Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, tweeted: “Was honored to be with @POTUS, @VP, and [Rubio] in the Oval today during the bi-lateral with President Zelensky. As the President has ALWAYS done – he stood for America … America First.”
Was J D Vance's attack on Zelenskyy premeditated ?
White House sources have told US papers it was not. Is Vance's new role emerging at Donald Trump's behest, sharing the load with Elon Musk to dish out punishment to the president's opponents?
Or is Vance freelancing, already sketching out a role that will form the basis of an election campaign in three years' time when Trump will not be able to stand again?
JD Vance was supposed to be the inconsequential vice-president like most of his predecessors -- readily playing the second fiddle to respective Presidents.
But Vance's starring role in Friday’s blowup between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – where he played a cross between Trump’s bulldog and a tech bro Iago – may mark the moment that the postwar alliance between Europe and the US finally collapsed.
Trump and Vance teamed up to goad Zelenskyy into a feud in the Oval Office.
"But it was Vance that snaked his way in first, riling up the Ukrainian president by telling him that he was leading “propaganda tours", says an article in 'The Guardian'.
Vance's 'battle' began at the Munich Security Conference last month, a regular port of call for a US vice-president.
Kamala Harris would frequently make unmemorable speeches there.
But Vance used the occasion to launch a blistering assault on the state of European democracy, accusing continental leaders of censoring free speech and failing to control immigration.
"If you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you," he said.
The audience of politicians, generals and diplomats was horrified.
This was not the usual - and now widely accepted - argument that Europe should do more to pay for its own defence and security.
"This was a full-blown ideological assault - a sign that the US under Mr Trump is not just pivoting away from Europe, shifting its security focus to China, but is also seeking to promote its own Trump-style populism," says BBC.
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The US vice-president is quietly assembling a foreign policy team with a deeply skeptical view of Kyiv’s value as a future ally. And European officials have lined up to back Zelenskyy, saying that the Trump team’s performance in the Oval Office indicated that the US was truly siding with Vladimir Putin in the war.
“Now is the moment to stay calm, but not carry on,” wrote Camille Grand, a distinguished policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations and former assistant secretary general for defense investment at Nato.
“The US ally has now officially decided to take a stance inconsistent with our traditionally shared interests and values. This might be temporary or lasting but this will have profound and enduring consequences.”
There is a thing in Washington that many people understand but that few will say: that the Trump administration was looking for a pretext to ruin its relationship with Ukraine.
The contrast with Trump's first VP, the much more mild-mannered Mike Pence, could not be greater.
But Vance - who is widely seen as serving to articulate the rationale behind Trump's foreign policy gut instincts - has long been outspokenly sceptical of US aid to Ukraine.
When he was running for the Ohio Senate in 2022, Vance told a podcast:
"I've got to be honest with you. I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other."
Vance's upbraiding of Zelensky drew broad support among Republicans.
"I was very proud of JD Vance standing up for our country," said South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime advocate for Ukraine and a foreign policy hawk. He suggested Zelensky should resign.
Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville referred to Zelensky as "that Ukrainian weasel".
Congressman Mike Lawyer of New York was more measured, saying the meeting was "a missed opportunity for both the United States and Ukraine".
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