No suit, no lunch, no respect: Zelenskyy-Trump feud started with a fashion dig
WASHINGTON – As soon as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy emerged out of his motorcade at the West Wing, President Donald Trump immediately took a dig at his clothes.
Outfitted in a black sweatshirt featuring an embroidered Ukrainian trident, black slacks and boots, he was substantially underdressed in comparison to Trump, who was wearing a suit and tie.
“You’re all dressed up today,” Trump said sarcastically.
It all quickly went downhill from there.
After a heated exchange in the Oval Office, Zelenskyy would later depart without signing an “economic partnership” deal he had travelled 5,000 miles to seal.
Zelenskyy, whose country was invaded by Russia three years ago, has been a known casual dresser.
He often favors olive green crewnecks with cargo pants and combat boots, a signal to the world that his country is still at war.
In December, he wore a similar outfit for the reopening ceremony of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris as well as for his meeting with then President-elect Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at Élysée Palace.
During his tête-à-tête with Trump in the Oval Office, Brian Glenn, White House correspondent for the pro-Trump network Real America’s Voice, asked Zelenskyy why he was not wearing a suit while visiting the “highest level” office in the country.
“Why don’t you wear a suit?,” he said. “A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the office.”
Zelenskyy said he’ll “wear the costume after the war is finished." Kostium is the Ukrainian word for suit.
Then he told the reporter: “Maybe I’ll wear something like yours or something better,” eliciting laughter. “Maybe something cheaper.”
A correspondent for TASS, a Russian state media organization, was also a part of the 'pool' of reporters given access to the Oval Office on Friday to cover the sit down – even as the AP and Reuters were barred from the high-level meeting.
“TASS was not on the approved list of media for today’s pool,” a White House official told CNN in a statement. “As soon as it came to the attention of press office staff that he was in the Oval, he was escorted out by the Press Secretary.”
The White House recently announced that it will now control media access to the president, rather than the decades old tradition of a coalition of news agencies determining who gets to cover the president.
'You don't have the cards right now'
Minutes later, the meeting devolved into a shouting match between Vice President JD Vance, Trump and Zelenskyy. The U.S. president and vice president said Zelenskyy was not grateful for American support for Ukraine. The conversation became particularly charged when Trump said the Ukrainian president was prolonging the war while being in a weak diplomatic position and using American resources.
“You don’t have the cards right now. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War III,” Trump said. “What you're doing is very disrespectful to the country that's backed you.”
Soon after, a planned lunch and a bilateral meeting was canceled and Zelenskyy was seen leaving the White House. A White House official told USA Today that Zelenskyy was asked to leave.
The deal he had come to sign, giving America access to rare earths in his country, was left on the table. Trump has demanded access to rare minerals as a compensation for the billions of dollars Congress has appropriated for American military support and aid.
Zelenskyy had insisted on coming to Washington to sign the agreement, expecting to use the opportunity to push Trump to commit to future military support.
"He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace," Trump said in a statement.
Trump told reporters he was not interested in talking with Zelenskyy again unless the Ukrainian leader was ready to end the bloodshed.
“He’s looking for something that I’m not looking for. He’s looking to go on and fight, fight, fight," Trump said later. "We’re looking to end the death.”
U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) criticized Trump's "shameful display" in a video posted on YouTube.
"Is this now what America is? We are reduced to some kind of extortionary protectionist racket, where a leader of a country whose citizens have fought and died valiantly standing up to a Kremlin dictator is so abused, where we stand for nothing but using our might to extort the weak or the vulnerable?" Schiff said. "Is this where we are right now? Because this is what we witnessed in the Oval Office today."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called it a "spectacle which should shame every American."
"These are people who bully anybody they perceive to be in a weaker position," Van Hollen said on Twitter. "But Zelenskyy has something neither of them have. He has courage and he has principle."
Zelenskyy said in a Fox News interview Friday that he came to the United States because he wants peace, too.
"Americans are the best of our friends. Europeans are the best of our friends. Putin with Russia, they're enemies, Zelenskyy told Fox News. "And it doesn't mean that we don't want peace. We just want to recognize the reality, the real situation."
Prodded repeatedly by host Bret Baier, Zelenskyy thanked Americans for their support but declined to apologize.
"No, I respect the president and I respect American people... I think that we have to be very open and very honest, and I'm not sure that we did something bad," he said.
European nations jumped to defend Zelenskyy and Ukraine in the hours after the altercation, and Zelenskyy received a different welcome Saturday in the United Kingdom.
"You have full backing across the United Kingdom, and we stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take," Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
This story has been updated.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for Paste BN. You can follow her on X @SwapnaVenugopal