The Zelenskyy Thing Is Simpler Than People Are Making It

There’s a script that people are meant to follow when in the presence of Trump. He didn’t follow it.

Sure Trump and Vance were looking for reasons to hate on Ukraine’s president.

But what struck me as really weird while watching the whole 50 or so minute exchange is where Vice-President Vance accuses Zelenskyy of not saying “thank you.”

Vance: “Have you said thank you once, this entire meeting?”

Well, yes!

Because if you watch the entire thing, which I did, and again after Vance says this, Zelenskyy actually says thank you a bunch of times before being accused of not saying it.

Per C-SPAN:

3:03:00 Zelenskyy “Thank you…”

3:03:10 Zelenskyy “Thank you…”

7:32:00 Zelenskyy “Thank you very much.”

19:14 Zelenskyy “Thank you.”

44:16 Vance “In this entire meeting, have you said ‘thank you’?”

Then I realized what Vance means: he’s admonishing Ukraine’s president for not doing the “Trump’s a Great Leader blah blah blah, unifier like no one’s ever seen before, blah blah blah, Nobel Prize, blah blah blah”, thing.