The day after his inauguration, President Donald Trump showed Vice President JD Vance around the Oval Office, where he had never been. A brief video of the scene was released on January 21 by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. "Wow!" gasped the visitor from the threshold, "Pretty crazy." He laughed nervously. "This is incredible," he added, gazing around in awe. Since then, Vance hasn't yielded much to contemplation. The explosive meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the same location on February 28 showed the world the original yet predominant role played by the vice president in this administration.

It was he who turned this televised sequence into an electric confrontation. He led the charge against the Ukrainian leader, accusing him of ingratitude, even though Zelensky had already repeatedly thanked the United States for its aid to his country since the start of the war three years ago. Vance denounced what he called the "propaganda tours" organized in Kyiv for foreign dignitaries, even as he himself has never visited Ukraine since the invasion of Russia. And finally, he criticized Zelensky for haggling "in front of the American media," as if Zelensky had initiated this umpteenth impromptu press conference at the White House.

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