Friday’s extraordinary Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off the rails, leaving hopes for a U.S.-brokered peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in question. Here are some reasons why things went wrong, and where it leaves efforts to end the war.
1. Zelenskyy does not grasp—or deliberately ignores—the bitter truth: Those with whom he feels most affinity (Western globalists, the American Left, the Europeans) have little power in 2025 to help him. And those whom he obviously does not like or seeks to embarrass (as with his Scranton, Penn. campaign-like visit in September 2024) alone have the power to save him. For his own sake, I hope he is not being “briefed” by the Obama-Clinton-Biden gang to confront Trump, given their interests are not really Ukraine’s as they feign.
2. Zelenskyy acts as if his agenda and ours are identical. So, he keeps insisting that he is fighting for us despite our two-ocean-distance that he mocks. We do have many shared interests with Ukraine, but not all by any means: Trump wants to “reset” with Russia and triangulate it against China. He seeks to avoid a 1962 DEFCON 2-like crisis over a proxy showdown in proximity to a nuclear rival. And he sincerely wants to end the deadlocked Stalingrad slaughterhouse for everyone’s sake.
3. The Europeans (and Canada) are now talking loudly of a new muscular antithesis, independent of the U.S. Promises, promises—given that would require Europeans to prune back their social welfare state, frack, use nuclear, stop the green obsession, and spend 3-5% of their GDP on defense. The U.S. does not just pay 16% of NATO’s budget, but also puts up with asymmetrical tariffs that result in a European Union trade surplus of $160 billion, plays the world cop, patrolling sea-lanes and deterring terrorists and rogue states that otherwise might interrupt Europe’s commercial networks abroad, as well as de facto including Europe under a nuclear umbrella of 6,500 nukes.
4. Zelenskyy must know that all of the once-deal-breaking impediments to peace have been settled. Ukraine is now better armed than most NATO nations, but will not be in NATO, and no president has or will ever supply Ukraine with the armed wherewithal to take back the Donbass and Crimea. So, the only two issues are a) how far will Putin be willing to withdraw to his 2022 borders and b) how will he be deterred? The first is answered by a commercial sector/tripwire, joint Ukrainian-US-Europe resource development corridor in Eastern Ukraine, coupled with a Korea-like DMZ; the second by the fact that Putin, unlike his 2008 and 2014 invasions, has now incurred a million dead and wounded to a Ukraine that will remain thusly armed.
5. What are Zelenskyy’s alternatives without much U.S. help—wait for a return of the Democrats to the White House in four years? Hope for a rearmed Europe? Pray for a Democratic House and a third Vindman-like engineered Trump impeachment? Or swallow his pride, return to the White House, sign the rare-earth minerals deal, invite in the Euros (are they seriously willing to patrol a DMZ?), and hope Trump can warn Putin, as he did successfully between 2017-21, not to dare try it again?
6. If there is a cease-fire, a commercial deal, a Euro ground presence, and influx of Western companies into Ukraine, would there be elections? And if so, would Zelenskyy and his party win? And if not, would there be a successor transparent government that would reveal exactly where all the Western financial aid money went?
7. Zelenskyy might see a model in Netanyahu. The Biden Administration was far harder on him than Trump is on Ukraine, suspending arms shipments, demanding cease-fires, prodding for a wartime, bipartisan cabinet, hammering Israel on collateral damage—none of which Westerners have demanded of Zelenskyy. Yet Netanyahu managed a hostile President Biden, kept Israel close to its patron, and, when visiting, was gracious to his host. Netanyahu certainly would never before the global media have interrupted and berated a host and patron president in the White House.
8. If Ukraine has alienated the U.S., what then is its strategic victory plan? Wait around for more Euros? Hold off an increasingly invigorated Russian military? Cede more territory? What, then, exactly are Zelenskyy’s cards he seems to think form a winning hand?
9. If one views carefully all the 50-minute tape, most of it was going quite well—until Zelenskyy started correcting Vance firstly, and Trump secondly. By Ukraine-splaining to his hosts, and by his gestures, tone, and interruptions, he made it clear that he assumed that Trump was just more of the same compliant, clueless moneybags Biden waxen effigy. And that was naïve for such a supposedly worldly leader.
10. March 2025 is not March 2022, after the heroic saving of Kyiv—but three years and 1.5 million dead and wounded later. Zelenskyy is no longer the international heartthrob with the glamorous entourage. He has postponed elections, outlawed opposition media and parties, suspended habeas corpus and walked out of negotiations when he had an even hand in spring 2022 and apparently even now when he does not in spring 2025.
Quo vadis, Volodymyr?
College football legend Lou Holtz picks a side in the Trump and Zelenskyy feud
College football coaching legend Lou Holtz praised President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Saturday following an argument with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Holtz praised Trump and Vance’s leadership in a post on X.
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“It’s moments like these that remind us of what real leadership looks like,” he wrote. “Proud of @realDonaldTrump & @JDVance for always putting America first.”
Zelenskyy’s first meeting with Trump and Vance at the White House on Friday resulted in an argument. Vance told the Ukrainian leader that a path to securing peace between Russia and Ukraine would be through the United States engaging in diplomacy. Zelenskyy then tried to engage in a line of questioning about Russia’s moves since 2014 and attempts at diplomacy.
Zelenskyy later said that under war, “everybody has problems, even you,” and that the United States would feel the war “in the future.” Trump said that Zelenskyy didn’t “know” for sure that would happen. The conversation got more intense from there.
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Trump told Zelenskyy he was “gambling with the lives of millions of people.”
“You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country — this country — that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have,” Trump said.
Zelenskyy appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report.” He said he wasn’t sure that “we did something bad.” He said the incident with “bad for both sides.”
