Zelensky ditches T-shirt for a suit for sit-down meeting with President Trump
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky traded his T-shirt for a suit for his second meeting with President Trump, as he praised his US counterpart following a 'long' meeting at the NATO summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian war leader appeared to have learned his lesson from February's disastrous Oval Office meeting with Trump and JD Vance, which devolved into a shouting match after Zelensky was chided for his trademark khaki military-style getup by a reporter.
Zelensky was pictured in the group photo of world leaders Tuesday wearing a black suit-style jacket and shirt, rather than his usual more casual get-up.
Although he appeared to be wearing regular trousers rather than suit pants, it was a step up from his typical attire, which he has said previously is a sign of solidarity with is armed forces.
4 Ukraine's President Zelensky donned a suit for Wednesday's Nato summit ahead of his meeting with President Trump
via REUTERS
Wednesday's meeting between the pair appeared to go much better, with Zelensky thanking President Trump and the United States and talking of his desire for 'real peace' between Ukraine and Russia.
'I had a long and substantive meeting with President Trump. We covered all the truly important issues,' Zelensky wrote in a statement on social media.
'I thank Mr President, I thank the United States. We discussed how to achieve a ceasefire and a real peace. We spoke about how to protect our people.
4 Zelensky thanked President Trump and the United States following their sit-down chat.
AP
'We appreciate the attention and the readiness to help bring peace closer. Details will follow,' he said.
Zelensky also wore a heavy black field jacket and buttoned black shirt when he met President Trump at Pope Francis' funeral in Rome in April, the first face-to-face meeting between the pair since their White House showdown.
4 It comes after the pair's spectacular falling-out in the Oval Office in February.
AFP via Getty Images
On Monday, he sported a similar look as he met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London, and again at Tuesday's dinner in The Hague hosted by the Dutch king, preceding today's NATO summit.
4 Zelensky appears to have smartened up his image in recent months.
POOL/AFP via Getty Images
As Ukraine is not a member of NATO — despite Zelensky's desire to join — the Ukrainian president was not invited to the meeting itself.
But he was granted a private meeting with President Trump afterward, at which he reportedly discussed further arms purchases from the US.
Zelensky's team has expressed a desire to buy Patriot missile defense systems, as well as increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime through tougher sanctions.
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Atlantic
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As of this writing, it appears that there will be no need to rely on multiple rounds in New York City's new ranked-choice voting system; although Mamdani did not crack the 50 percent threshold last night to win the nomination outright, he surpassed Cuomo by about eight points, and the former governor conceded. 'Mamdani created a movement around his candidacy, and the big lesson for Democrats is that young voters are looking for a larger social-political movement and not just an anti-Trump party,' Basil Smikle, a New York–based political strategist who has worked for Cuomo and Hillary Clinton, told me. 'His victory suggests there's a needed reformation of the Democratic coalition, and repudiation of incrementalism but also a more wholesale shift from establishment politics.' But the reverberations from Mamdani's candidacy aren't all reassuring ones for Democrats. Republicans have mocked his socialist ideas by evoking the barren supermarkets of the Soviet Union. 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A person close to Trump told me that the president might enjoy wading into the race in his former hometown and would consider endorsing Adams, though he might opt against it out of concern that it would hurt Adams more than help him. Still, the Democratic nominee will be considered the favorite. If Mamdani wins, there will be only so much that his fellow Democrats can learn from the specifics of the race, given New York's liberal tilt. But maybe there will be some lessons that are less about ideology and more about tactics—having energy, communicating clearly and frequently, and focusing on personal economic issues. 'I've already heard from some Democrats who worry that this guy is going to get us all labeled as socialists,' the Reverend Al Sharpton, the civil-rights leader and Democratic stalwart, told me. 'But he hit on something; he connected with something. Mamdani kept showing up. Democrats need to keep showing up.'
Wall Street Journal
22 minutes ago
- Wall Street Journal
It's Time to Revisit the President's War Powers
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