THERE are conflicting accounts as to what triggered those ten minutes that changed the world in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon.
With Donald Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine within a week of taking office having long since expired, and peace looking further away than ever, drastic measures are now being discussed out loud.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump clash in the Oval Office
Whether the President privately told Volodymyr Zelensky or not, there is a growing feeling here in Washington that the hero of Kyiv is running out of diplomatic road.
Vladimir Putin has said he will not negotiate with Ukraine while it is led by Zelensky, and very senior members of the Trump administration also believe the chances of a peace deal would improve dramatically with a new leader of the battered nation.
Whether Trump said that to Zelensky’s face during his disastrous visit to the White House is disputed, however.
Some say it was made clear privately, President to President, hence the agitation on Zelensky’s face, picking his nails and folding his arms.
Others directly dismiss claims Trump all but reverted to his old role on The Apprentice and told Zelensky “You’re fired”.
Looking for fight
Officially the line is that it was not until 40 minutes into their televised meeting that things got testy, with Americans insisting they were not looking for a fight.
The Ukrainians say that’s nonsense and the trip was clearly a trap from the moment they arrived, with the role played by Vice President JD Vance purely designed to antagonise the situation.
Given President Trump began teasing Zelensky as soon as he greeted him at the door about turning up in his signature military fatigues rather than a suit, their argument that he was baited does hold some water.
Either way though, there is a growing view — delighted in by some Republicans and wearily accepted by even his biggest supporters — that Friday’s diplomatic cluster-f*** will speed up calls for Zelensky to go.
Hawkish Republican Lindsey Graham, who has been a keen advocate for Zelensky and his cause, even went public to say so, branding the meeting a “complete, utter disaster”.
His warning that Zelensky must “resign and send somebody over we can do business with or change” set alarm bells ringing in the UK.
Especially given some on the British side had feared this was coming and are annoyed Zelensky did not heed their advice.
“He did not help himself one bit in there,” one senior UK government official told me over the weekend.
“All he needed to do was go there, suck it up, sign the deal and say nice things about Trump and he couldn’t do it.”
As Sir Keir Starmer knows only too well from his visit to the White House, these things can be undignified but there is a playbook to getting through a Trump visit without getting your head chewed off in front of a global TV audience.
It was obviously a mistake to have that meeting on camera, as the Brits know.
Starmer survived unscathed beyond a little loss of dignity and presumably an aching jaw from all that smiling.
Harry Cole
They were baffled and alarmed in equal measure when Starmer’s own Oval Office greeting on Thursday turned into its own half-hour impromptu press conference with Trump taking dozens of questions from us hacks.
You could see the faces of British officials becoming more and more concerned as the meeting appeared to show no signs of ending.
I hear there were similar concerns at an equally free-wheeling lunch afterwards where the Brits were treated to a vintage Trump session of Royal Family stories, the history of Scottish connections and, of course, a long riff on golf.
The Americans were particularly amused by the PM’s apparent repeated insistence that he was more of a football guy, and even invited the President, 78, to play five-a-side with him when he comes to London.
They wanted to get out before anything could go wrong and, in the end, Starmer survived unscathed beyond a little loss of dignity and presumably an aching jaw from all that smiling.
Yes it was a bit cringe and unedifying but needs must — as Zelensky was warned repeatedly.
A bit cringe
It remains unclear how bad the lasting damage to the US/Ukrainian relations will be but Trump has yet to give a straight answer to whether he can still do business with Zelensky.
While domestically the spat will do neither much damage and Zelensky’s popularity may rise at home, his domestic approval ratings are the least of his worries now.
Yes Trump was rude, boorish and hectoring, and there was absolutely no need to have that conversation in public, but sadly Zelensky should have seen the dangers and directly sought to avoid them.
Rightly hailed as a heroic, brave and passionate defender of his people both at home and on the world stage, this was a bad misstep and one that could yet prove fatal to his leadership.
“SMALL earthquake, no one dead” was the verdict of one senior government figure over the resignation of aid minister Anneliese Dodds on Friday.
She insisted she did not want to overshadow Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to DC by resigning in protest at her budget being diverted toward defence spending before he got back from the States.
Aid minister Anneliese Dodds resigned on FridayAFP
But instead ended up quitting on one of the biggest news days in years.
While Dodds was low-ranking, the fourth minister to quit since July was the first to go over a policy debate.
Her hand-wringing about aid aside, the line from her resignation letter that was important was her warning that “I also expected we would collectively discuss our fiscal rules and approach to taxation, as other nations are doing.”
Starmer has outsourced his economic vision to Rachel Reeves who, in turn, keeps decision-making very tightly controlled, with Cabinet ministers told, not asked, about big decisions.
With Reeves insisting no more tax rises in the spring but big cuts instead, you can expect to hear similar moaning more and more.
SPLUTTERS in the House of Lords last week as peers debated the various merits of reintroducing the great British beaver to our countryside.
Environment Minister Baroness Hayman of Ullock was particularly passionate in her argument that, “what we have learned regarding the species is that where you see beavers you will also find tits.”
No laughing at the back.
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