Friday, just before midday in the Oval Office. President Trump and President Zelensky sit on high-backed damask chairs angled cosily for a routine exchange of pleasantries.
The Ukrainian leader looks nervous and mirrors his host’s pose, leaning slightly forward, hands on lap and interlaced.
But while the proceedings begin cordially – with Trump declaring it an ‘honour’ to welcome his special guest – by their end we will witness shouted insults, threats, aspersions cast and diplomats reduced to near tears. Both men gesticulated so wildly at times that their arms crossed like flashing swords.
The extraordinary spectacle shocked the world. But was the attack on Zelensky orchestrated, a ‘planned political mugging’, as one diplomatic observer put it?
Certainly, Zelensky was warned beforehand to be on his guard.
And there were some tell-tale clues that not all was as it seemed. Perhaps the biggest was Trump’s sly wink to American reporter Brian Glenn who riled Zelensky – wearing military-style clothing – by asking: ‘Why don’t you wear a suit… Do you own a suit?’
Glenn, incidentally, just happens to be the boyfriend of far-Right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who tweeted afterwards about how proud she was of him.
It didn’t augur well when, earlier, an SUV disgorged Zelensky outside the White House and Trump greeted him sarcastically: ‘Oh, you’re all dressed up.’
But while Glenn was hectoring, bordering on nasty even, this was surely just standard Trump banter. In any case there was serious business to discuss, and the signing of a new agreement on rare-earth minerals.
Once inside, Trump turned on the charm and introduced his guest to Vice-President JD Vance and numerous officials.
In the West Wing, meanwhile, chefs were busy laying out plates of rosemary chicken, celery root puree and collard greens – a lunch, as it turned out, Zelensky would never get to sample.
Taking their seats in the Oval Office, it was time for Trump and Zelensky to face the cameras.
At first Trump flattered his guest, praising his brave soldiers, ‘your generals and yourself in the sense that it’s been very hard fighting. You should be very proud.’ Zelensky: ‘I am proud.’
Naturally, Trump couldn’t help but turn the spotlight on himself, declaring after two minutes that the Russian invasion would never have happened if he’d been president at the time. Now, though, he just wants to ‘stop the shooting’.
After three minutes and 12 seconds of Trump, his guest was finally given the opportunity to say his piece.
Putin is a terrorist and killer, he said, and glanced at the most powerful man in Western world adding: ‘I hope together we can stop him… and save our country.’
And there were some tell-tale clues that not all was as it seemed. Perhaps the biggest was Trump’s sly wink to American reporter Brian Glenn who riled Zelensky – wearing military-style clothing – by asking: ‘Why don’t you wear a suit… Do you own a suit?’
