We each drew our own conclusions about Friday’s Oval Office “free-for-all” between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenski. I watched it live. When the Legacy Media pundits began to spin their “realities” to their loyal minions, I was curious to see and hear how my thoughts compared to theirs. Needless to say, mine were miles away from the “experts” in most of the Legacy Media outlets.
Obviously, Democrats in Congress, almost in unison, began to sing the company tune about the meeting. All three verses of their songs were identical: “Trump humiliated Zelenski when Ukraine’s leader came to finalize a deal that was the key to ending Ukraine and Russia’s war. Trump is a thug!”
From the other side of the aisle, the responses mostly supported the President’s actions in the Oval Office. However, several GOP members were “tepid” in weighing Trump’s treatment of Zelensky.
I decided to investigate what several credible media members had to say after weighing in on the meeting. Two honest and very successful media folks that I admire gave us their two-cents: Victor Davis Hanson and Mollie Hemingway.
Rather than share my extremely biased perspective, these two, each in a Twitter/”X” post, shared their thoughts. Take a look at their expressed wisdom, which this Publisher thinks is right on.
Dan Newman
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is an American conservative author, columnist, and political commentator. She is the editor-in-chief of the online magazine The Federalist and a contributor for Fox News. Initially, during the 2016 Republican primary, Hemingway was a pronounced critic of Donald Trump. However, over time, Hemingway turned into a vocal supporter of Trump, marking a significant shift in stance.
Hemingway has written columns in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, National Review, The New York Times Magazine, and Ricochet. She was one of the founding members of The Federalist. She has appeared multiple times on C-SPAN. In 2017, she became a Fox News contributor. Her columns have been published in USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, CNN, and RealClearPolitics.
On Friday, February 28, 2025, Susan Rice said of the Trump-Zelensky meeting, “There is no question this was a setup.” She revealed full knowledge of the mineral agreement, complained that it didn’t include “concrete” security agrees (meaning, apparently, the commitment of US troops on the ground if conditions merit), and then mischaracterized Trump’s behavior, counting on most Americans to not have watched what transpired over the entire hour in the Oval Office.
You can look at this and dismiss it as typical Democrat talking points, but you could also view it as almost a confession, one that includes details about the current “Get Trump” effort. Yes, Trump won the popular vote against unbelievable odds, but if you think Team Obama is any less involved in quiet insurrections than they were during the first Trump administration (Russia collusion, Ukraine impeachment, etc.), you’re clueless.
I’ll remind you that Susan Rice was in a small Jan. 5, 2017, meeting in the White House with other key Russia collusion hoax perpetrators.
Zelensky repeatedly declined opportunities to sign the deal in Kyiv and Munich and requested the meeting at the White House. It later came out that Rice and Tony Blinken, Victoria Nuland, and Alexander Vindman may have been personally advising Zelensky to do this meeting in the way he did — that they recommended him to be hostile and to try to goad Trump into blowing up. Even though he didn’t, and even though Zelensky’s actions horrified many normal Americans, the Obama team went on the airwaves to falsely characterize what happened.
I think their goal was to have a wonderful performance by Zelensky, an angry Trump appearing to scuttle the deal, and the support of the neocon portion of the GOP to start applying pressure on Trump to have US Troop commitments as part of the “security guarantee.” It was a set-up in Susan Rice’s interesting choice of words.
Instead, Zelensky had one of the worst stage performances of his acting career, and Trump was statesmanlike (against all odds) throughout. Zelensky followed Team Obama’s advice to be hostile to a tee, but it didn’t land how they thought it would.
Surprisingly, one of the most important aspects of it not working out might have been Lindsay Graham’s reaction. Had he and other neocons thought Zelensky was being reasonable, Trump would be having to fight (even moreso) the neocon portion of the GOP in addition to Team Obama’s dirty tricks.
Even the “conservative” neocon pundits on TV last night were admitting Zelensky had royally messed up. As you can see from the hostility of the bureaucracy to any Republican oversight, no matter how reasonable or minor it may be, the entrenched bureaucracy and permanent DC apparatus is quite active. That goes quadruple for the deep state in the Intelligence Community.
I’d expect more and more shenanigans and to be prepared so that you don’t fall for the next information operation. The post-WWII architecture in Europe and the US needs this war to continue or be settled on “US troops on the ground” type guarantees, even though that’s not what Americans want. Things will heat up here, and it’s a very dangerous time.
Victor Davis Hanson (born September 5, 1953) is an American classicist, military historian, and conservative political commentator. He has been a commentator on modern and ancient warfare and contemporary politics for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Washington Times, and other media outlets.
He is a professor emeritus of classics at California State University, Fresno, the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in classics and military history at the Hoover Institution, and visiting professor at Hillsdale College. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush and was a presidential appointee in 2007–2008 on the American Battle Monuments Commission.
