“Nothing is so necessary for a young man as the company of intelligent women.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Margaret Brennan has a knack for reducing world-historical moments to the hysteria of a middle school recess spat.
On yesterday’s Face the Nation, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the primary guest, Brennan trotted out her latest metaphor: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, she suggested, was dragging along European leaders to Washington so he wouldn’t get “bullied” into a bad peace deal by Donald Trump.
Rubio wasn’t having it. “This is such a stupid media narrative,” he said plainly.
Here’s the exchange, condensed:
MARGARET BRENNAN: … You know there is concern from the Europeans that President Zelenskyy is going to be bullied into signing something away. That's why you have these European leaders coming as backup tomorrow. Can you reassure them?
SECRETARY RUBIO: … That’s not true. They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelenskyy from being bullied. They’re coming because we’ve been working with the Europeans … We talked to them last week. There were meetings in the U.K. the previous weekend … This is such a stupid media narrative that they’re coming because Trump is going to bully Zelenskyy into a bad deal. We’ve been working with these people for weeks. They’re coming because they chose to come. We invited them. The president invited them.
The senator-turned-secretary sounded less like he was sparring with a journalist than like a parent finally telling a teenager to grow up and do her homework.
And the shoe fits. It is a stupid media narrative.
Think about the stakes: Ukraine is on the precipice—thousands dead, millions displaced, infrastructure in ruins. Zelenskyy faces a decision as grave as any in his nation’s short history: accept a settlement with real security guarantees or keep grinding away at a war that is not exactly trending in Kyiv’s favor.
And Brennan’s big insight? That Zelenskyy is bringing “wingmen” so Trump can’t call him Screech, rough him up with a noogie, dunk him in a toilet swirlie until his fatigues are streaked, and then leave him to drip-dry in a locker.
At this point, Face the Nation feels less like a serious public-affairs program and more like Saved by the Bell: The Sunday Show Years.
Brennan even leaned on atmospherics: “that February Oval Office meeting” where Zelenskyy was “dressed down,” or the “red carpet” rolled out for Putin in Alaska.
Margaret, did you see the flyover—or were you too fixated on the carpet color?
And were you mad that Putin rode in the presidential limo, too? What exactly did you expect—that Putin would be forced to sputter away in a Soviet-era Lada Riva, or bum-rushed into a white van on the tarmac with Adam Schiff and Liz Cheney?
If this is the measure of foreign policy analysis, we’re not analyzing geopolitics anymore; we’re straining at gnats.
This wasn’t Brennan’s first stumble.
In January, it was Vice President J.D. Vance who dropped the hammer with the now-viral line: “I don’t really care, Margaret.”
In February, Brennan managed a trifecta of ignorance, mangling a discussion of free speech by claiming Nazi Germany “weaponized” it — when in fact the Nazis abolished it with bullets. In doing so, she displayed profound historical ignorance, constitutional illiteracy, and reduced the depravity of Nazism to a false equivalence. Rubio corrected her firmly, but with diplomatic aplomb.
By March, it was Rubio again turning the tables — this time flatly telling Brennan, “You should watch the news.”
Now in August, Brennan is back for more. Once again, she’s not dazzling with her foreign policy brilliance. She’s baffling—and you know the rest of the quote.
It would be one thing if Brennan’s analysis were just silly. But it’s worse than that. By framing the summit as a “bullying” exercise, she and others in the media are pre-loading the outcome to satisfy the Blue Sky echo chamber.
If Zelenskyy agrees to a deal? Then the press can scream Trump brow-beat him into “selling out.” If he resists? Then he’s a hero standing tall against a bully. Either way, the narrative machine wins (or so they think)—and any possibility of an honest, hard-won peace gets discredited before the ink is dry.
The “stupid media narrative” shows how desperate certain corners of the press are to undermine a possible deal—not on its merits, not on the stakes for Ukraine, not even on what Ukrainians themselves want, but simply because the man at the head of the table is Donald Trump.
Because to them, the real enemy isn’t war, or even Putin—it’s Trump being seen as capable of ending a war that exploded during the last two Democrat administrations.
School’s out, Margaret. Rubio just expelled your stupid media narrative. Your company isn’t really necessary.
You’re not saved by the bell this time—class is dismissed.
Charlton Allen is an attorney and former chief executive officer and chief judicial officer of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. He is founder of the Madison Center for Law & Liberty, Inc., editor of The American Salient, and host of the Modern Federalist podcast. For media inquiries or speaking engagements, please click here. X: @CharltonAllenNC
