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The White House reportedly lobbied for Ukrainan President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to wear a suit to his Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday. The Wall Street Journal, citing a European official and another person also involved in planning the summit, reported that the "White House has asked that Zelensky don a suit and tie to meet the president."
But when Zelenskyy showed up at the White House, he appeared to have bucked that reported request. He wore a black jacket over a collared black shirt buttoned to the top, and he was not wearing a tie.
In trying to pressure him on his outfits, the White House is focused on the stagecraft of deference.
Zelenskyy's get-up looked more formal than what he wore when he spoke alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over the weekend in Brussels. Then, he wore an uncollared shirt under his jacket. Monday's ensemble was also more formal than his last meeting in the White House, in February, when he wore a black henley emblazoned with a Ukrainian trident.
As Trump welcomed Zelenskyy to the Oval Office for that meeting in February, he panned his Ukrainian counterpart for his outfit by saying he was "all dressed up today.” At one point a reporter from the right-wing Real America’s Voice network asked Zelenskyy why he wasn't wearing a suit and said, “You’re at the highest level in this country’s office, and you refuse to wear a suit." Zelenskyy replied, “I will wear costume after this war will finish." (He also quipped: “Maybe something like yours, yes. Maybe something better, I don’t know.")
The outfit Zelenskyy wore Monday seems to be his attempt to thread the needle between maintaining his independence while showing a bit of receptivity to pressure from the White House — and trying to get the best possible peace deal for Ukraine.
Meanwhile the White House's reported attempt to pressure Zelenskyy underscores a fixation on optics that has nothing to do with bringing Russia's vicious war on Ukraine to an end. Who cares what Zelenskyy is wearing? In trying to pressure him on his outfits, the White House is focused on the stagecraft of deference.
During their meeting in February, Vice President JD Vance scolded Zelenskyy for failing to fawn over Trump, asking him "have you said thank you once?" for U.S. support. That was an attempt to humble the head of state. Similarly, the demand that he wear a suit was another attempt to push him around. But if the White House considered its demand that Zelenskyy conform to its sartorial wishes a test, Zelenskyy appears to have shown he was only willing to go part of the way.