The world held its breath yesterday as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to the White House for the second time this year to meet with US president Donald Trump.
The first time, readers will surely remember, devolved into nothing short of a debacle. Zelenskyy and Trump – encouraged and egged on by JD Vance – traded angry barbs before the media, exhibiting a division that was in the best interests of no one not named Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy had made the trip to the US to beseech them for help in bringing about an end to the war started when Russia invaded his country in 2022. He arrived looking every inch the embattled world leader (military fatigues and all), forced to undertake a mission seeking international aid to stop an evil force from defiling his land.
What he got instead was borderline humiliation. Trump loudly accused him of “gambling with World War 3”, while Vance demanded that he be more thankful to the US for its help.
And the president and vice president weren’t the only ones in the Oval Office trying to tear down Zelenskyy before the world’s media. American reporter Brian Glenn also slammed him for not wearing a suit (as if that’s of critical importance three years into a bloody war staving off Russian invaders.)
“Why don’t you wear a suit?” Glenn, with Real America’s Voice, asked Zelenskyy at the time. “You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit. Do you own a suit?”
Needless to say, February’s meeting was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Worse than that, it threatened to drive a wedge between Ukraine and their most powerful allies at a time when unity is most needed.
Which is what made yesterday’s White House meeting all the more important. Three days on from Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, Zelenskyy would make his return to the Oval Office, and this time around there was none of the theatrics that marred his previous visit.
For one, Zelenskyy donned noticeably formal attire, as opposed to the combat fatigues he chose in February.
Reporter Brian Glenn was once more present for Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump, telling the Ukrainian president that he looked “fabulous” in his suit. He also apologized for his actions in February, just before Zelenskyy got some sweet revenge in an exchange that has now gone viral.
“You’re wearing the same suit,” Zelenskyy told Glenn. “I’ve changed, you have not.”
The snipe was met with laughter in the room. Even Donald Trump could be seeing giving a chuckle.
“What a clever way to put that reporter in his place while smiling,” one person wrote on X.
“OMG. Could I love him any more?!?” wrote another.
“Zelenskyy was a comedian, he knows how to deal with hecklers,” wrote a third.
What have you made of Trump and Zelenskyy’s interactions thus far? Let us know in the comments.