Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's visit to the White House on Friday was such a disaster that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and co-host Ben Ferguson put out an emergency podcast episode of "The Verdict" on Friday night to discuss not only the meeting, but also the potential fallout. The meeting went so poorly, Cruz predicted, that Zelenskyy "does not politically survive this."
President Donald Trump has been striving for negotiations for weeks when it comes to an end to the Russo-Ukrainian war, a war that began three years ago this week, under the particularly weak Biden-Harris administration. Zelenskyy, however, was brash and rude, and has been invited to come back when he is ready for peace.
President Zelenskyy had an epic meltdown in the Oval Office—he crashed and burned.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 1, 2025
This will go down as one of the most disastrous Oval Office meetings in our nation’s history.
We’re dropping an emergency episode of Verdict to break down what happened today, why it matters, and… pic.twitter.com/TsV96W5NZ4
As Ferguson reminded to paint the scene, the "pretense for this meeting" with Zelenskyy "was to get a deal and to work a deal for peace." He was also there to sign a rare minerals agreement between the United States and Ukraine.
Referencing clips of the meeting that have gone viral, the senator offered his own reaction, which is that "President Zelenskyy showed up in the Oval Office and decided he was there to battle Donald Trump, decided he was there to insult Donald Trump, decided he was there to attack and belittle Donald Trump," Cruz pointed out, going for an even stronger and more consequential reaction from there. "And without exaggeration, I believe this will go down as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting in the history of our nation," he added, prompting a "wow" from Ferguson.
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"Zelenskyy had one job," the senator also reminded, going on to offer an apt analysis of what happened with Zelenskyy. "His one job was to go there and to try to get the President's support for a peace that leaves his country in a good and strong position. That was his entire mission. And he apparently decided that he knew better than everyone else, and that President Trump should be kissing his ass. Now I got to say, look for any president you go back from George Washington to Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush to Joe Biden to Donald Trump coming into the Oval Office and behaving like an ass, insulting and attacking the president with the TV cameras running, by the way, doing this for the entire world, for any president, is a dumb ass move," Cruz also stressed.
"It was on purpose, too. It was very deliberate. It wasn't an accident," Ferguson also added.
Zelenskyy even angered President Joe Biden with his lack of gratitude, during a June 2022 phone call, as NBC News reported on October 31, 2022. That being said, it's worth reminding that Trump and Vance are world leaders that one really does not want to behave "like an ass" around.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 28, 2025
"So there literally is no analog. If you look back, you look back, I've been in a lot of oval office meetings," Cruz offered, further highlighting how badly Zelenskyy behaved. "No foreign leader has ever done what President Zelenskyy did, and it's particularly ironic because it is exactly opposite what he wanted to do. It's exactly opposite what his mission was. Look he was there--number one. The United States has given hundreds of billions of dollars to Zelensky," he continued.
Not only that, Cruz pointed out, but "Zelenskyy's attitude was, 'why the hell haven't you given us more? And we're entitled to every bit of it.'" During that meeting, Trump had expressed that Zelenskyy needed to be more grateful.
The Friday night episode included some of those clips of viral moments, with the senator and Ferguson analyzing those moments. This included how Zelenskyy was confronted over how he did not bother to come to the meeting dressed up. "Zelenskyy's putting on a show," Cruz reminded, and although the Ukrainian president claimed he has "much respect," the senator took issue with his outfit. "You're wearing a sweatshirt, for Pete's sakes! It's the Oval Office of the White House, the office of the president of the United States, put on a friggin' jacket and tie," he said to applause from the audience, as he also called out Zelenskyy for acting as "a performance artist," and reminding how he's been "a comedic actor." He even wore, Cruz reminded, "the same damn sweatshirt" when he addressed a joint session of Congress that the senator was present for.
Towards the end of the episode, Cruz also offered how this could affect Zelenskyy in the long-term.
Reminding how he and Ferguson did an emergency podcast following that disastrous debate between Biden and Trump on June 27, predicting that Biden would not be the 2024 nominee, Cruz forewarned that such a meeting could be similarly consequential for Zelenskyy.
"I think this meeting could easily end President Zelensky’s tenure," Cruz predicted, to more applause. Ferguson pointed out he was going to ask such a question, especially as this "obviously changes the way the rest of the world is looking at him," and has now truly fallen from grace, though Cruz also acknowledged that Zelenskyy "had moments" early on in the war that showed leadership.
"The media loves him, the hard left loves him," Cruz still reminded, when it comes to Zelenskyy's "celebrity" status. Indeed, Democrats in Congress stood with Zelenskyy over Trump and Vance after Friday's meeting.
Several months after the start of the war, however, Zelenskyy not only did what turned out to be "essentially a campaign event" with Vice President Kamala Harris, the replacement nominee, in Pennsylvania in which he went after Vance, then a U.S. senator and the vice presidential nominee.
Reminding how he and Ferguson had discussed this before, Cruz said that they both said if Trump wins, which they predicted he would, "Zelenskyy is going to deeply regret" having made those remarks, though the senator also called it "amazing" how Zelenskyy "keeps doubling down."
Cruz again then did some "doubling down" of his own, which is to predict what this means for Zelenskyy's political future. "I think there's a very good possibility, as I said, that Zelenskyy does not politically survive this, and within days that he's out of office."
It's also worth reminding that Ukraine has not had elections for years, with Newsweek recently putting out a rather curious article saying the quiet part out loud in pointing out that Zelenskyy could find himself out of power.
There were also remarks about where Trump and his win last November fits in this. "I also think, look, it's not complicated that President Trump campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine. This was not a mystery. Every voter who went and voted November understood that if you elect the Democrats, the Ukraine war goes on and on and on and on and on, and we keep pouring billions into it forever. And every voter understood, if you vote for Donald Trump, this war is going to come to an end. Now, I think it is important, this is something I have urged President Trump repeatedly, I think it's important that this war come to an end in a way that is a clear and unmistakable loss for Russia, a loss for Putin," Cruz said to more applause.
"I think Russia losing benefits the national security interest of the United States. I got to say, by the way, Zelenskyy’s performance was so bad that I think it not only harmed his own country, but I think it harmed world peace. And that--that's, I cannot imagine the plane flight back right now," he added to agreement from Ferguson.
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