Fash Ivy League Debate Club
By 
JD Vance knew what his job was yesterday — attack Zelenskyy as a stunt to give Senate Republicans a pretext for abandoning Ukraine for Daddy Putin, because both Vance and Trump prefer right-wing authoritarianism to liberal democracy — and he executed it like the Yale debate-me-bro nihilist striver he is:
But his starring role in Friday’s blowup between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – where he played a cross between Trump’s bulldog and a tech bro Iago – may mark the moment that the postwar alliance between Europe and the US finally collapsed.
Trump and Vance teamed up to goad Zelenskyy into a feud in the Oval Office. But it was Vance that snaked his way in first, riling up the Ukrainian president by telling him that he was leading “propaganda tours” of the destruction wrought by Russia’s invasion.
“I think it’s disrespectful to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said, his voice rising. “You bring people on a propaganda tour, Mr President … Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”
When Vance said that “the administration…is trying to prevent the destruction of your country” I think his nose actually crossed the Potomac.
While Vance’s greasy admonishment has gotten a lot of attention, not enough had been paid to what preceded it:
Zelenskyy: “OK. So he (Putin) occupied it, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, parts of east and Crimea. So he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years — I’m not speaking about just Biden, but those times was (Barack) Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now, President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people. You know what the –“
Trump: “2015?”
Zelenskyy: “2014.”
Trump: “Oh, 2014? I was not here.”
Vance: “That’s exactly right.”
Zelenskyy: “Yes, but during 2014 ‘til 2022, the situation is the same, that people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him, a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversation. And we signed with him, me, like, you, president, in 2019, I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, (French President Emmanuel) Macron and (former German Chancellor Angela) Merkel. We signed ceasefire. Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go … But after that, he broke the ceasefire, he killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”
Zelenskyy’s point here is unanswerable — how do you do diplomacy with a leader who has repeatedly shown that he won’t abide by any agreement he makes? Vance’s contrived “HOW DARE YOU DISRESPECT ME AND HENCE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” routine is how you would expect a smarmy debate guy to react when he has no response on the merits.
Trump and Vance didn’t say a single bad word about Putin—a bloodthirsty dictator who invaded Ukraine, poisons his opposition, steals from his people, rigs elections, and murders those who speak out.
They spent the entire meeting lying and yelling like maniacs at Zelenskyy—the… https://t.co/r4UuLaI0N9— Rep. Jim McGovern (@RepMcGovern) February 28, 2025
Speaking of nihilism, it’s always instructive what straight news reporters — in this case Astead Herndon, host of the New York Times podcast “Did You Know That Joe Biden Is Old?” — are allowed to editorialize (and insult their readers about) on social media:
Economist/YouGov poll (2/16-18) among U.S. adults:
Trump favorability: 47-49 (-2)
Zelenskyy favorability: 47-28 (+19)
Pew poll on U.S. providing support to Ukraine, July 2024 vs. Feb 2025:
• Not enough: 19% 18%
• About right: 26% 25%
• Too much: 29% 27% https://t.co/5v5KvZ382e— Adam Carlson (@admcrlsn) February 28, 2025
This is a classic example of a reporter trying to launder what are obviously his own [indefensible] opinions by pretending that he’s speaking for The People. Of course, if you like and admire Trump for owning the libs like Herndon obviously does, you can square the circle of the facts not doing what you want them to by defining “The People” as “hardcore MAGA voters,” who JD Vance would surely agree are the real Volk.