Donald Trump and his supporters were unhappy at the combat outfit which was worn by Volodymyr Zelensky during a stormy meeting at the White House with claims it was an “insult”
The correspondent who described Volodymyr Zelensky’s combat outfit at the White House as an “insult”, is an ardent Donald Trump supporter.
The Ukrainian leader had a stormy meeting with Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office, and even before it started there was ill-feel over Zelensky’s attire.
Since war broke out with Russia, Zelensky has been seen wearing a military outfit to symbolise the conflict. It is traditional for leaders to do so with Winston Churchill famously wearing his “siren suit”, an air raid uniform, during a White House meeting at the height of World War Two in 1942.
But Trump and his supporters took exception on Friday with claims that he was “not respecting the dignity of the office”. Outside the Oval Office, Brian Glenn, the chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a right-wing network, asked Zelensky about his black outfit. “Why don’t you wear a suit? Do you own a suit?
“A lot of Americans have a problem with you not respecting the dignity of the office,” the reporter asked. And Zelensky replied: “I will wear [a] costume after this war will finish,” he told the reporter. “Maybe something like yours, maybe something better… Maybe something cheaper.”
While Trump sarcastically said he is “all dressed up” when he was awkwardly caught on mic as the two men met after Zelensky stepped out of his SUV and approached the West Wing entrance to the White House. “Yes I had to,” replied the Ukrainian leader.
And the meeting between the pair went from bad to worse from there. Trump went on to blast Zelensky for being “disrespectful” and he left without a minerals deal that Trump said would have moved Ukraine closer to ending the war with Russia. In the wake of the debacle, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to shift the blame to the Ukrainian President, saying: “You guys only saw the end, you don’t see all the things that led up to this.”
The Ukrainian leader was asked to leave by top White House advisers shortly after Trump shouted at him, showing open disdain. “You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” Trump told Zelensky.
The last 10 minutes of the nearly 45-minute meeting devolved into a tense back and forth between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelensky, who had urged scepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, citing Moscow’s years of broken commitments on the global stage.
