CNN's Brianna Keilar commented on the chummy interactions between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president met Monday afternoon with Trump in the Oval Office, and Keilar noted that the pair seemed to get along better than their previous White House meeting in February.
"That was a very interesting Oval Office meeting that we saw there," Keilar said. "A little bit of the weave, a little bit of meandering on some topics that the president likes to go off topic on, but largely he was trying to stay pretty disciplined on the questions that he was being asked there, whether it was about, he kept going back to we need to end the war. But he was actually asked at one point, who has the better cards, and even then he said, 'I don't want to say that,' and we'll remember that last time during his meeting with Zelensky, he kept saying, 'You don't have the cards.' That was teed up for him, and he did not take a whack at that piñata."
CNN's Boris Sanchez also pointed out that Trump did not take the bait about calling Zelensky a dictator, as he did on social media after their last White House meeting.
"Notably, it was soon after that meeting where he actually called Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator on social media, and this time he agreed with Zelensky that having elections in Ukraine in the middle of a war would be untenable," Sanchez said. "The president was asked about the extent of U.S. support in the form of security guarantees, or even U.S. troops on the ground. President Trump saying that we're going to work with Ukraine and work with everybody. We're going to make sure this is a lasting peace, he said. As you well know, Vladimir Putin is not one to keep agreements historically when it comes to Ukraine, so President Trump saying here, though unspecific, that he is trying to ensure peace for the region."
"Very different from what we saw earlier this year between President Trump and President Zelensky, and also between Zelenskyy and JD Vance, the vice president," Sanchez added. "You noted to me that as the cameras started rolling in the room, there appeared to be an exchange of chuckles between the vice president and Zelensky."
During the last meeting, Vance launched into a furious attack on Zelensky, claiming he'd never thanked the American people for their support.
"They were laughing ahead of time," Keilar agreed.
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