Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky couldn’t resist roasting Real America’s Voice reporter Brian Glenn at the White House on Monday, calling him out for showing up in the exact same suit he wore the last time he tried to scold Zelensky for not dressing formally enough in front of Donald Trump.
Monday’s Oval Office exchange came ahead of high-stakes White House talks where Trump and Zelensky, joined by European leaders who were snubbed from Trump’s earlier summit, tried to sketch a path toward ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump, fresh off a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, put the pressure on Zelensky to accept concessions he claims could bring peace. Both leaders publicly expressed hope that the talks might open the door to a trilateral sit-down with Putin, though European officials remain wary and focused on shielding the continent from further Russian aggression.
Glenn complimented Zelensky for looking “fabulous” in a blazer instead of his usual military gear.
Months earlier, the Trump-friendly reporter had tried to shame him inside the Oval Office, sneering: “You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit.”
Trump reminded Zelensky that Glenn was the one who “attacked” him before. Glenn quickly backpedaled, offering an apology.
That’s when Zelensky delivered the punchline: the reporter was recycling his outfit. “The same suit,” Zelensky quipped, before adding with a smirk, “I changed.” Laughter followed.
Meanwhile, Glenn’s girlfriend, MAGA firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, rushed online to defend his fashion policing, bizarrely taking credit for Zelensky’s jacket choice.
“If Brian had never asked Zelensky the question, ‘why don’t you wear a suit, do you own a suit?’ I’m not sure he would have ever worn one to visit our great and respected President!!” Greene posted on X.
Greene’s defense of her romantic partner drew over 500 comments by Monday afternoon. Supporters saw it as a diplomatic win, while critics viewed her response as a trivial distraction from serious political issues, with some injecting humor or personal attacks.
“Get a room, preferably not on X,” one person replied to Greene. “I want to thank Marge for continuing to focus on whether the leader of a nation being invaded by our shared enemy and the victim of war crimes, wears a suit, and not on the horrors being committed by Putin,” another critic wrote.
Trump’s three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug. 15 ended with no major breakthroughs — but the optics of Trump’s apparent submission to the Kremlin quickly dominated the fallout on late-night TV.
“Trump flew to Alaska to talk to Putin about Ukraine for less than three hours, after which they held a press conference that went so badly, even this Fox News reporter couldn’t put a positive spin on it,” British satirist John Oliver said Sunday on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight.”
The reporter he quoted didn’t sugarcoat the scene.
“The way that it felt in the room was not good,” she told viewers live on air. “It did not seem like things went well, and it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say, and got his photo next to the president, and then left.”
Oliver added his own punchline: “Yeah, not great, and while the White House later released this black-and-white photo of Trump, looking tough while talking to Putin, it does seem like the vibe was more accurately summed up by this AP photo, and Putin looking confident, and Trump looking like that room temperature shrimp is coming back up.”
Apparently, shrimp had been on the menu at the summit.
The White House tried to spin Trump’s shaky performance by posting a black-and-white photo of him squinting and pointing at Putin’s tie pin, framing it as proof he was being tough. But the Associated Press image that spread widely online told another story: Putin, smirking through a handshake, while Trump slouched forward, suit sagging, his expression weary.
The contrast between the two men quickly became a symbol of the meeting — one leader appearing in command, the other diminished.
Putin arrived in Anchorage on Friday to a red carpet, a jet flyover, and even a 10-minute ride in the armored presidential limousine known as The Beast. He had gone into the meeting after praising Trump on Russian state media for “making, in my opinion, quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the hostilities, stop the crisis and reach agreements that are of interest to all parties involved in this conflict,” according to Reuters.
Trump, however, emerged without the “very severe consequences” he had threatened if Putin failed to advance a peace deal. No new sanctions, no ceasefire, and no timeline were announced.
Instead, Putin had agreed in principle to “security guarantees for Ukraine” and “land swaps,” U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff told CNN. Yet the Kremlin has not confirmed these concessions, and continues to demand Ukraine cede four regions — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson — which it annexed in 2023.
Within days of the summit, Trump appeared to adopt Moscow’s position. In a Truth Social post, he argued that Kyiv should surrender Crimea, annexed in 2014, and abandon its NATO aspirations.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!” Trump wrote Sunday evening.
That message was amplified in Moscow. Key Putin aide Kirill Dmitriev reposted Trump’s comments on X, hailing the U.S. president’s “real solution.”
The timing is fraught for Zelenskyy, who arrived in Washington Monday for talks with Trump, joined by European leaders Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Keir Starmer, and Ursula von der Leyen.
“He’s been told in no uncertain terms by Trump… that he is going to have to accept that the territory that’s been lost is mostly lost for the long term,” said Robert English, Director of Central European Studies at the University of Southern California. “Any illusions of getting back Crimea and much of the Donbas are over.”
The European delegation hopes to stiffen Trump’s spine and prevent Ukraine from being forced into a lopsided deal. Analysts warn the stakes are not just territorial but existential: a weakened NATO and a stronger Russia.
For Putin, the summit delivered what he wanted most: the image of equality with an American president, a red-carpet welcome on U.S. soil, and a smiling photo-op in the presidential limo.
For a man obsessed with his own self-image, Trump came out of the summit looking a lot worse in the eyes of his critics.
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