‘The most shameful meeting in American history’: Trump-Zelenskyy fiasco just made the U.S. an international joke

Gone are the times when we could chuckle at Donald Trump’s weird fascination with a particular part of Arnold Palmer’s anatomy. To be sure, Trump’s agenda — sketched in Project 2025 — was never a laughing matter. However, after the Oval Office debacle with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, America’s image as perceived by many of its longtime allies may have suffered irreparable damage.

On Monday, March 3, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart rightfully asserted that the disastrous meeting has caused a “global realignment.” Unfortunately, that’s not hyperbole. While some Trump voters are now having “buyers’ remorse,” others unfathomably still think in their hazardously uncritical, algorithm-brainwashed encephala that this was a victory for America and an internationally televised display worth celebrating.

It’s not worth giving the time of day to this TikToker’s misplaced sense of pride — netizens in the comments already did their part. The best way to respond to this Trump voter is to contrast her appalling joy at Zelenskyy being kicked out of the White House with the voices of those neither she, nor Trump or his ilk, spare a single half-baked thought about:

I’m not Ukrainian like Valya, so I won’t pretend to know the depth of the anguish that witnessing that gratuitious bullying session must’ve caused those directly affected by the Russian-instigated war. However, I am among the many who, as Valya acknowledged, feel that the only one who left the public ambush some call a “meeting” with his dignity intact was Zelenskyy.

Among the egregious attitudes Trump has taken since being inaugurated in January, it’s no stretch to argue that nothing has left a more bitter taste in the mouths of the U.S.’s allies — and in those of the majority of Americans, who have the sense to feel embarrassment after witnessing what some have dubbed “the most shameful meeting in American history.”

How to speedrun the loss of the “Leader of the Free World” title

Zelenskyy is fighting for his people and his country. Trump and Vance behaved like juvenile school bullies.

The most shameful meeting in American history. #SlavaUkraini pic.twitter.com/Z2gTM72kvV

— Andy 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@AndyRejoinEU) February 28, 2025

There’s one popular saying about the essence of trust that rings truer than ever in the aftermath of Donald Trump and JD Vance‘s deplorable behavior during their meeting with the Ukranian president: It takes time to build trust, but it may only take a second to throw it away — and in this case, decades-worth of mutual accord and respect-based alliances are laid to waste.

After the meeting, not only did European leaders — plus Canada’s Justin Trudeau — hear the POTUS signaling that the U.S. is no longer a reliable ally, and become even more encouraged to mobilize towards self-sufficiency as a coalition, but some companies (like the Norwegian energy firm Haltbakk Bunkers) have taken measures in protest.

While his blatant pandering to Vladimir Putin may have gained Trump kudos from the world’s oligarchs, a consequence his self-absorbed brain may not have grasped is that Ukraine’s allies and friends may now hold Zelenskyy, and the Ukrainian people, even closer and in higher regard.

This is what it looks like when your crime boss president is on the wrong side of history.

Zelenskyy has returned to Europe hailed as a hero that interrupted the concertina solo of a convicted criminal

🎥 TikTok – @love.paris75 pic.twitter.com/jqhte4XVAu

— 𝔗𝔯𝔲𝔱𝔥 𝔐𝔞𝔱𝔱𝔢𝔯𝔰 (@politicsusa46) March 2, 2025

I’m loving this afternoons BBC live news report..

Look how all the other leaders welcome and greet
President Zelenskyy…he was well greeted, thanks EU and Canada

Trump, this was a masterclass in what must not happen a presidential meeting so take lessons from world leaders.. pic.twitter.com/0WMvarOWJF

— Ms C = VOL (very old lady) (@oldbikerlady7) March 2, 2025

While the anti-American sentiment abroad grows thanks to Trump, U.S. citizens with good heads on their shoulders were also beyond aggravated at what they saw play out on TV on Feb. 28.

Trump’s first administration feels like a children’s puppet show in comparison to what we are currently bearing witness to. The historically earned “Leader of the Free World” label is now shred to slivers by a tyrant disguised as a protectionist champion of a populist agenda, who proclaims to be serving his country’s financial interests while shunning the fact that alliances, dignity and democratic values are worth far more than whatever “rare minerals” he’s coveting.