Political Tribune

Donald Trump, JD Vance, Opinion, Politics, Russia

JD Vance’s Awkward “Icebreaker” With President Zelensky Goes Viral — And People Say He Sounded Like A Total A**hole

Some people noticed JD Vance's reaction to Ukraine's President Zelenskyy.

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Back in February, Donald Trump and JD Vance famously upbraided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. On Monday, Zelenskyy was back at the White House, and in a subsequent interview, the vice president talked about the “icebreaker” the two men had.

“President Zelenskyy walked into the Oval Office. I was chatting with him, with the president, with some of the senior Ukrainian delegation. I said, ‘Mr. President, so long as you behave, I won’t say anything.’ And he just chuckled a little bit. It was a good little icebreaker,” Vance said in the Fox News interview.

The meeting itself ended up not nearly as contentious as the one in February, even if Trump’s desired peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine remains very elusive. But after that admission in the Fox interview, a lot of mockery ended up directed at Vance.

And that included the reaction of a U.S. senator, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who appeared on CNN that night.

“You know, this is really more about the realities on the ground for Ukraine,” the senator said on Erin Burnett’s show. “People are bleeding and dying. Making jokes about icebreakers, it really is so deeply offensive.”

“Putting the bank robber, in effect, in charge of the security at the bank? Taking that kind of guarantee as possibly the basis for peace is absolutely absurd. And I think that the president has around him people who simply are taking at face value the kind of delusion that the president and they are suffering,” Blumenthal added.

Some social media users also weighed in:

Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library. 

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Stephen Silver

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Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy.

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