The American side deliberately orchestrated the confrontation during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House, Friedrich Merz, the head of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the likely chancellor, said on March 3.
“It was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelensky, but obviously a manufactured escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office,” Merz said at a press conference in Hamburg.
The visit was expected to mark the signing of a long-debated agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. on jointly developing Ukraine’s mineral resources.
No shit. They sat him down like a naughty schoolboy and took turns berating him into selling half his country to the yanks for no guarantees on stopping the Russians.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
Zelenski has the patience of a demigod for not slapping the shit out of Vance.
He handled the no-win situation as best as he could; I hope it raises Europe’s will to back Ukraine since it was obvious how he was ambushed by a supposed ally.
The dude literally invited Russian state media and said “this will be great TV”.
I’m not a conspiracy theorist but…
It’s not a conspiracy if it’s true haha
Getting a script right from RT via Putin no doubt on what to say
how low do we have to go before everyone wakes up and sees this orange shitstain for what he is?
“It’s easier to fool a man than to convince him he’d been fooled.” - Mark Twain
We have our work cut out for us when dealing with republicans.
Yeah, it’s amazing. He’s not a “Republican” he’s Trump. He’s not your friend/ally/supporter no matter who you are, he only supports himself. Your welfare is only vaguely relevant so long as it directly supports his status, the instant you aren’t useful, you will get backstabbed hard.
Unfortunately that’s not a particularly useful fact to highlight to republicans, and democrats bet too heavily on that being a talking point and it won them no favors.
how low do we have to go before everyone wakes up and sees this orange shitstain for what he is?
I don’t think anyone capable of seeing it doesn’t already see it. We have to make it through these four years as a nation and somehow move forward despite them all.
If congress somehow gets Trump removed via impeachment or similar means (I know the chances are near zero) I fully expect magas to be shooting people in the streets a day later, or a much more violent Jan 6 style event.
Orchestrated or not, it was a fucking cowardly spectacle.
Trump and Vance aren’t actors, it shows.
You could tell. Vance is an awful actor …
👶 I’m going to be a bad ass today ! My pee pee feels funny just thinking about it. I’m so excited
I blame the couch for that
Yeah I think that was pretty obvious. I mean they were clearly looking for an excuse to attack him. They chose the most inane metaphor they could have to take offense at. Just waiting for their opportunity.
I think this gives this office too much credits.
The whole thing seems more spontaneous dysfunction than planned, Vance overplaying his troll role, and Rubio did not show up for job.
This is obviously aligned with their long term vision regardless, but I don’t think they were planning to hit the gas at that day.
Vance clearly walked in with an agenda to blow it up - his comments were tactless and incendiary while Vance has many times shown a willingness to hold his nose or backtrack former statements fir political gains. Vance, from the comments on wearing a suite (has he ever criticized Elon for his shitheel dress code) to saying “You should be thanking us” - there is no more universal thing you can say to an adult to instantly shutdown communication.
Things like requesting for emotional value in a serious conversation is such an unsophisticated tactic in arguments, just hard to believe it’s planned by a long time blogger and book writer who should be good at words.
It was obviously performative when Trump said, “you don’t get to tell us what we’re going to feel” when Zelensky said that the US will feel the effect of the war.
It’s was after JD already escalated and Trump had to grab something to be a critical about, and that was the arbitrary point he decided to cling onto. He had to because JD upped the ante and Trump HAD to do something to keep up
This was absolutely an ambush. Trump and Vance had a script and reactions ready to go, thinking they were going to get under Zelensky’s skin, justifying Vance’s angry reaction. But Zelensky stayed calm and reserved and Vance still has his angry outburst. Trump and Vance embarrassed the country, looking like toddlers screaming when they don’t get their way.
And every Republican who backs this is vile scum, but that’s to be expected from the GOP. Trump and Vance taking America to new lows every day and the GOP just doubling down on it.
Just finally watched it, he actually deflected most of their accusations on the spot 💪 These guys are making deals, lying on their part and not giving a flying fuck on the very probable future events. All Trump got was that he is special, and that is why the truce will hold this time 🫨
Edit. I don’t know what to make of this, they and everybody sure need peace, it is also bold to not see that card…
Lets be honest here, Trump and Vance didn’t orchestrate anything.
Putin did.
He wanted the weapons stopped, and he gave them a script.
Now the weapons have stopped as of a couple hours ago.
Calculated escalation or not, this public spat weakens Ukraine’s global standing against Russia. Well-supported and credible analysis of the situation but lacks conclusive proof for Merz’s claim.
😺😺😺🐱
removed by mod
It’s a known tactic that has got its own meme.
I thought it made Zelenskyy look good.
He was pleading for his people’s protection, while calling the US out on it’s bullshit.
Trump and co just looked like a bunch of dick heads.
Trump is a weak person’s view of a strong person. It only looked good to those weak people.
Daddy issues on a society-wide scale, ffs.
It definitely increased the respect for Zelenskyy across the world.
His faithful MAGAts are probably waiting for him to tell other elected world leaders that they’re fired. Just because it’ll be funny to hear him say his catchphrase in his weird little voice. And that’s as seriously as they’ll take it until the lights go out and it’s blighted poultry rations for dinner again.
Rotten state of things.
I’m not the biggest fan of Merz by any means, but credit where it’s due - it’s fantastic that he specifically and unambiguously called this out on the geopolitical stage.
His stance on Ukraine and the European Union is the silver lining for me with the CDU win tbh. Things might actually improve on these topics over Olaf Scholz.
removed by mod
Right? I have been consistently underwhelmed at how… well, flaccid Scholz has been on the European leadership front. Dude comes off like he wants everything signed in triplicate before he’s willing to consider appointing a discussion board to evaluate possibility of thinking about making a decision.
Especially because he has always been a staunch atlanticist with a ton of connections in the US. That and the fact this comes from Germany, the most pro-US country, barring the UK, in Europe, gives his words extra gravitas.
Poland and the baltics would like to have a word.
Speaking of Poland, I sure hope Trump doesn’t decide that they have something he wants. The Fanta Menace might just invade. It seems to be par for the course when it comes to world wars.
Hey, ww1 was the Serbs!
Yeah Merz seems reasonable geopolitically speaking, and seems willing to make the hard choices. I’m not terribly sad about Scholz losing to him, especially as another GroKo is most likely to happen.
