Conservative commentator Scott Jennings was sharply criticized on social media this week after he condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy throughout a CNN panel dialogue for not carrying “a tie” to his disastrous meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the Oval Workplace final week.
Throughout a Monday night time phase of “NewsNight with Abby Philly,” the panel mentioned Zelenskyy’s Friday go to to the White Home, during which Trump and Vance berated Zelenskyy in entrance of gathered reporters, accusing the Ukrainian president of not exhibiting sufficient gratitude for the help the U.S. has supplied his nation since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The Trump administration and Ukrainian officers had been presumably in search of to reach an agreement that day to sign a minerals deal that may have given the U.S. entry to Ukraine’s vital minerals to pay again previous help from the U.S.
Whereas analyzing what went incorrect within the heated and ineffective Oval Workplace assembly, “NewsNight” visitor panelist and Republican New York lawmaker Bruce Blakeman turned his sights on Zelenskyy’s clothes. He mentioned the Ukrainian president — who wore black pants and a black collarless long-sleeve prime that featured an embroidered Ukrainian trident — was dressed like a “schlub” on the White Home. Trump and Vance wore fits.
Jennings later jumped in to share his ideas about Zelenskyy’s garments: “Is it price it? Was not placing on a tie price it? … Is it price it?”
However Jacob Neiheisel, affiliate professor of political science on the College at Buffalo Faculty of Arts and Sciences, made fairly the commentary about this criticism: “Republicans didn’t appear to have that a lot of a problem with Elon Musk’s apparel simply a few weeks in the past.” (Musk notably wore a T-shirt and cap to his bizarre joint Oval Office press conference with Trump final month.)
“Objections to Zelenskyy’s clothes decisions are seemingly simply an excuse to take umbrage and cloak what the administration was going to do anyhow (minimize off help to Ukraine) within the veneer of ethical outrage about Ukraine not being sufficiently respectful,” Neiheisel instructed HuffPost.
Outstanding conservatives like Jennings have lengthy directed attacks on Zelenskyy’s more traditionally informal attire for occasions and conferences with authorities officers. In the course of the Oval Workplace assembly, right-wing journalist Brian Glenn, who’s the boyfriend of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), requested Zelenskyy why he didn’t put on a go well with.
“Do you personal a go well with?” he requested, including, “Quite a lot of People have issues with you not respecting the dignity of this workplace.”
However many individuals have pushed again on these traces of assaults. After a clip of Jennings’ remarks on CNN made rounds on X, previously Twitter, the conservative pundit was slammed online for focusing attention on Zelenskyy’s clothes amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Others have pointed out that Zelenskyy’s attire is a sign to the continued warfare in Ukraine, and that previous leaders like Sir Winston Churchill have similarly made statements carrying casual gear throughout wartime.
Zelenskyy’s apparel will be seen as a logo that Ukraine is “combating for its survival.”
“I feel that Zelenskyy’s apparel is a sign to the world that Ukraine is on a warfare footing and is combating for its survival,” Neiheisel mentioned, including that Zelenskyy’s apparel emerged when Russia was transferring towards Ukraine’s capital and “there was an expectation that everybody able to combating in Ukraine was going to have to take action.”
He identified that there’s a “nice deal of heterogeneity when it comes to how world leaders have determined to adorn themselves when their nation is at warfare,” and that whereas “leaders within the U.S. have hardly ever deviated from the norms of the day,” previous leaders have indeed sported different types of clothing and kit to ship messages.
Neiheisel additionally identified that Zelenskyy isn’t “simply throwing on drab-colored clothes,” and that he’s typically worn the model M-TAC — a Ukrainian tactical clothing and gear maker — as a “tangible reminder that Ukraine is doing all the things it might probably to offer for its personal protection.”
In 2022, Rebecca Arnold, a senior lecturer in historical past of costume on the Courtauld Institute of Artwork in London, told The Independent that the olive inexperienced T-shirts Zelenskyy wore whereas delivering speeches to U.S. Congress and different elected officers around the globe was a option to “join him to the armed forces, with out seeming militaristic.”
“He’s speaking, due to this fact, with these round him in authorities, however importantly, by way of digital and heritage media, he connects to his nation’s individuals and the broader world,” she mentioned on the time.
The assaults on Zelenskyy’s clothes is probably going a political tactic.
Assaults like those on Zelenskyy’s apparel supplies “the rank-and-file with causes that they will articulate for supporting sure coverage positions,” Neiheisel mentioned, including that “on this case, that coverage is one in every of leaving Ukraine (and actually a lot of Europe) to its personal gadgets.”
“The manufactured outrage over Zelensky’s clothes decisions permits the administration, and Republicans extra typically, to assemble a story surrounding why the U.S. is not going to assist Ukraine,” he mentioned.
