Yesterday and today I’m in the classroom all day leading an intensive seminar with Richard Epstein, John Yoo, and “Lucretia,” so I haven’t had time to take in the whole 50 minutes of what went down in the Oval Office yesterday. But my Poland-based friend Clifford Angell Bates passes along this Tweet from Michał Kuź, a Polish diplomat who earned a Ph.D in political science in the U.S. (Keep in mind that Poland is extremely anti-Russian and pro-Ukraine in this war.)
I listened very carefully to the entire (approx. 50 min.) public part of the exchange between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump and JD Vance. Sorry, I’ll be honest, Zelensky absolutely did not let himself be provoked, he was actively looking for a fight, or he knows nothing at all about American political culture. Trump, yes, nonchalantly approached the facts about European politics and history, like most Americans. However, he was relatively conciliatory for 80% of the time of the conversation, talking about himself as a businessman who had “reached an agreement” and wanted to take a middle position between the parties to the conflict. Zelensky kept correcting him, attacking him; he even countered neutral remarks about the destruction of Ukrainian cities, which could have been safely passed over in silence. Vance also initially attacked his predecessors, not Zelensky. It was Zelensky who first attacked Vance, as if he owed him something. Then everything spilled over.
No, seriously, just compare it to how Macron, for example, spoke to Trump. I understand where the hearts of Polish commentators lie. Americans are, however, extremely sensitive to a certain political decorum during such meetings, even more so than the British, only this decorum is slightly different, less rigid in language, but very, very clearly emphasizing the status of the Republic. I lived and worked in the US for years and culturally, humanly, I literally have no words for what the president of Ukraine did, my teeth hurt from gnashing when I watched it in its entirety. As I wrote, I perceive Zelensky’s behavior as an attempt to play to the public in Kiev, then he will return to negotiations. However, if there is no such return, it will be his own fault.
Chaser—let’s not forget this:
