Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

When Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the war-time president of Ukraine, visited the White House in late February, part of the exchange with Donald Trump went like this:

TRUMP: You're not in a good position.

ZELENSKYY: I was...

TRUMP: You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.

ZELENSKYY: I'm not playing cards.

TRUMP: Right now you don't -- yeah, you're playing cards.

ZELENSKYY: I'm very serious, Mr. President.

TRUMP: You're playing cards.

ZELENSKYY: I'm very serious.

TRUMP: You're gambling...

ZELENSKYY: I'm the president in a war.

People, who Zelenskyy was elected to protect, were dying, and there was Trump holding on to a useless metaphor. Zelenskyy isn’t playing. It is not a game. And how many cards did Trump have in his hand when meeting with Putin in Alaska?

One of the things that is not often referenced in relation to that meeting was what Vice President Vance said to Zelenskyy:

VANCE: Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.

ZELENSKYY: Have you ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?

VANCE: I have been to –

ZELENSKYY: Come once.

VANCE: I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know that what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems, bringing people into your military?

ZELENSKYY: We have problems –

So let’s break that down.

Zelenskyy is brought into a room where the Trump Administration has invited the press. And Vance tells him, “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

Zelenskyy didn’t invite the press. Yet somehow he was criticized for speaking to the media — by a guy who evidently knows about the situation on the ground in Ukraine by watching TV.

Another way that Zelenskyy was criticized by the Trump faithful was for his attire.

He wore an outfit that is familiar to those who see him on TV: A long-sleeved shirt with the Ukrainian trident emblem and fatigue trousers. What a leader whose country is at war wears.

It was seen as being completely outrageous. Disrespectful.

But last week in one of the most famous rooms in one of the most famous buildings in the world — the Oval Office of the White House — there was Donald Trump, arguably the most powerful man in the world, wearing a red baseball cap embroidered in a manner that is familiar to other 79-year-old men who attend county fairs or carnivals:

• “Bad day to be a beer”
• “With a body like this who needs hair”
• “I’m with stupid”

Trump’s cap reads:

• “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!”

That’s respectful to the office?

That’s the sort of thing that someone who isn’t six would wear in public? (“Billy was right about everything — even though his mom disagrees” And wouldn’t Billy have a strong argument to his mom and his teachers that he should be allowed to wear his hat in the classroom because the President of the United States wears his in the Oval?)

Aside from arrogance, what message does that send to the rest of the world?

Does Putin take the man seriously?

Is this a man who should direct the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy? 

Trump’s seemingly constant posting to his social media that have included insults to people ranging from “low IQ” to “crazy” — people who are otherwise respectable and have undoubtedly not used such language since they were in elementary school with Billy — has probably led to the public to become somewhat numb to this.

Which is one reason why Gavin Newsom’s mocking social media posts are so effective: They draw attention to the inappropriate way that Trump communicates.

Which brings me back to JD Vance.

According to Mediate, Vance said this on The Ingraham Angle on Fox News about Newsom’s mocking posts:

“’Stop sounding like crazy people,’ he advised Democrats. ‘That’s really is all it is. This idea that Gavin Newsom is somehow gonna mimic Donald Trump’s style, I think that ignores the fundamental genius of President Trump’s political success, which is that he’s authentic. He just is who he is. You’ve gotta be yourself. You’ve actually gotta talk to people honestly about the issues. I don’t think it’s that complicated. Don’t be a crazy person. Be authentic. If the Democrats did that, they’d do a hell of a lot better.’”

Here Vance admits that Newsom mimics “Donald Trump’s style.”

Yet he says, “Stop sounding like crazy people.”

A Freudian slip in relation to the boss?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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Unlike X-Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Bluesky, et. al., The Hustings as a civil media site is designed to allow you free and easy access to various gradations of political thought from the right and left.

No matter your political leanings, we urge you to read commentary from both sides adjacent to our political news/aggregate/analysis of the center column. In case you missed it, here are some recent left-side columns worth your time:

•Contributing Pundit Sharon Lintner on taxpayer money spent by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest a Lancaster, Pennsylvania resident as she attended an “Alternatives to Detention” appointment.

•Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson’s warning that we should not be diverted from Trump’s anti-democratic actions by his efforts to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In Monday’s center column, “Will the Second City be Second?” we connected the dots on President Trump’s efforts to make it harder to vote and his federal takeover of Washington, D.C., to potentially squelch voting in urban areas in 2026 and 2028. Trump has indicated Chicago might be the next major city into which he sends the National Guard and/or federal troops to “fight crime.” [A friend of The Hustings notes that Chicago would be the third city, as federal forces invaded Los Angeles, and remain there still. In our defense, Chicago long ago lost out “Second City” status to L.A., based on population.]

Don’t miss our August 18 analysis of Trump’s meetings and negotiations with Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin and with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his supporters from Europe, “Russia, Russia, Russia.” 

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