Do Clothes Make The Man?

- jim Young

“For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” - William Shakespeare, (Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 3.)

If the proverb that “clothes makes the man” is true then I’ll take a dozen XL sets of the clothing that Volodymyr Zelenskyy wore to his recent meeting with Trump at the Oval Office. 

Contrary to what a couple of thugs like Trump and his Yoko Ono sidekick, J.D. Vance would have you believe, Zelenskyy is the embodiment of “respect”, a quality that is sorely lacking in most politicians today and non-existent in Trump and Vance.

It all began the moment Zelenskyy stepped out of his car at the White House to greet the President. The first words out of Trump’s mouth were, “You’re all dressed up today.” 

Trump’s first words of greeting to Zelenskyy

were a feeble attempt at intimidation.

Most negotiation experts recommend setting the stage with a friendly rapport, but Trump chose, as he often does, intimidation. Seriously? Trump thinks he has bone spurs big enough to intimidate someone like Zelenskyy? 

Not wanting to take a chance the childish taunting might go unnoticed, Trump pointed to Zelenskyy, looked to make sure the reporters were watching and repeated, “He’s all dressed up today.”

This reeks of a conspiracy of the exchange that would later take place in the Oval Office when reporter Brian Glenn asked Zelenskyy why he wasn’t wearing a suit.

Whether or not Trump had actually pre-arranged with Glenn to ask the question about Zelenskyy’s attire is difficult to know for certain. But Glenn accused Zelenskyy’s choice of clothing as being disrespectful to the Oval Office and asked Zelenskyy if he even owned a suit.

Trump had just talked about the two to three thousand people that were dying every week in the Ukraine war and Brian Glenn asked Trump if he thought Trump’s legacy would be as a peacemaker. His next question for Zelenskyy was, “Why don’t you wear a suit?” How professional was that?

And just in case you’re wondering, when Zelenskyy replied with “I will wear costume after this war is finished,” there was no disrespect implied or intended in his reference to a suit being a “costume”. You have to remember that English is not Zelenskyy’s first language. “Suit” in “Ukraine” is “kostyum” which is pronounced “costume” in English.

If Glenn were as good a reporter as he thinks he is, Glenn would know very well that Zelenskyy owned and wore suits in all of his appearances as the President of Ukraine prior to Putin’s invasion of his country.

Since the war in Ukraine began, Zelenskyy has worn military attire in a show of solidarity with his military. Any self-respecting reporter would have known that.

Zelenskyy, as a show of solidarity with his armed forces, has worn only military fatigues since Russia invaded Ukraine. Of course this is something tht would be foreign to Trump who has criticized and mocked the American Armed Forces his whole life, going so far as to disparage some of America's War Heroes.

And if there’s a dress code for the Oval Office, apparently Elon Musk didn’t get the memo.

Did Musk not get the memo? Or did he just choose to ignore it? 

What's really interesting is that you'll notice in the following picture of Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, to the right of Trump is a bust of Sir Winston Churchill. Trump has admitted Churchill was one of his great heroes.

The bust of Churchill’s bull-dog face looks over Trump’s left shoulder. Had the bust of Churchill been able to shake his head in disgust, the White House might have crumbled in an earthquake.

When Churchill visited the White House during World War II to meet with President Franklin D Roosevelt he wore coveralls. This “jumpsuit”, made popular by Churchill in the UK, was called a “siren suit” and was intended for use when seeking shelter during air raids in Britain. Churchill wore it at many formal occasions. 

Like Zelenskyy, Churchill dressed to bring world attention to the war he was facing.

But did Roosevelt get his panties in a knot over it? Not quite. In fact the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt declared she was having one made for the President. This would have been a bold move for someone known to suffer a great fear of public disapproval.

So how about it Trump? Do you have the balls that the first lady demonstrated she had in 1941? Care to give the world a little fashion show dressed as Zelenskyy?

Hey! Not bad. Of course Trump would have to shed more than a few pounds to look this good.

I thought reporters were supposed to do their homework and know a little bit of what they were talking about before being assigned to cover a story. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. Of course, as I alluded to before, there’s still always the possibility that it was all just a set up by Trump to ambush Zelenskyy.

Trump brought the suit issue up again later on in the meeting then turned to Glenn to give him an approving wink.

Does this wink suggest a conspiracy was in play?

It’s no coincidence that Brian Glenn is the boyfriend of republican congressman and staunch Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene. How else would a third rate reporter such as Glenn even get into the White House? Of course Russian reporters seem to be able to sneak in, so giving Glenn the benefit of the doubt, maybe he wasn’t properly vetted either.

Glenn works for “Real America's Voice” - a far-right-wing streaming, cable and satellite television channel founded just a few years ago by Robert J. Sigg. 

And who exactly is Robert J. Sigg?

Besides being owner of “Real America’s Voice”, Sigg, like Trump, is a convicted felon having been convicted of mortgage fraud in 2006. Before that, he had been arrested for burglary, assault, drug distribution, domestic violence and assault and battery. An earlier media venture of Sigg’s declared bankruptcy in 2007.

Now there’s some good credentials for the owner for unbiased, quality news programming.

What does Sigg’s background have to do with Glenn’s fashion reporting talents?

Not much really.

But then what Zelenskyy wore to his meeting with Trump at the Oval Office shouldn’t have had anything to do with the meeting either.

After the meeting had gone south you can see Vance reach over and give Trump an approving pat on the arm as if to say - “Good job boss. We got him good.”

Is this more evidence that an ambush had been planned?

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