Vice President JD Vance on Monday knocked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for “a certain sense of entitlement” during a clash with the Kyiv leader and President Trump in the Oval Office last week.
“Even when Zelensky was kind of needling him, even when Zelensky was saying things that I thought were untrue, the president just tried to be diplomatic,” Vance told Fox News’s Sean Hannity. The vice president said the encounter “really went off the rails” during one of his own answers, which he contended “really set Zelensky off.”
“As we kept on going back and forth, I tried again to say, ‘Well, maybe we should have this conversation in private.’ And the president was like, ‘Nope, actually, I don’t want to have it in private anymore. I want to have this actual conversation in public for the American people to see’. And I do think that there was just a certain sense of – there was a lack of respect, there was a certain sense of entitlement,” Vance said.
The interview, recorded earlier Monday, aired shortly after news that Trump ordered a pause on U.S. aid going to Ukraine in its war against Russia, a major move following the confrontational meeting between the world leaders at the White House.
Visiting with Trump in Washington last week, Zelensky was expected to sign off on a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical mineral supply. But Trump called off talks, arguing Zelensky was “not ready for Peace.”
Vance, during the meeting, argued it was “disrespectful” of the Kyiv leader “to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”
Zelensky has since moved to try and thaw relations, expressing gratitude for U.S. support, while Trump has doubled down on his criticism. The president’s pause on aid will likely put more pressure on Zelensky to soothe tensions with the U.S.
Vance on “Hannity” quipped that the Oval Office clash was “great TV.”
“A lot of our European friends puff him up. They say, ‘You are a freedom fighter, and you need to keep fighting forever.’ Fighting forever with what? With whose money and whose ammunition and with whose lives?” the vice president said of Zelensky.
But Vance also underscored Trump’s message that “of course the door is open. So long as Zelensky is willing to seriously talk peace.”
