump’s ‘Ambush’
Anyone who viewed the complete Oval Office discussion between President Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky would recognize that it was neither an “ambush” nor a “setup” as claimed by Democrats and unfavorable media sources.
The reality was the opposite. If anyone entered that meeting with ulterior motives, it was undoubtedly Zelensky, whose demeanor and body language displayed negativity right from the outset. Trump was nothing but gracious, having navigated the intricate negotiations surrounding Russia and Ukraine to a point where he saw a genuine chance for peace.
However, Zelensky had a different agenda. He contradicted, interrupted, and disparaged Trump, even before Vice President JD Vance uttered a single word.
It was just 11 minutes into the meeting when Zelensky first challenged Trump with an unnecessary defense of Europe’s financial backing for the war, which Trump has often stated was far less than what the U.S. contributes.
“President Trump remarked that they provided less support, but they are our allies and they are very supportive partners. They have indeed contributed significantly, Mr. President,” Zelensky stated.
To which Trump responded: “They contributed a lot, but they contributed much less.”
“No,” retorted Zelensky.
“Much less,” Trump clarified again.
“No,” Zelensky repeated insistently. “Nooooo, no.”
Trump smiled and jokingly flicked him, attempting to portray the exchange as jovial banter.
“Alright,” Trump concluded the discussion.
“Okay,” Zelensky replied with a smirk.
As Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later noted, if Zelensky intended to challenge Trump, “the appropriate setting for that would have been 15 minutes later [when] we were supposed to move to the White House dining room for lunch, with just 16 of us present.”
“I genuinely believe he was always going to do this and was likely taken aback by the strong response he received,” Bessent shared with Fox News.
Misguided Meeting
At the conclusion of the meeting, after disrupting the entire arrangement, Zelensky smirked and gave a thumbs-up to someone off camera within the press pool.
All the while, his ambassador sat just a few feet away, observing the fiasco with her face in her hands.
There’s no justifiable way to misinterpret who was responsible for derailing the meeting and jeopardizing the peace negotiations since it all unfolded live on camera for nearly an hour.
Yet, misinterpretations did arise, often motivated by political agendas and fueled by the pervasive narrative of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Zelensky himself appears to suffer from this affliction, and his apparent inability to grasp the gravity of the situation should disqualify him from future leadership in Ukraine. Ultimately, that decision rests with the Ukrainian populace or perhaps their military leaders — although with two-thirds of Ukraine’s media funded in part or largely by USAID, it’s plausible that Ukrainians have yet to receive the unfiltered truth about their wartime president, an actor playing the role of a soldier.
Currently, Trump’s innovative “Art of the Deal” strategy for resolving the war has been left in shambles, exactly as his adversaries, both domestically and internationally, desired. They could not bear the thought of Trump, who has challenged all their pet projects, successfully bringing the war to an end. A successful resolution would expose the incompetence, or far worse, of warmongers from both parties in Congress and in Europe.
As a result, Trump’s opponents have resorted to exploiting the million lives lost in the Ukraine conflict to generate a new iteration of the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, their fourth, as I count it.
Initially, there was the fabricated Steele Dossier, which led to the Mueller investigation that ultimately cleared Trump but severely hindered his first term. Following that, Trump was impeached for asking Zelensky during a 2019 phone call to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s involvement with Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm that began compensating Hunter a million dollars annually beginning in April 2014, after the Maidan revolution had installed a U.S.-aligned regime tied to then-Vice President Biden.
The third event was the “Laptop From Hell” saga in October 2020, when the “Dirty 51” intelligence officials deceived the public by claiming Hunter’s abandoned laptop was a Russian disinformation plot, while the FBI preemptively warned social media platforms of a purported Russian “hack and leak operation,” which resulted in the New York Post being censored by Facebook and Twitter when it broke the story featuring incriminating evidence against Joe Biden stemming from his son’s international influence peddling, including dealings in Ukraine.
The scandal surrounding the laptop and Biden’s corruption is so entwined with the current crisis in Ukraine that Trump referred to it during the contentious Oval Office meeting with Zelensky.
“It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom,” he remarked. “It emerged from Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was appalling.
“And then they claimed, oh, the ‘laptop from hell’ was fabricated by Russia. The 51 agents. The entire situation was a fraud.”
Provocative Remarks
Trump brought up the laptop as part of the broader context of Russia-related investigations that unnecessarily escalated tensions with Putin.
“Let me tell you, Putin went through a lot with me. . . . That was a bogus Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scheme. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff. It was a Democrat fabrication. And Putin had to endure that [but] we didn’t end up in a war.
“All I can assert is this: He may have reneged on deals with Obama and Bush, and he may have broken them with Biden . . . I’m unsure what transpired, but he didn’t break them with me. He wants to negotiate.”
In response to a reporter’s inquiry suggesting he was “aligned with Putin,” Trump stated: “I’m not allied with Putin. . . . I’m aligned with the United States of America, and for the sake of the world. . . . Should I say extremely negative things about Putin and then say, ‘Hello, Vladimir. How’s the deal going?’ It doesn’t function that way.”
Zelensky continued to provoke, avoiding eye contact with Trump while he spoke, contrasting with Trump’s focused attention on him. He dismissed the possibility of a cease-fire, lectured Trump on historical matters and “the rules of war,” and became increasingly disrespectful and confrontational, while Trump maintained his composure.
At the 23-minute mark, Zelensky was upset about the numerous agreements Putin had disregarded. Trump interjected, “He never went back on his word with me!” something Bill Clinton expressed similarly once.
Zelensky rudely contested him: “No, no, you were the president, you were the president. . . . In 2016, you were the president. You’ve been the president, Mr. President. You’ve been the president.”
Then Zelensky described the minerals agreement he was there to finalize as merely “2%,” following Trump’s earlier description, which framed it as “98%” of the path to peace.
Provocation Intensifies
At the 31-minute mark, Zelensky remarked: “You have a vast, beautiful ocean separating us, but if we do not continue fighting, Russia will advance further to the Baltics and Poland. That’s a given, and then your American soldiers will have to fight. It doesn’t make a difference if you have an ocean or not; your soldiers will fight.”
This was a significant provocation, yet Trump remained calm.
It was another seven minutes until Vance finally spoke up. Positioned opposite Zelensky, he had a clearer view of the latter’s insolent body language than Trump did.
Even then, Vance approached the matter diplomatically, stating: “The route to peace and prosperity may lie in engaging in diplomacy. What defines America as a great nation is our ability to engage in diplomacy. That’s exactly what President Trump is doing.”
This statement incited Zelensky, compelling Trump to respond to his rudeness.
“We’re working to resolve an issue. Don’t presume to dictate how we’re supposed to feel, because you’re in no position to do that.”
The rest can only be described as tragic history.
Zelensky attempted to ambush Trump but ended up receiving more than he bargained for.
Now, it is up to Europe during its summit on Thursday to guide Ukraine toward reason, as the country cannot endure without America’s support.
