"President Zelenskyy is a true statesman acting with zeal, honor and humility"

Echo opinion letters published in the Houston Chronicle:

Dear Editor:  Donald Trump and JD Vance's bullying of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office was an embarrassment.

I have never been so mortified by the behavior of an elected official than I was by the reprehensible display by our president and vice president. They made a mockery of their public meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

President Zelenskyy is a true statesman acting with zeal, honor and humility in valiantly fighting Russia to a virtual standstill for three years. He has rallied his people and the civilized nations of the world in the defense of Ukraine in the face of unspeakable atrocities. He has unified the NATO alliance nations in a hitherto common goal of stopping the unbridled aggression and lust for conquest of Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy should've been honored with a hero's welcome in his visit to our country.

Instead, he was met with an outlandish display of unprofessional rudeness, insults, lies and effrontery by two weak bullies who have shown themselves to be wholly unfit to represent our once proud country. These churlish clowns tarnished the good name of the United States. Zelenskyy did nothing to provoke the onslaught and he certainly did not deserve it. I am wholly unable to even imagine any legitimate purpose in treating an ally in such deplorable fashion.

For his part, Zelenskyy was a dignified gentleman, even while our president and vice president embarrassed our country on the world stage.

I am writing this with the hope that by some miracle it could reach President Zelenskyy so that I could extend my sincerest apologies. I am ashamed of what happened. I hope he could forgive the United States and know that our supposed leaders were not speaking or acting for us all.

From Tanner Garth, in Houston Texas

Dear Editor:  President Zelenskyy respectfully pointed out the numerous times that Vladimir Putin has blatantly violated “signed” agreements, and trusting the Russian president is a fool's game. I can only hope that one day, and sooner rather than later, some of our gutless GOP congressional members will wake up to where Donald Trump’s infatuation with Mr. Putin and his autocratic counterparts is leading us.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance showed their true bully colors when they tag-teamed President Zelenskyy in front of the whole world. They attempted to force him into an agreement to give up Ukraine’s vast mineral resources as payment for our help in fighting Russian aggression, with no guarantee that the U.S. would hold Russia to any ceasefire agreements potentially achieved by peace talks.

Their behavior was a mirror image of the tactics used by Adolf Hitler in his first year as chancellor of Germany when he began his blitz through Europe: bully, humiliate, intimidate and, Trump's most ubiquitous tactic, lie.

We cannot continue to normalize the egregious behavior of Trump and his kangaroo court of Cabinet members. Trump and Vance will heartily give up our country for a selfie at the Kremlin.

From Barbara Drozdowski Mackey, in Houston Texas