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Transcript of Oval Office meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky, JD Vance, and Donald Trump – February 28, 2025

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Source: CSPAN

Transcript was generated using OpenAI Whisper and then cleaned up using ChatGPT o1 pro. All errors are mine.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Do you, and now I’m talking with my friends in Poland, and they are worried that you align yourself too much with Putin.
What’s your message for them?

Donald Trump
Well, if I didn’t align myself with both of them, you’d never have a deal.
You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, “Hi Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal?”
That doesn’t work that way.
I’m not aligned with Putin, and I’m not aligned with anybody.
I’m aligned with the United States of America and for the good of the world.
I’m aligned with the world, and I want to get this thing over with.
You see the hatred he’s got for Putin.
It’s very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of thing.
He’s got tremendous hatred, and I understand that, but I can tell you the other side isn’t exactly in love with him either.
So it’s not a question of alignment.
I’m aligned with the world.
I want to get the things that—I’m aligned with Europe.
I want to see if we can get this thing done.
You want me to be tough? I could be tougher than any human being you’ve ever seen.
I’d be so tough, but you’re never going to get a deal that way.
So that’s the way it goes. One more question.

JD Vance
I want to respond to this.
For four years in the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country.
The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy.
We tried the pathway of Joe Biden of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president’s actions.
What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy.
That’s what President Trump is doing.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Can I ask you?

JD Vance
Sure.
Yeah?
Yeah.

Volodymyr Zelensky
He occupied our parts, big parts of Ukraine—parts of the east and Crimea—in 2014.
For a lot of years, I’m not speaking just about Biden, but during that time it was President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, and now President Trump again.
God bless, now President Trump will stop him.
But during 2014, nobody stopped him.
He just occupied and took.
He killed people.
You know what the contact line is? 2014, 2015.
During 2014 till 2022, people have been dying on the contact line, and nobody stopped him.
We had a lot of conversations with him—my bilateral conversations—and when I was a new president in 2019, I signed with him, Macron, and Merkel a ceasefire.
All of them told me that he would never go.
We also signed a gas contract.
Yes, but after that, he broke the ceasefire.
He killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners.
We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn’t do it.
What kind of diplomacy are you speaking about?
What do you mean?

JD Vance
I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.
Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.
Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems.
You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Have you ever been to Ukraine?
Do you see what problems we have? Then come once.

JD Vance
I have actually watched and seen the stories, and I know what happens is you bring people on a propaganda tour, Mr. President.
Do you disagree that you’ve had problems bringing people into your military?
And do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?

Volodymyr Zelensky
A lot of questions. Let’s start from the beginning.
First of all, during the war, everybody has problems.
Even you, but you have a nice ocean and don’t feel it now, but you will feel it in the future.
You don’t know that. You don’t know that.
You’re trying to solve a problem—don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.

JD Vance
I’m not telling you, but you’re in no position to dictate that.
You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.

Volodymyr Zelensky
That’s exactly what you are.

Donald Trump
We’re going to feel very good and very strong.

Volodymyr Zelensky
You will feel influenced.

Donald Trump
You’re right now not in a very good position.
You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position from the very beginning of the war.
You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you don’t have the cards.
You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people.
You’re gambling with World War III.
You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country.
This country has backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.
Have you said thank you once in this entire meeting?

JD Vance
You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October.
Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.
Please.

Volodymyr Zelensky
You think that if you speak very loudly about the war…
My country is in big trouble, but we are staying strong from the beginning of the war.
We’ve been alone, and we are thankful.
I said thanks in this cabinet.

Donald Trump
You haven’t been alone.
We gave you, through your stupid president, 350 billion dollars.
We gave you military equipment, and your men are brave, but they had to use our military equipment.
If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks—maybe three days, maybe less.
It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.
Just say thank you.

Volodymyr Zelensky
I said it at all times, except that there are disagreements.

JD Vance
Except that there are disagreements, and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong.
We know that you’re wrong.

Donald Trump
But you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on.
I think it’s very important.
That’s why I kept this going so long.
You have to be thankful.
You don’t have the cards.
You’re buried there. You have people who died.
You’re running low on soldiers. You’re running low on soldiers.
Then you tell us, “I don’t want a ceasefire.”
Look, if you could get a ceasefire right now, I’d tell you to take it so the bullets would stop flying and your men would stop getting killed.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Of course, we want to stop the war.
But I said to you, I want a ceasefire with guarantees, because you’ll get a ceasefire faster than an agreement.
Ask our people about a ceasefire—what they think.
It doesn’t matter to you what they think.

Donald Trump
That wasn’t with me. It wasn’t with you.
That was with a guy named Biden who was not a smart person.
That was with Obama, who gave you sheets, while I gave you Javelins.
I gave you Javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets.
“Obama gave sheets, and Trump gave Javelins.”
You’ve got to be more thankful, because let me tell you, you don’t have the cards.
With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards.

Volodymyr Zelensky
One more question to the Vice President…

Donald Trump
I’m sorry. It’s going to be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.

