Joe Hildebrand: One thing Trump was right about – Zelensky held a poor hand

The person who stuffed up that all-important White House meeting wasn’t Trump or Vance – it was Zelensky, writes Joe Hildebrand.

Usually a system upgrade is designed to eliminate bugs and create a smoother and easier operating environment.

Not Trump 2.0.

The second incarnation of the Trump presidency has more bugs and more bombs and will undoubtedly result in more crashes.

But that doesn’t mean that it will result in World War III. That will only happen if everyone else goes crazy too.

And that is the sanity that has been missing from the global inferno of outrage that has ensued from Donald Trump’s explosive meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump clash in the Oval Office of the White House. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Everyone on the planet with access to electricity now knows what happened between the US President and his Ukrainian counterpart, not to mention his fiery deputy JD Vance.

What few seem to grasp is why it happened.

The narrative among the left is that Trump is a dimwitted stooge for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Vance is a walking hand-grenade set to blow up world peace.

The narrative among the centre-right is that Trump often makes a lot of good points but he is wrong on Ukraine, wrong to treat Zelensky that way and probably wrong to have JD Vance around at all. And the narrative among the more red-blooded right is that Zelensky is an ungrateful poser, Ukraine provoked the war with Russia by flirting with NATO and Trump is a messianic peacemaker.

And as usual, given my abiding uncanny gift for upsetting everybody, I am here to declare that they are all wrong.

Firstly – and hold on to your bonnets here ladies – the person who stuffed up that all-important White House meeting wasn’t Trump or Vance. It was Zelensky.

I say this as someone who is 100 per cent on Zelensky’s side. Whatever historical or political contortions Putin might perform, Russia has absolutely no moral authority under his rule.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin does have any moral, political or legal right to invade Ukraine. Picture: Mikhail Metzel/Pool/AFP

Nor did Russia have any moral, political or legal right to invade Ukraine, something which it has done in the most brutal and bloodthirsty fashion – as wars in eastern Europe always seem to be.

Trump was flat-out wrong to suggest that Ukraine had started the war and is flat-out wrong in believing anything Putin says to him or the world. But all of that, believe it or not, is beside the point.

The only relevant fact is that it is Trump’s America alone that has the power to stop the war and Trump’s America alone that has the power to protect Ukraine from what worse there may be to come.

Whether this is fair or right or desirable is likewise beside the point. Trump talks constantly about who has the cards in this astronomically high stakes game and the fact of the matter is that, in the gambling room of the White House, Zelensky held a poor hand.

Not no cards, as Trump infamously told him, but low cards. And the first rule of any card game is you have to play the cards you’re dealt.

Thus Zelensky’s emergency dash to Washington was made against the backdrop of Trump already opening up talks with Russia about ending the war, talks from which Ukraine was conspicuously excluded.

Vice President JD Vance poked the beast. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Opening the door to Russia was a classic Trumpian power play in retaliation for Ukraine not rolling over and signing away half its mineral rights to the US – which in itself puts to shame the ridiculous notion that Trump has been saved by God to end all wars.

Trump was not on a quest for peace, he was on a quest for money. And the meeting in Washington was solely for that purpose – to sign the very same minerals deal that Ukraine had previously been resisting.

Of course, the elephant in the room was the war with Russia but the important thing about elephants in enclosed spaces is that they have to stay very still or all hell breaks loose.

Instead, Vance poked the beast and Vlod let it off the leash.

There is no doubt the Vice President was being provocative. And there is also no doubt that Zelensky’s very presence in the Oval Office as an honoured guest was intended to humble him.

Indeed, Washington’s whole cityscape was designed to project the power of Imperial Rome and make foreign dignitaries cower in awe.

That was all Zelensky needed to do. As excruciating as it must have been for a leader who has weathered so much and defied so many odds, all he needed to do was smile and nod and say thank you.

Instead, he took the bait and argued with Trump and Vance in front of all the world’s media. And we all know what happened next.

Zelensky was booted from the White House with the deal unsigned and the lunch uneaten.

And now, after a brief few days of defiance amid hugs from other world leaders, Zelensky has declared he will do whatever it takes to make things right with Trump.

The US President most certainly isn’t the messiah but Zelensky nonetheless made him a prophet. He has gone from low cards to no cards.

But if he plays it smart this time he might yet come up trumps.

Get The Real Story with Joe Hildebrand wherever you get your podcasts

Originally published as Joe Hildebrand: One thing Trump was right about – Zelensky held a poor hand