NYP: Disaster in the Oval Office – Dems lead Zelensky, Ukraine off a cliff

A common criticism of Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous Friday performance in the Oval Office is that he failed to read the room. Actually, the Ukrainian president did read a room — but it was the wrong room, notes ‘The New York Post’.

Before meeting President Trump, Zelensky met with anti-Trump Democrats who advised him to reject the terms of the mineral deal that the president was offering, according to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.).

“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy’s office posted at 11:15 a.m. Friday.

He attached a picture of Zelensky at a conference table, with Murphy seated on the opposite side.

Forty minutes later, Zelensky arrived at the White House.

The meeting, as the world now knows, quickly went off the rails and ended with Trump angrily ejecting the arrogant ingrate from the White House.

The earlier meeting with Dems undercuts wild claims that Trump and Vice President JD Vance staged an ambush. In fact, it was Zelensky who came with an ulterior motive.

By listening to the nakedly partisan advice of Dems instead of dealing forthrightly with the current president, Zelensky betrayed his countrymen and, for now at least, leaves them without the military and diplomatic protection that only America can provide.

Good luck counting on Britain, France and the rest of Europe to save Ukraine. Maybe the Germans will send strudel.

In a perverse way, Murphy and other Dems got the outcome they wanted. The fireworks at the White House gave them an excuse to replay their Russia Russia Russia hoax.

Once again, they and their media handmaidens are dishonestly insisting that Trump is in Vladimir Putin’s camp.

It’s a mark of their bad judgment that Zelensky is their new hero. He and they have zero chance of persuading tapped-out Americans that an open-ended commitment of their tax dollars and possibly sending troops to Ukraine is sensible.

Zelensky, who privately agreed to the terms, has every right to demand a security agreement — up to a point. But he didn’t get one and his decision to respond by insulting the president and vice president, interrupting them and waving off their responses, was madness.

As Trump noted, the heated jabs made for great television, but it was a disaster for Ukraine and a gift to Putin.

Zelensky had an opportunity to apologize to Trump in a later interview with Brett Baier on Fox, but repeatedly refused to do so, saying, “I’m not sure we did something bad.”

Add ignorance to his list of flaws.

Unfortunately for him, there is an audience egging him on. Beyond Washington Dems, the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, wrote on social media that “the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge. We stand by Ukraine.”

Zelensky’s a fool for rejecting Trump’s plan and counting on Europe and feckless Dems to help him get a better deal from Trump.

As the president reminded him three times, “you don’t have the cards” to make the demands he was making, but Zelensky ignored the advice and the facts.

What a tragic mistake!.

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