President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wartime attire powerfully evokes Winston Churchill’s boiler suit: both were symbols of determination, worn by courageous leaders, on the front line where the bullets fly and bombs fall. Yet last Friday Ukraine’s president was accused of “showing disrespect” by Donald Trump and JD Vance. Overseeing this unseemly event was the Churchill bust, which were it able to speak, might have reminded Trump of a famous meeting days after the US joined the second world war, when Franklin D Roosevelt and Churchill were struggling to agree a name for their new coalition of allied nations.
The story goes that Roosevelt had a flash of inspiration, and rushed to Churchill’s bedroom, only to find his guest stark naked. Churchill, unperturbed, is said to have replied: “The prime minister of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the president of the United States.”
The meeting was a success — the outcome was the creation of the UN.
Euan Nisbet
Cambridge, UK