Vance Is Not Our Vice President
He is Trump’s attack dog — his job is to protect Trump from the truth
What a fiasco yesterday’s Oval Office visit with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was. I’ve heard countless talking heads bemoan the embarrassment, but they all seem to miss the point: this wasn’t a planned attack or a strategic maneuver.
Watch the tape again — the whole tape — not just the part where Trump and Vance attack. Their attack was a visceral response to the words Zelenskyy was trying to say—words that would have exposed the lies Trump has been repeating for years, ever since Ukraine was attacked in 2022.
Zelenskyy reminded the ignoramus masquerading as the American president that Putin has made deals before and has broken them. What’s more, Zelenskyy demonstrated for the entire world the negotiation skills Trump lacks, including the understanding that when a person proves himself to be untrustworthy, it is madness to trust them.
But more importantly, Zelenskyy was in the process of pointing out something that directly contradicts the lies Trump has been telling about Putin and his power over Putin since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — that is that if Trump were president, Ukraine would never have been invaded because Putin listens to Trump.
The exact point at which Vance’s vicious attack on Zelenskyy began was when Zelenskyy was trying to say that Putin was killing people in Crimea during the entire first term of Trump’s presidency. This completely contradicts all of Trump’s rants about how peaceful his presidency was. And J. D. Vance knows, just like all Trump’s close associates know, that when Trump is confronted with a reality that contradicts his fantasy of himself as a strong man, he loses his shit. Vance’s job is to make sure that doesn’t happen — so if that means attacking the president of Ukraine on live TV and creating such a scene that the words being said are entirely lost, so be it. And that is exactly what Vance did.
Nobody is talking about what Zelenksyy was trying to say or how it contradicts Trump’s fabricated version of reality — it’s the show we all care about — at least here in America, where Trump and Vance consistently pander to an audience of the uninformed.
As long as Trump has us fooled, he feels safe. However, the problem for Trump and Vance is that the rest of the world saw it, too.
Trump’s house of cards just came tumbling down
My favorite part in the discussion, if you can call it that, was when Trump told Zelenskyy he “didn’t have the cards” to be making demands. And Zelenskyy responded, “We’re not playing cards.” I loved that.
Zelenskyy isn’t playing cards, but Trump is. That’s all Trump knows how to do. He’s a gamer, not a serious negotiator. He wants to play a game that has been rigged in his favor and pretend he won due to his innate wonderfulness. Vance is there to protect that fantasy because, without it, Trump will crumble.
The rest of the world may continue to grapple with pointless issues like whether this was a set-up to discredit Zelenskyy or a spontaneous shit show, but they are missing the point. Vance did the only thing he was hired to do: protect Trump from reality at any cost.
Vance had to stop Zelenskyy from showing the world how a real negotiation works and to prevent Zelenskyy from speaking the truth — something Trump’s fragile sense of self would have been unable to handle.
Without Vance, Trump would have lashed out weakly with his usual word salad and made a complete fool of himself on live TV in front of a global audience. Or, he would have sat there like a lump, looking downtrodden and confused. The great negotiator would have been exposed for the fraud that he is.
Trump is not capable of articulating an argument that would have made Zelenskyy look bad — he doesn’t have the skills. However, with Vance attacking first, Trump got what he needed.
Trump is like an actor who forgets his lines and doesn’t know how to improvise. Vance had to save him. It’s that simple. Vance moved on Zelenskyy the second he saw Trump was in danger. This is why Trump needs Vance: Vance thinks on his feet, and he’s quick to attack. There is nothing more to it than that.
Americans are rightfully horrified by Trump and Vance’s lack of decorum and unprecedented rudeness. But this is much more serious than a presser gone bad. We need to ask ourselves why two grown men who are tasked with running our country are incapable of an honest and serious conversation. We should be asking why their only response to such an attempt is to discredit and humiliate those who try to negotiate in good faith.
Negotiation is the essence of diplomacy, and it is a key requirement of governance. How ironic that Trump is known as a great dealmaker when he’s unable to maintain the pretense of one even when his presidency depends on it.
With yesterday’s display of testosterone and stupidity, our leaders did not humiliate Zelenskyy; they humiliated themselves. They may have prevented Zelenskyy from making his point, but they did so at great cost to themselves and their standing in the world.
Their embarrassing display did not demonstrate strength; it merely proved their inadequacy to the world — and given the power they wield, that should scare everybody.