Volodymyr Zelensky
What if Russia breaks this fire?
What if Russia breaks these talks?
What if the bomb drops on your head right now?

Donald Trump
Okay, what if they broke it? I don’t know.
They broke it with Biden because Biden didn’t respect him.
They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me.
Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.
He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him in “Russia, Russia, Russia.”
You ever hear of that deal?
That was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam—Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff.
It was a Democrat scam, and he had to go through that.
We didn’t end up in a war. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it.
It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom, out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting.
Then they said, “Oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia,” the 51 agents.
The whole thing was a scam.
Maybe he broke deals with Obama and Bush, and maybe he broke them with Biden—he did, maybe. Maybe he didn’t. I don’t know.
He’s not breaking with me. He wants to make a deal. I don’t know if you can make a deal.
The problem is I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States.
Your people are very brave, but you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out.
If we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out.
You don’t have the cards. Once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position.
But you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest—that’s not a nice thing.

JD Vance
All right, I think we’ve seen enough.
What do you think? This is going to be great television.
We’ll see what we can do about putting it together.
Thanks, sir.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Thanks, sir.

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How much does a San Francisco Chronicle subscription cost?

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The San Francisco Chronicle charges for subscriptions. How much does a subscription cost? This is an impossible question to answer, even for current subscribers. The Chronicle advertises several different prices for new subscribers.

The only public information the Chronicle shares about its permanent subscription rates raises more questions than answers.

Chronicle pricing page

No one at the Chronicle has ever read through this section.

  • The digital-only rate is $34.50 per week, which means that it is about twice the price of getting the Chronicle delivered to your house every single day.

  • If you get the Chronicle delivered, you can get a free digital subscription so you if you want a digital subscription you should opt for delivery.

  • The "home delivery" prices are listed twice and you have to look particularly close to figure out that one of them includes a digital subscription.

  • No one is paying, or going to pay, $34 a week for digital access to the Chronicle!??

I only started looking into this because after three years, the Chronicle decided to more than double the price of my subscription, from $149 a year to $358 per year. The terms of service say that they are supposed to notify me when they change the price ("We will notify you of any changes if the regular fee for your subscription changes from what was stated at the time of your initial order."). They sent no notification, the first I found out was on my credit card bill.

How much I paid for the Chronicle

I then tried to find any public information the Chronicle had posted about its subscription pricing, whether they had announced recently that they were raising their prices to invest in the newsroom, anything.

The only thing I found was that FAQ page that says a digital subscription costs $34 a week. This is the only public information anywhere that the Chronicle offers about its rates. There is no notion of a "subscription plan." I couldn't really believe this, so I called the Chronicle customer service line. They confirmed that the Chronicle could decide at any time to charge you $34 per week, or about $1800 per year, for a Chronicle subscription, and anyone who got a lower price than that was just lucky to have it.

By contrast the New York Times clearly shows the introductory price and the standard price.

The Washington Post also clearly explains how much you are going to pay.

By contrast someone at the Chronicle must have looked at my 3 year old subscription and decided I should pay more and charge me for that, without any notification, or justification, or even explanation that "this is the rate most people are paying."

Anyway, if you are a Chronicle subscriber you should be aware that:

  • The Chronicle can and will change the price of your subscription at any time

  • According to the Chronicle, everyone who buys a subscription is getting a discount from the $1800/year rate, and should feel lucky.

  • The Chronicle will not tell you why you're paying the rate you're paying.

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Bless Them

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Republicans, traditionally known for being smarter about the economy than Democrats (and less literate about social issues), battled in an economic debate in Michigan, and some of the quotes that came out were really funny. Lenders would love a John McCain presidency, especially if he keeps talking like this:
"I'm glad whenever they cut interest rates, I wish interest rates were zero."
More from Free Exchange, via Matt Yglesias.

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Free Trade is Bad for the U.S. Economy?

