MONDAY: From zero to fury in a matter of moments!

MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2025

What happened in the Oval: Are we in the midst of a Weeke That Was—an historically serious moment?

Concerning that, time will tell. As to what actually happened last week in the Oval, we think a lengthy report by CNN included an admirable degree of detail.

For the record, the actual session on the Oval Office lasted almost exactly 50 minutes. We thought this part of CNN's report was basically accurate, and we found it especially striking:

Inside the 139 minutes that upended the US-Ukraine alliance

[...]

For the first 40 minutes of their talks, Trump did not evince outward bitterness toward Zelensky, instead discussing the minerals deal they were planning to sign later in the day.

Indeed, upstairs in the East Room a long wooden table had been prepared for the signing ceremony, with four chairs ready for the signatories.

It was never to be.

Ignore the time frame stated in the headline. "139 minutes" is the amount of time which elapsed from the moment Zelensky arrived at the White House to the moment he drove away.

As for the Oval Office meeting itself, that lasted almost exactly 50 minutes. You can confirm that fact on the videotape which appears at C-Span's actual site—a piece of tape which didn't seem to be working correctly when we linked elsewhere on Sunday.

At any rate, right there in its lengthy report, CNN says this:

For the first 40 minutes of their talks, Trump did not evince outward bitterness toward Zelensky.

Truer words were never spoken! In fact, we think that passage actually understates the mellow of the ongoing situation that day, along with the suddenness with which the Friday event melted down:

For the first 40 minutes of their talks, Trump didn't evince outward bitterness toward Zelensky? In fact, we'd say the actual number was higher than that, and we'd say that President Trump didn't seem to display any discomfort at all. 

Looking at the C-Span tape, we'd say that President Trump shows no discomfort of any kind until the 43-minute mark.  In fact, it's Vice President "JD" Vance who jumps in at the 40-minute mark with the first sign that someone is unhappy with the way the event is going. 

At that point, Trump says there will be one more question—and just like that, up jumps Vance! By the 41-minute mark, Vance is visibly angry. He's now scolding and lecturing the visiting president about what he perceives to be Zelensky's vast amount of disrespect.

As for President Trump, he doesn't jump in until the 43-minute mark. Only then does he seem to be angry, although he does keeps getting louder and angrier from that fatal moment on.

Repeating:

Right through the first forty-plus minutes, we see no sign that President Trump is unhappy with President Zelensky's attitude or behavior. He doesn't even seem to be bothered by all the eyerolls—by the deeply disturbing eyerolls which in fact never occurred.

The two presidents were, in fact, adopting different points of view about one significant matter. Zelensky was saying that Ukraine will need security guarantees from Europe and the United States to guard against Putin's inevitable decision to violate any ceasefire.

In real time, Trump didn't seem to want to do that. But for 43 minutes, there was no indication that he was about to blow his stack. He's emotionally normal through 43 minutes—and then, the volcano erupts.

To our eye, that's strange and oddly aberrant behavior. But then, what else is new?

Our question would be this:

What could possibly lie behind such erratic behavior? 

What lies behind such behavior? You'll never see a certain type of possibility examined within Blue America's press. Those orgs and those journalists have all agreed that a certain obvious possibility must never be discussed or explained or evaluated.

The behavior by Trump struck us as erratic. Why does this happen with such regularity?

Within the press, the watchword is clear:

Whatever you do, don't ask!