{"id":5166,"date":"2025-03-08T16:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T16:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=5166"},"modified":"2025-03-08T16:53:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T16:53:18","slug":"opinion-how-to-turn-diplomacy-into-reality-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/?p=5166","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: How to Turn Diplomacy into Reality TV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I saw the headline pertaining to the Oval Office last Friday I couldn\u2019t quite believe it. Surely this was just classic clickbait \u2013 an overdramatised headline designed to draw even the most uninterested reader. Sadly, it was worse than it looked. After a few minutes of reading one of the most shocking transcripts of a diplomatic meeting that I have ever read, I simply could not go on. It was one of very few times that a political event has left me truly speechless. There is not the space nor the time to truly encapsulate the disaster that took place on the 28th<\/sup>\u00a0February, and thus I can only give a whistle stop tour of the burning wreck that President Trump left in his wake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For anyone who might be unaware, President Trump hosted a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday 28th<\/sup>February with President Zelenskyy; a meeting which was designed to show the world the strength of the US-Ukraine partnership. What began as a productive meeting\u00a0quickly deteriorated<\/a>\u00a0into what will be remembered as one of the worst diplomatic discussions of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before Zelenskyy had stepped foot in the Oval Office, the signs of tension started to show. Upon the arrival of President Zelenskyy, President Trump remarked on the fact that the Ukrainian leader was not wearing a suit, stating \u2018you\u2019re all dressed up today<\/a>\u2019 before gesturing to his attire and then to the media pool. While this may have been a spot of banter between the two political leaders, it wasn\u2019t the end of the discussion, with a reporter commenting on Zelenskyy\u2019s attire whilst in the Oval Office, accusing him of \u2018disrespecting the occasion<\/a>\u2019 for not being in a suit. The comments surrounding Zelenskyy\u2019s attire\u00a0sparked backlash on social media<\/a>\u00a0as many pointed out that Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire who has regularly made speeches from the Oval Office, does not wear a suit either and yet no one has criticised this. When questioned on the matter a few days later,\u00a0Trump\u2019s Press Secretary<\/a>\u00a0answered the comments by deflecting to Musk\u2019s suit during the State of the Union \u2013 hardly a robust defence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, \u2018suitgate\u2019 was the least of the world\u2019s worries in the aftermath of the meeting. Vice President JD Vance made sure to make a name for himself (in the worst way possible) by issuing his two cents on American assistance to Ukraine. JD Vance certainly did not shy away from joining the debate between the two Presidents, being quick to remark that Zelenskyy was ungrateful for US support, stating that he hadn\u2019t said \u2018thank you once this entire meeting<\/a>\u2019. A quick Google search shows that President\u00a0Zelenskyy has been incredibly grateful<\/a>\u00a0for US support and has said so on a number of occasions, including in January of this year. Strike number one for VP Vance. Strike two came when Zelenskyy questioned Vance as to whether he had been to Ukraine to see what they were dealing with on the frontlines to which the Vice President responded \u2018I\u2019ve actually watched and seen the stories<\/a>\u2019. Congratulations Vice President Vance you, like much of the rest of the world, have read the news. What you have not done however, is visit the country, seen the war-torn cities in the flesh, or led a country through a war.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To his credit, JD Vance managed to take the heat off his embarrassing diplomatic display in the Oval Office. This was done rather masterfully by putting together a performance that was equally, if not more embarrassing, in a\u00a0Fox News interview<\/a>\u00a0about four days later \u2013 strike three. For\u00a0someone so hot on diplomacy<\/a>, JD Vance was able to offend Ukraine,\u00a0France, and the UK<\/a>\u00a0in rather swift succession.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Three strikes and you\u2019re out\u2019 is a common catchphrase across various arenas in society, albeit not in the political sphere (unfortunately). While I may be \u2018out\u2019 on JD Vance, he is certainly still \u2018in\u2019 with President Trump, leaving many wondering what collection of national embarrassments await.\u00a0Trump did get one thing right<\/a> however \u2013 it certainly did make for good TV if you enjoy your politics Real Housewives style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edited by Isabel Whitburn<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image: Drburtoni<\/a>, 2025 \/\/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n

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When I saw the headline pertaining to the Oval Office last Friday I couldn\u2019t quite believe it. Surely this was just classic clickbait <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":5167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,31,12,193,30,37,414],"tags":[436,218,616],"class_list":["post-5166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-latest","category-opinion","category-politics","category-us","category-us-politics","tag-trump","tag-us-politics","tag-zelenksy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thewitnessexeter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}