I think, or at least hope, that the downvotes come from people who don’t understand what it means to “play the game”. Politicians don’t act the way we’d all like (i.e. telling Trump to go fuck himself) because it’s not playing the game. Zelensky didn’t go to that extreme, but didn’t back down and capitulate either. I hope that when you say he’s a terrible politician, you mean that positively to some degree; he didn’t fully “play the game” with regards to Trump.
That being said, there’s no winning here. There wasn’t gonna be a negotiation there anyway, he was gonna get screwed no matter what.
Yes, zelensky was 100% correct and did the “right” thing, but he has an entire country to think about. Someone should gift him some Machiavelli books.
I don’t see evidence that this was inevitable. I see that zelensky flew to the US specifically for this meeting then was argumentative throughout the 40 minute press event and I don’t think he needed to be. Other leaders meeting with Trump lately have managed to manipulate him better with much less motivation and stakes to do so. I don’t think he gained much more than clout, and lost a seat at a negotiating table to sell mineral rights for something.
I think, or at least hope, that the downvotes come from people who don’t understand what it means to “play the game”. Politicians don’t act the way we’d all like (i.e. telling Trump to go fuck himself) because it’s not playing the game. Zelensky didn’t go to that extreme, but didn’t back down and capitulate either. I hope that when you say he’s a terrible politician, you mean that positively to some degree; he didn’t fully “play the game” with regards to Trump.
That being said, there’s no winning here. There wasn’t gonna be a negotiation there anyway, he was gonna get screwed no matter what.
Yes, zelensky was 100% correct and did the “right” thing, but he has an entire country to think about. Someone should gift him some Machiavelli books.
I don’t see evidence that this was inevitable. I see that zelensky flew to the US specifically for this meeting then was argumentative throughout the 40 minute press event and I don’t think he needed to be. Other leaders meeting with Trump lately have managed to manipulate him better with much less motivation and stakes to do so. I don’t think he gained much more than clout, and lost a seat at a negotiating table to sell mineral rights for something.