President Cyril Ramaphosa obviously meant well when he responded to the cancellation of USAid funding for HIV treatment in South Africa by saying he would like to discuss it with US President Donald Trump. McBuffalo is one of those who believe a “transactional” Trump is always open to a deal, if there’s something in it for him.
Well, that is what Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky thought when he arrived at the Oval Office on Friday morning. Give the US access to mineral resources on the cheap, and Trump will continue to help him fight the Russian invasion.
Zelensky was quickly disabused of this notion when he found a Trump who is firmly in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s corner and who publicly scolded the Ukrainian leader as if he was a naughty schoolboy who had failed to say “thank you” enough times.
Now imagine if it was McBuffalo in the chair recently vacated by Zelensky, with Trump and JD reading from the AfriForum playbook ... Let’s just regard the Oval Office as off-limits for our prez.
Thanks for leaving me in the lurch
It was always going to be awkward between Trump and Zelensky, what with Trump having already branded him a “moderately successful comedian” on social media. But things really went south when the Orange One’s vice-president, JD Vance, joined the conversation:
Vance: Have you said “thank you” once?
Zelensky: A lot of times.
Vance: No, in this meeting, this entire meeting? Offer some words of appreciation for the USA and the president who’s trying to save your country.
Zelensky: Yes, you think that if you will speak very loudly about the war …
Trump: He’s not speaking loud. Your country is in big trouble.
And when Zelensky tried to respond, Trump just spoke over him.
“No, no, you’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble.”
Vince’s real beef, though, was less about Zelensky’s failure to grovel at the MAGA altar and more about the Ukrainian leader’s alleged show of support for the Democrats during a visit to Pennsylvania in September last year.
Fresh line-up for WW3
As the drama played out live on screens across the world, no-one was laughing more uproariously than the guy in the Kremlin equivalent of the Oval Office. Putin’s close ally, former president Dmitry Medvedev, went on social media to celebrate: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office.”
Whoever thought that a US president would ever find their most enthusiastic cheerleader in Moscow?
At least he combed his hair
Back at the Oval Office, one reporter decided the real issue was Zelensky’s outfit. Since the war with Russia started, Zelensky hasn’t been seen in public in a suit and tie. He is often in jeans and T-shirts. But Brian Glenn, representing the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, was so offended that he accused the Ukranian leader of failing to respect the office of the US president.
Strangely, Glenn seems to thought it was OK when Elon Musk rocked up at the Oval Office in a T-shirt and baseball cap, with one of his brats in tow.
Lights, camera, action
Trump, former star of The Apprentice series on NBC, ended the meeting by gloating to the gathered journalists that the confrontation had been excellent TV.
Indeed, the formula was always likely to be a hit — a reality-TV-celeb-turned-president gets locked in a room with a comedian-turned-president to make a do-or-die deal.
All that was lacking was the cage-fight enclosure.
Make it a one-way ticket, Kallie
While Zelensky was smarting from his reception at the White House, the boertijies from AfriForum were all smiles. The group’s leaders jetted off to Washington after the Trump administration invited them and their ilk to apply for refugee status to escape imaginary genocide and land grabs.
Apparently they wanted to explain that US pressure on the ANC was wonderful, but, um, please don’t kick South Africa out of the African Growth & Opportunity Act. Because that would hurt, you know, us.
Hogarth hopes they remembered to say “please” and “thank you”. And ironed their safari suits neatly.
Cancelling tea party gossip at Nkandla
Confirmation finally of the rumours that the regular leadership changes Jacob Zuma makes in the MK Party are based on “intelligence reports” delivered by members who travel to Nkandla to see him.
This week the party announced that it had amended its constitution to block members from visiting the Nkandla Crooner at his state-funded estate.
Party secretary-general Floyd Shivambu said: “People might say, ‘We are just visiting the president; we just want to say thank you to the president and introduce ourselves.’
“However, when they are there, they talk about the internal dynamics of MK politics, and the leadership, or someone they are complaining about, is not present.”
Doesn’t this give daughter Duduzile, a resident of Nkandla, an unfair advantage over other party members?
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