this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
610 points (99.2% liked)

World News

41572 readers
4124 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The American side deliberately orchestrated the confrontation during President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the White House, Friedrich Merz, the head of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the likely chancellor, said on March 3.

"It was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelensky, but obviously a manufactured escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office," Merz said at a press conference in Hamburg.

The visit was expected to mark the signing of a long-debated agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. on jointly developing Ukraine's mineral resources.

MBFC

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 30 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

of course they did. did anyone think it was going to go any other way?

Zelensky did great by standing up to them and not reacting to them. the rest of the world saw how weak the current admin is.

how low do we have to go before everyone wakes up and sees this orange shitstain for what he is?

[–] lepinkainen@lemmy.world 4 points 19 minutes ago

The dude literally invited Russian state media and said “this will be great TV”.

I’m not a conspiracy theorist but…

[–] Zombiepirate@lemmy.world 12 points 4 hours ago

Zelenski has the patience of a demigod for not slapping the shit out of Vance.

He handled the no-win situation as best as he could; I hope it raises Europe's will to back Ukraine since it was obvious how he was ambushed by a supposed ally.

[–] NotLemming@lemm.ee 9 points 4 hours ago

Its weird now, because there used to be political theatre carried out by world leaders for the benefit of the pleb voters (us). Now it really feels like the world leaders are performing this theatre for trump. Like he's a toddler and out of the loop, so the adults are doing their thing without him.

[–] cultsuperstar@lemmy.world 48 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (2 children)

This was absolutely an ambush. Trump and Vance had a script and reactions ready to go, thinking they were going to get under Zelensky's skin, justifying Vance's angry reaction. But Zelensky stayed calm and reserved and Vance still has his angry outburst. Trump and Vance embarrassed the country, looking like toddlers screaming when they don't get their way.

And every Republican who backs this is vile scum, but that's to be expected from the GOP. Trump and Vance taking America to new lows every day and the GOP just doubling down on it.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 12 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Lets be honest here, Trump and Vance didn't orchestrate anything.

Putin did.

He wanted the weapons stopped, and he gave them a script.

Now the weapons have stopped as of a couple hours ago.

[–] you_are_it@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 22 minutes ago)

Just finally watched it, he actually deflected most of their accusations on the spot 💪 These guys are making deals, lying on their part and not giving a flying fuck on the very probable future events. All Trump got was that he is special, and that is why the truce will hold this time 🫨

Edit. I don't know what to make of this, they and everybody sure need peace, it is also bold to not see that card...

[–] Daisyday@lemmy.ca 10 points 5 hours ago

It looked like an episode of the Apprentice and a bad one at that

[–] NotLemming@lemm.ee 4 points 4 hours ago

I say that too. Pure theatre for Putin and for trump's crappy ratings. It's exactly what Putin does to boost his ratings - start a war.

[–] SomeChick@lemmy.ca 29 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

You could tell. Vance is an awful actor ..

[–] AoxoMoxoA@lemmy.world 6 points 7 hours ago

👶 I'm going to be a bad ass today ! My pee pee feels funny just thinking about it. I'm so excited

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 15 points 7 hours ago

Yeah I think that was pretty obvious. I mean they were clearly looking for an excuse to attack him. They chose the most inane metaphor they could have to take offense at. Just waiting for their opportunity.

[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 47 points 9 hours ago

It was obviously performative when Trump said, "you don't get to tell us what we're going to feel" when Zelensky said that the US will feel the effect of the war.

It's was after JD already escalated and Trump had to grab something to be a critical about, and that was the arbitrary point he decided to cling onto. He had to because JD upped the ante and Trump HAD to do something to keep up

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 178 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

It was blatantly obvious that it was planned, and good to see people calling it out.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 15 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

JD did a pretty poor job with his acting debut.

[–] danafest@lemm.ee 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

You must have missed the donut shop "pop in"

[–] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago
[–] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 41 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

It was my very first thought too. Well, second after what a complete twat JD Vance was. But it just seemed so oddly paced. Like I've never seen a conversation go like that it was so strange. It felt really contrived. Course it could be chalked up to insane immaturity too so idk.

I mean Trump's answer to what if Russia breaks the ceasefire was

What if the bomb drops on your head right now? OK, what if they broke it? I don’t know, they broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn’t respect him. They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me."

So essentially his answer to what happens if they break the ceasefire was... they won't break it? But no, zelensky is the world's biggest asshole for wanting to know about securities.

[–] abcd@feddit.org 11 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

After already being the worlds biggest asshole for not wearing a suit, he may as well ask for securities. For the millionth time. Although that’s only 2% of the deal and he doesn’t have the cards. But he has raw earth. I think I’ve said enough, except thank you.

/s

Watching zelensky die inside while contributing to this shitshow was hard. I can’t imagine how bad that poor guy must have felt. And I’m sure he’s already seen a lot of bad things.

[–] cyd@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago

It was like an episode of Veep except more obnoxious.

[–] Moose@moose.best 13 points 7 hours ago

The pain in his expression was the most relatable thing I've seen from a world leader possibly ever.

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 26 points 10 hours ago

Vance going on about how the goal is a ceasefire to end the war, Zelensky relying that ceasefires haven't been followed by Russia, and the Trump.and Vance going off on 'disrepect' was just wild. Like reality tv scripted argument level wild. Saturday Night Live parodied the meeting and the parody was toned down compared to the actual meeting!

[–] eran_morad@lemmy.world 55 points 11 hours ago

Orchestrated or not, it was a fucking cowardly spectacle.

[–] Nay@feddit.nl 105 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

I thought it made Zelenskyy look good.

He was pleading for his people's protection, while calling the US out on it's bullshit.

Trump and co just looked like a bunch of dick heads.

[–] samTheSwiss@lemm.ee 26 points 8 hours ago

It definitely increased the respect for Zelenskyy across the world.

[–] samus12345@lemm.ee 39 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Trump is a weak person's view of a strong person. It only looked good to those weak people.

[–] Gsus4@mander.xyz 7 points 6 hours ago

Daddy issues on a society-wide scale, ffs.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 144 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

I’m not the biggest fan of Merz by any means, but credit where it’s due - it’s fantastic that he specifically and unambiguously called this out on the geopolitical stage.

[–] torrentialgrain@lemm.ee 47 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

His stance on Ukraine and the European Union is the silver lining for me with the CDU win tbh. Things might actually improve on these topics over Olaf Scholz.

[–] YesButActuallyMaybe@lemmy.ca 2 points 5 hours ago

CumEx Olaf can go suck dicks behind Aldi. Stupid fucker

Right? I have been consistently underwhelmed at how… well, flaccid Scholz has been on the European leadership front. Dude comes off like he wants everything signed in triplicate before he’s willing to consider appointing a discussion board to evaluate possibility of thinking about making a decision.

[–] Pringles@lemm.ee 16 points 11 hours ago

Especially because he has always been a staunch atlanticist with a ton of connections in the US. That and the fact this comes from Germany, the most pro-US country, barring the UK, in Europe, gives his words extra gravitas.

[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 3 points 11 hours ago

Yeah Merz seems reasonable geopolitically speaking, and seems willing to make the hard choices. I'm not terribly sad about Scholz losing to him, especially as another GroKo is most likely to happen.

[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 19 points 12 hours ago

Trump and Vance aren't actors, it shows.

load more comments
view more: next ›