Readers respond to Question of the Week:

Zelenskyy, Trump: who was right in the Oval Office?

Zelenskyy vs. Trump

No surprise that your editorial board blames Trump for the outcome of the Zelenskyy, Trump, Vance meeting. Trump cannot do anything that would get high marks from this newspaper. The U.S. has spent billions of dollars to fund this war between Ukraine and Russia. It is reasonable to thank a country for supporting a three-year-old war. The people of Ukraine are the losers with Zelenksyy’s poor behavior. Zelenskyy is a thug who can’t appreciate the U.S. .support. Why would Zelenskyy bite the hand that is feeding him?

— Ellie S. MacMullin, Pasadena

The dust-up

From a “we are all human” perspective we should have compassion for Zelenskyy. The pressures and life he is experiencing in this war must be overwhelming and put him on edge.

But he was clearly in the wrong trying to, at the eleventh hour, renegotiate the deal there to be signed. He was clearly wrong to forcefully attempt this in front of the cameras.

And he was clearly wrong to do this with the leader of his nation’s benefactor. Thanks would be more appropriate.

— Steve Hawes, Sunland

Trump bullied Zelenskyy

Yes, Trump’s bullying at the Zelenskyy presser was ugly. And I detest giving thug Russia partial victory in whatever agreement is needed to end fighting. But never-ending funding will not, by itself, change that outcome.

Perhaps, encouraged by the Democratic “Trump is wrong about everything” rhetoric, Zelenskyy thought our troops might yet directly fight Russia alongside his own. Right after the aborted presser, the UK, France and others fueled his hopes, promising to provide “whatever it takes, for as long as it takes” for Ukraine to fight on. Interesting, given they’ve never met their NATO funding promises. But reality bites; today these same nations “clarified” they want to help Trump quickly finish that darn peace agreement.

So Trump’s ugly bluntness might yet work. And if not, we can always revert back to using tax dollars and trade imbalances to purchase our international friends (a process Trump clearly sucks at).

— Tom Ware, Long Beach