John Oliver Slams Trump Over Oval Office Clash With Ukraine President Zelenskyy

John Oliver chimed in on Donald Trump‘s controversial Oval Office clash with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday’s (March 2) episode of Last Week Tonight, referring to the spectacle as “awful.”

The meeting, which took place at the White House on Friday (February 28), became heated as Trump referred to Zelenskyy as “disrespectful” for not wanting to end the war with Russia on his terms, all the while Vice President JD Vance urged Zelenskyy to say “thank you.”

Oliver focused on one particular comment, where Trump said, “This is gonna be great television, I will say that.”

“That depends,” Oliver responded. “Is watching the president s*** on a weaker ally for not wanting to be conquered while his goon VP tries to see if he can wrap his lips around his boss’ a***hole from a neighboring couch good television? I’d argue it’s more hit your TV with a hammer until the pain stops television, but reasonable people can disagree.”

Commenting on the meeting itself, the late-night host said, “The whole spectacle was awful. The Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. had her head in her hands, Marco Rubio seemed to be actively trying to sink inside the couch and, for what it’s worth, Zelenskyy has thanked Americans and the U.S. 33 times at the very least, which feels like enough.”

Oliver quipped, “He shouldn’t be constantly urged to say thank you — he’s a president in the middle of a war, not a toddler opening a present from Meemaw.”

Following the meeting, Zelenskyy took to X, where he again shared his thanks, writing, “We are very grateful to the United States for all the support. I’m thankful to President Trump, Congress for their bipartisan support and American people. Ukrainians have always appreciated this support, especially during these three years of full-scale invasion.”

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Trump also shared his thoughts after the clash, saying that the Ukrainian president “doesn’t have to stand there and say about Putin this, Putin that — all negative things.”

“Yeah, what’s Putin ever done to Zelenskyy other than kill tens and thousands of people and cause untold damage to his country? Can’t he find anything good to say about him?” Oliver retorted.

Oliver also commented on Trump’s latest hires, including Kash Patel, who was named FBI director. Throwing to a clip of Patel’s press conference, in which he said, “Wow, this is f-ing crazy,” Oliver replied, “Yeah, it is f****** crazy. ”

He continued, “To have an FBI director who never worked for the FBI, appeared at least seven times on the podcast of a Holocaust denier who’s praised Hitler, and who, when Trump proposed him as deputy FBI director in his first term, prompted Bill Barr to say, ‘Over my dead body.'”

“Little did he know the only qualification for Trump’s second term appointees would be, ‘Will this kill Bill Barr?'” Oliver quipped.