After a recent White House summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Vice President JD Vance offered a rare behind-the-scenes look at President Donald Trump’s leadership style.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Vance spoke on the President’s unorthodox but decisive approach to international relations, describing a recent incident during a meeting in the East Wing of the White House, when Trump decided to call Russian President Vladimir Putin late at night, without any notice.
“They had no anticipation. So we’re actually in the East Wing of the White House, and the President says, you know, we’ve had a pretty good meeting. I’m going to go call Vladimir Putin, see what he says about it. And everybody’s like, ‘Oh, you’re going to call him next week.’ And he’s like, ‘No, what time is it in Moscow? Let’s call him right now,'” Vance said, before explaining that Trump called the Russian leader at 1 am Moscow time (which would be 6 pm in Washington, D.C.)
Vance further spoke on how the moment revealed Trump’s eagerness to bypass conventional diplomatic procedures and the clunky red tape.
“One of the things I realized about President Trump’s leadership is he cuts through the BS of some of these diplomatic protocols and just says, ‘I’m going to get things done. If I want to talk to somebody, I’m going to talk to somebody.’ You had a lot of the Europeans who were saying, ‘No, no, no, there needs to be proper vetting, and the teams have to prepare the phone call,’ and blah, blah, blah. And the President was like, ‘No, no, no… I want to talk to the guy. I’m going to talk to the guy.’ And I think that kind of no-holds-barred, no-BS diplomacy is part of the reason why we’ve made the progress we have,” the Vice President told Laura Ingraham during The Ingraham Angle.
Vance’s remarks show a leadership style rooted in action over ceremony, something that Trump has previously campaigned on and advocated for.
Now, as the war in Ukraine continues, many people around the world are hoping that Trump and Vance make notable progress in peace talks. During the interview, Vance claimed that America has made more progress in the past three months in peace talks with Russia than in the past three years combined.
Trump, while aboard Air Force 1 earlier this month, told reporters, “I want to see a ceasefire – rapidly. I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today… I’m in this to stop the killing.”
“Praying for peace in the days ahead,” Vance added.