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If you think free trade is bad for the economy, you must either think taxes on imports are good for the economy, or taxes on imports are even worse for the economy than having free trade, which is bad. If you take position #1, you either believe that 4000% taxes (in effect, no trade at all) are better than no taxes, or that there is some tax rate on trade, between 0 and 4000, that is "best." Let's examine each of these cases for a simple product, bananas. No bananas are grown in the United States, because the climate isn't right; they are grown in Ecuador and other countries, and then shipped here. Let's say with free trade, everyone has to pay $1 for a banana from Ecuador, and there are 110 bananas sold every year. The government introduces a tax on trade, say 20 cents per banana, which raises the cost of bananas to, say, $1.10 (Half the tax is paid by the customer, and half eats into the banana farmer's profits. In real life, the new price would be anywhere between $1 and $1.20, depending on how much consumers are still willing to buy bananas). In response, customers buy only 100 bananas from Ecuador this year. Wawa and Safeway and Wegman's buy less bananas, because their customers are buying less bananas. This means they can't make as much money, because they make a small margin on every sale. Not to mention, Jamba Juice charges more for smoothies, because bananas are more expensive. Ecuadorean farmers are also worse off - they can only charge 90 cents per banana as opposed to 1 dollar per banana, and in addition they're selling fewer bananas - 100 vs. 110. To summarize, the consumer is worse off - he/she has to pay $1.10 as opposed to $1 for a banana. Grocery stores, food trucks, and smoothie makers are worse off - they don't make as much money from selling bananas as they did before. And Ecuadorean farmers are worse off - they don't sell as many bananas as before and they are forced to sell them for less money. At this point, a Smart Joe decides to grow bananas in Florida. Because he has to pay each of his workers in Tampa more than the farmers in Quito, and because he needs a lot more fertilizer and irrigation to grow his bananas than the Ecuadoreans, the cheapest he can produce bananas for is $2. Seeing as he can only sell them for $1, Smart Joe isn't doing very well; in fact, he'll be out of business by the end of the week. But he gets a great idea. He rounds up three friends who pool their money to pay a lobbyist to turn Congress against Ecuadorean bananas, arguing that the Ecuadorians are getting rich at the expense of Americans who pay exorbitant amounts for their bananas, and that because the Ecuadoreans are doing so well selling bananas, they're taking jobs away from his farm. Smart Joe goes on the floor of Congress, talking about how hard his life is as a farmer and how he'll be out of business by the end of the week. Hillary Clinton, with her eye on the next nomination, gets up and talks about protecting American jobs. Congress passes a law to tax banana imports $400 per banana. Out of desperation, Ecuadorean farmers decide to give away their product for free. Even so, no one in America is willing to pay the $400 tax for bananas, the farmers are forced out of business by the end of the week, and there's a severe shortage of bananas in the U.S. Jamba Juice, realizing bananas are an integral part of its smoothies, and wanting to make its supplies last a while, responds by charging $100 for every smoothie it makes. Let's look at the results - the consumer is worse off, having to pay 100 dollars per banana and eventually not being able to buy bananas. Jamba Juice is worse off - it can only make smoothies if it has bananas, and its sales plummet, which hurts every person who owns shares of Jamba Juice, not to mention people who enjoy its smoothies. And Ecuadorean farmers are worse off - they're all out of business and out of jobs, contributing to unemployment in Ecuador and depriving them of the ability to sell their signature export. The winners are Smart Joe and his three friends, who quickly buy as much land as he can lay hands on and starts planting bananas, and he has enough trees to sell 20 bananas this year, the entire supply for the United States, which allows him to charge $10 per banana, and receive $8 in profit on every banana sale. The American Revolution was originally a revolt against high taxes on imports and exports. I just don't see what people are pointing to when they say free trade is bad for the economy. Maybe they think that we should have no trade, or maybe they think the prices they pay for iPods, or bananas, or gasoline, or sneakers or polo shirts, aren't high enough as they are.

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Correlation Does Not Mean Causation. Correlation Does Not Mean Causation. Correlation Does Not Mean Causation.

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Apparently a degree does not bestow logical thought to the people pursuing it, as this article from today's Daily Pennsylvanian shows. This writing is unacceptable, not only because it's biased but because the main argument has no basis. The number of swimming pools people own is also positively correlated with longer life, more community service, more political involvement, and less smoking. We should all build more swimming pools, and wait for the benefits to come in.

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Getting Things Done (Extraterrestrially)

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Google just announced a $20 million prize to the first organization that can send a robotic lander to the moon, go for a walk, and beam back photos. I feel the benefit to humankind from such a robotic visit must be larger than $20 million. Prizes are a far more efficient way of getting results than paying one group in advance. It would be great if there was a website where you could donate money to the purse for different prizes, for the first person to cure cystic fibrosis, or the first person to prove an important theorem, or get to the moon. The bigger the prize, the bigger the incentive people have to try and win it - $30 million for a moon robot would get a faster result than $20 million, or maybe NASA offers a $50 million prize for the first person to set up an observation station on the moon, and gets that station built for them, probably better and cheaper than they could too. Prizes in the billions aren't unreasonable either - a cure for cancer could be worth $50 billion.

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Record Numbers of Poppies in Afghanistan

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New York Times has an article detailing the record levels of opium being produced in Afghanistan this year. We are spending $600 million on counternarcotics efforts, divided between eradication, interdiction, and "alternative livelihoods." Government officials admit, however, that eradication "drives farmers into the hands of the Taliban." Why not pay the farmers for the opium they produce and then destroy the crop, instead of insisting they grow wheat, which makes a tenth of the profits? A lot of the high cost of heroin in the United States is added at the end, because it costs so much to smuggle it in and refine it for street sale. As the leader of the free world, and with trillions of dollars in tax revenue, we should be able to outbid the Taliban.

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Media Attention, Don Imus & Rutgers

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Don Imus has got in a lot of trouble recently for calling the members of the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed ho's." This is racist and offensive. I only wish he had insulted them before the conclusion of the women's NCAA Tournament. Then they might have drawn decent TV ratings. It is a shame Imus's insults have driven more publicity to the Rutgers basketball team than their on-court actions did.

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