Democrats on Friday swiftly attacked President Trump and Vice President Vance over their hostile handling of an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky that devolved into a shouting match between the three.
Taking to social media, House and Senate members lambasted Trump and Vance for seeming to align with Russian President Vladimir Putin in discussing how the U.S. would broker an end to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The question and answer session with media took a rancorous turn after Zelensky questioned Vance about what “diplomacy” meant with Russia, given Moscow’s track record of breaking ceasefire agreements.
Vance called Zelensky “disrespectful” for trying to litigate the conflict in public, and soon Trump also began railing against Zelensky’s alleged lack of gratitude for U.S. support.
While Trump allies cheered the president’s performance, Democrats and a handful of Republicans said Putin was the big winner of the day.
“Our leaders acting like ventriloquist dummies for Putin. Disgusting,” wrote Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) alongside a clip of the exchange at the White House.
“What an utter embarrassment for America. This whole sad scene,” wrote Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) alongside a separate video of Trump and Zelensky arguing.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) praised Zelensky, who he said “went into the Oval Office and stood up to Russia’s best negotiators.”
Zelensky was ostensibly in Washington to sign a natural resources agreement with Trump, who has been hesitant to include U.S. security gaurantees sought by Ukraine. That deal was not signed.
Before Friday’s meeting went off the rails, Trump suggested Ukraine would have to make compromises with Russia to end the war, while avoiding giving details on what Moscow might have to give up.
He also said ramping up pressure on Putin would be counterproductive to reaching a peace deal.
And Trump defended Putin in what he claimed was a “phony witch hunt” around Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, harkening back to the 2018 press conference in which Trump appeared to side with Putin over U.S. intelligence agencies.
“Putin went through a hell of a lot,” Trump said Friday. “He was accused of all that stuff he had nothing to do with.”
He also scolded Zelensky for placing demands on Russia’s side of the peace deal, telling him: “You’re not really in good position right now,” and “you don’t have the cards right now.”
Alexander Vindman, the Ukraine whistleblower who sat on the National Security Council in Trump’s first term, called the meeting “a horror show.”
“Ukraine will not have US support going forward, because Trump and Vance are completely lost. Europe will step-up and this war will continue. Trump blew this bigger than any [foreign] policy folly in recent history,” he added.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), called Trump and Vance’s behavior “disgraceful and dangerous” as “they’re helping our enemies, hurting our friends, and weakening our security. . . . A shameful moment in our history.”
Rep. Herb Conaway (D-N.J.) said Trump and Vance were “acting like Putin’s lapdogs, loudly and obnoxiously barking nonsense at Zelenskyy,” calling on Republicans to speak up too.
“The President of the United States is a coward who is Vladimir Putin’s puppet,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said in an interview on CNN after the Oval Office meeting. “The Vice President of the United States is a pogue and a coward who is Donald Trump’s puppet. And so what we just witnessed was a meeting in the Oval Office between two cowardly puppets and a hero.”
And Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Trump was aligning himself with Putin, “a dictator who started the bloodiest European war in 80 years. Sorry, President Trump. We believe in democracy, not authoritarianism,” he wrote on X.
Zelensky quickly left the White House after the shouting match, departing without holding a joint news conference with Trump, as had been planned. Trump reportedly ordered the Ukrainian team to leave.
Trump then took to social media to declare that Zelensky can come back to the White House “when he is ready for peace.”
