Conservative commentator Scott Jennings was sharply criticized on social media this week after he condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a CNN panel discussion for not wearing “a tie” to his disastrous meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the Oval Office last week.
During a Monday night segment of “NewsNight with Abby Philly,” the panel discussed Zelenskyy’s Friday visit to the White House, in which Trump and Vance berated Zelenskyy in front of gathered reporters, accusing the Ukrainian president of not showing enough gratitude for the aid the U.S. has provided his country since Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The Trump administration and Ukrainian officials were presumably seeking to reach an agreement that day to sign a minerals deal that would have given the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical minerals to pay back past aid from the U.S.
No agreement was signed.
While analyzing what went wrong in the heated and ineffective Oval Office meeting, “NewsNight” guest panelist and Republican New York lawmaker Bruce Blakeman turned his sights on Zelenskyy’s clothing. He said the Ukrainian president — who wore black pants and a black collarless long-sleeve top that featured an embroidered Ukrainian trident — was dressed like a “schlub” at the White House. Trump and Vance wore suits.
Jennings later jumped in to share his thoughts about Zelenskyy’s clothes: “Is it worth it? Was not putting on a tie worth it? … Is it worth it?”
But Jacob Neiheisel, associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, made quite the observation about this criticism: “Republicans didn’t seem to have that much of an issue with Elon Musk’s attire just a couple of weeks ago.” (Musk notably wore a T-shirt and cap to his bizarre joint Oval Office press conference with Trump last month.)
“Objections to Zelenskyy’s clothing choices are likely just an excuse to take umbrage and cloak what the administration was going to do anyways (cut off aid to Ukraine) in the veneer of moral outrage about Ukraine not being sufficiently respectful,” Neiheisel told HuffPost.
Prominent conservatives like Jennings have long directed attacks on Zelenskyy’s more traditionally informal attire for events and meetings with government officials. During the Oval Office meeting, right-wing journalist Brian Glenn, who’s the boyfriend of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), asked Zelenskyy why he didn’t wear a suit.
“Do you own a suit?” he asked, adding, “A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the dignity of this office.”
But many people have pushed back on those lines of attacks. After a clip of Jennings’ remarks on CNN made rounds on X, formerly Twitter, the conservative pundit was slammed online for focusing attentionon Zelenskyy’s clothes amid Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Others have pointed out that Zelenskyy’s attire is a signal to the ongoing war in Ukraine, and that past leaders like Sir Winston Churchill have similarly made statements wearing informal gear during wartime.
Zelenskyy’s attire can be seen as a symbol that Ukraine is “fighting for its survival.”
“I think that Zelenskyy’s attire is a signal to the world that Ukraine is on a war footing and is fighting for its survival,” Neiheisel said, adding that Zelenskyy’s attire emerged when Russia was moving toward Ukraine’s capital and “there was an expectation that everyone capable of fighting in Ukraine was going to have to do so.”
He pointed out that there is a “great deal of heterogeneity in terms of how world leaders have decided to adorn themselves when their nation is at war,” and that while “leaders in the U.S. have rarely deviated from the norms of the day,” past leaders have indeed sported different types of clothing and gear to send messages.
Neiheisel also pointed out that Zelenskyy isn’t “just throwing on drab-colored clothing,” and that he’s often worn the brand M-TAC — a Ukrainian tactical clothing and gear maker — as a “tangible reminder that Ukraine is doing everything it can to provide for its own defense.”
In 2022, Rebecca Arnold, a senior lecturer in history of dress at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, told The Independent that the olive green T-shirts Zelenskyy wore while delivering speeches to U.S. Congress and other elected officials around the world was a way to “connect him to the armed forces, without seeming militaristic.”
“He’s communicating, therefore, with those around him in government, but importantly, through digital and heritage media, he connects to his country’s people and the wider world,” she said at the time.
The attacks on Zelenskyy’s clothing is likely a political tactic.
Attacks like the ones on Zelenskyy’s attire provides “the rank-and-file with reasons that they can articulate for supporting certain policy positions,” Neiheisel said, adding that “in this case, that policy is one of leaving Ukraine (and really much of Europe) to its own devices.”
“The manufactured outrage over Zelensky’s clothing choices allows the administration, and Republicans more generally, to construct a narrative surrounding why the U.S. is no longer going to help Ukraine,” he said.