February 28th was shaping up to be such a great day for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: he was in Washington, D.C., set to meet with our 47th President Donald J. Trump…the sun was shining…pomp and circumstance filled the air in our nation’s capital.
On the Salem news program “THIS WEEK ON CAPITOL HILL with Tony Perkins,” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson was enthusiastically outlining the broad outline of President Trump’s plan to sign a deal with Zelenskyy, which would cede fifty percent of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals to the United States…potentially generating billions of dollars in revenue to—in part—repay America for all the support given Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Apart from the spectacular “reverse foreign aid” that Trump’s plan would generate, Mike Johnson was even more fired up about the outside-the-box-thinking that led to the potential rare earth minerals agreement in the first place. “It’s a fascinating concept which I spoke with President Trump about several times this week,” Johnson stated. “The idea would be not necessarily a guarantee of national security but if the mining of rare earth minerals gets under way, it would certainly prevent enemies like Russia from invading again if they knew they’d be hitting Americans. It could be a win/win for both countries and I commend the President for thinking outside the box…he thinks from a businessman’s perspective and that’s a really refreshing change from how government is normally run.”
With all this as a backdrop, as with any foreign dignitary arriving at the White House President Trump was standing on the portico surrounded by Marines rigidly at attention. Up rolled the black SUV displaying the Ukrainian flag. The President stepped forward prepared to offer a warm handshake and out stepped Vololymyr Zelenskyy in (gasps) one of his stupid green t-shirts.
Historical side note: The White House and especially the Oval Office where Donald Trump operates are such cherished ground to most Americans that when Ronald Regan was our President he would not ever remove his suit jacket while sitting behind the Resolute Desk. Our current President displays the same reverence.
So now here comes Zelenskyy looking like a refugee from the mosh pit at a Lady Gaga concert, and Donald Trump couldn’t help himself, telling the Ukrainian, “You’re all dressed up today.” And turning to assembled reporters and dignitaries he guffawed: “He’s all dressed up today.” One reporter shouted to Zelenskyy, “Why don’t you wear a suit? You’re at the highest level of this country’s office and you refuse to wear a suit? I just want to see…do you own a suit?” Another told him that “..a lot of Americans have a problem with you not respecting the dignity of this office.” (Mind you, these reporters!)
Zelenskyy looked befuddled, and mumbled something about the next time he meets with Trump “I will wear a costume.” Trump could not contain his glee but diplomatically offered that “I think he’s dressed beautifully.”
As we now know, things spiraled downhill from there…with Zelenskyy at one point lecturing Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the history of his war with Russia, and obliquely suggesting that Trump was aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. To which Trump shot back: “I’m not aligned with Putin. I’m aligned with the United States of America…I want to get this war over.”
Legacy media reflexively pounced on Trump, instantly declaring that the White House meeting had “devolved into a shouting match” and berating our President and Vice President for standing up for America. The entire exchange was quickly distributed on video by the Associated Press which—ironically—is suing White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Trump’s chief of staff Suzie Wyles for “barring” them from covering the White House because AP refuses to recognize the President renaming a major body of water as the Gulf of America.
Other Trump-bashing outlets comically stumbled over each other in a race to attack our President. On MSNBC, onetime RNC chairman Michael Steele was almost weepy after showing a video clip of Trump squaring off with his t-shirted guest. “That cesspool of stupid went on for 10 minutes,” Steele griped. “It is hard to overstate how much of an embarrassment this was for America on the world stage.” Steele is filling the daypart formerly occupied by the now fired Joy Reid. Steele apparently is not reading the tea leaves which have added his name to the MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnell Hall of Shame.
In their lust for any opportunity to tarnish Trump, CNN anchor Erin Burnett even scraped the bottom of the political barrel by letting Connecticut U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal on her program to castigate the President. Always sadly comical to be lectured by “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal, the weasel who first ran for the Senate as a “combat veteran in Viet Nam” but who –-after being elected—admitted that his Marine Corps assignments never took him beyond the Potomac River. Semper Lie.
All of this unfolded scant days before President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress this coming Tuesday evening. Gazing into my crystal ball, I predict this will afford the hapless Democrats another opportunity to break out their scarves and neckties in the bright blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag …thinking that will send some kind of visual protest message about Trump to TV viewers around the globe. Yawn.
Of course, politics and diplomacy are squishy, ever evolving entities so Volodymyr Zelenskyy may ultimately get another invitation to meet with Donald Trump. But if he does, my advice is Zelenskyy should ask his SUV driver to take a detour along the way to the Men’s Warehouse on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C. and buy himself a respectable suit.
I just checked their website. They are featuring nice Joseph Abboud ones in Navy blue starting in boy’s size 20 for only $89.99. Yellow necktie extra.