Holtz wasn’t the only sports figure to weigh in.
NFL legend Brett Favre also gave his reaction on the issue.
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“This was a bit unreal to watch. A foreign leader speaking to a sitting U.S. President like this,” Favre wrote in response to a clip of the argument. “Glad Donald Trump and JD Vance are standing up for America.”
Fast food chain’s famous fries get ‘RFK’ makeover — so what does that mean?
There’s a kitchen shakeup at an American fast-food chain.
Steak ‘n Shake has announced a major change to its beloved shoestring fries, and they say the inspiration partially came straight from the new Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Starting in March, all Steak ‘n Shake locations will cook their fries in beef tallow instead of vegetable oil. The company broke the news on X with a post declaring; “By March 1 ALL locations. Fries will be RFK’d!”
Steak ‘n Shake’s Chief Operations Officer, Daniel Edwards, joined “Fox & Friends” Thursday to talk about the change, saying the company had been considering the switch for some time.
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“We’ve actually been thinking about this for a while. Our owner, my boss, is a man named Sardar Biglari,” Edwards said. “He called me one time and said you know, ‘Why should Europeans have better fries than Americans?’”
Edwards explained that Biglari’s love for beef tallow fries started when he visited Belgium as a child, where he had what he called the best fries of his life. That memory stuck with him, and for years, he wanted Steak ‘n Shake to capture that same taste.
Now, thanks to a new supplier capable of meeting their beef tallow needs, the chain is making the leap.
“We found a supplier that could finally do that for us, and he said ‘We got to do it, we got to do it everywhere.’ And so, we did,” Edwards said. “We RFK’d our fries.”
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Secretary Kennedy has been a vocal advocate for using beef tallow in cooking, often arguing that seed oils, commonly used in fast food, may contribute to rising obesity rates.
While the science of that claim is still up for debate, with the American Heart Association stating there’s “no reason” to avoid seed oils, Steak ‘n Shake believes the switch is about more than just health.
“They’re so much better,” Edwards said, arguing customers will notice a major difference in the new fries.
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“These fries cooked in beef tallow – it’s crispier, it’s golden brown, it’s absolutely delicious,” he said. “You’re going to love them when you try them. You’re not going to want to ever go back to the old way of doing fries. And it’s the authentic way, the original way.”
The company is betting that its back-to-basics approach will win over customers looking for that rich, old-school flavor.
What Gene Hackman’s pacemaker failed to do — now key to ‘suspicious’ death probe
Gene Hackman’s pacemaker would have alerted his physician if an “urgent” event occurred, according to cardiologist Dr. Christopher Davis.
During an interview with Fox News Digital, Davis explained that some patients have a home monitor that allows events to be picked up on their pacemakers remotely.
“Depending on if the patient has a home monitor, these pacemakers can be monitored remotely as well. If they have a home monitor, if there is an urgent event, that gets transmitted to the monitor and then to whatever pacemaker company’s portal that then the information gets sent to the patient’s physician if it’s an urgent report,” Davis of Reveal Vitality said.
“There are certain things that are set up as urgent, and those get reported through the pacemaker portal to the patient’s physician,” he added.
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According to the Mayo Clinic, a pacemaker is “a small, battery-powered device that prevents the heart from beating too slowly. You need surgery to get a pacemaker. The device is placed under the skin near the collarbone.”
“If they have a home monitor, if there is an urgent event, that gets transmitted to the monitor and then to whatever pacemaker company’s portal that then the information gets sent to the patient’s physician if it’s an urgent report.”
During a news conference Friday, Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza confirmed the last event noted on Hackman’s pacemaker was Feb. 17.
When asked if Feb. 17 — nine days before his body was found — could be the day Hackman died, Mendoza noted that was a “very good assumption.”
“According to the pathologist, I think that is a very good assumption that that was his last day of life,” Mendoza said. He also confirmed after a discussion with the medical examiner that Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, “tested negative for carbon monoxide.”
“The manner and cause of death has not been determined,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza noted that detectives will analyze “cellphone data, phone calls, text messages, events, photos in the cellphone to try to piece the timeline together.”
“One of the things is, in an investigation we try to piece the timeline together, usually before the event happens, and that gives us a lot of information,” Mendoza said. “But, in this case, it seems like we’re doing a reverse timeline.
WATCH: Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza gives insight into Gene Hackman’s likely ‘last day of life’
“We’re doing a timeline from the time of death and the autopsy and the results. We’re going to start working our way backwards. We’re going to do both and then hopefully make a determination as to what may have happened to both of the individuals.”
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Hackman and Arakawa were last publicly photographed together March 28, 2024. Hackman was spotted holding onto his wife’s arm. He held onto a walking cane in his other hand. Arakawa looked out in the distance and held up her arm to support her husband.
Davis explained that there are “different degrees” when it comes to pacemaker events.
“There’s different degrees of an event. Some of these things could be a life-threatening event, and some of it could just be, say, a pacemaker battery only has a year left. So, it really varies,” he said.
Davis said events not considered “emergent” would not be reported to the pacemaker company immediately. They are recorded, but it would be picked up during a three-month or six-month pacemaker checkup.
The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office released a search warrant inventory Friday of the items collected from Hackman and his wife’s home after their deaths, Fox News Digital learned.
In the documents, obtained by Fox News Digital, investigators list two cellphones, MyQuest records, a 2025 planner, thyroid medication, blood pressure medication and Tylenol as the items they collected from the home.
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Sheriff Mendoza and Santa Fe Fire Chief Brian Moya shared more information about the ongoing investigation with “Today,” saying Hackman and Arakawa may have been dead “up to a couple of weeks.”
“Just based on their bodies and other evidence on the body, it appears several days and possibly up to a couple weeks,” Mendoza said when asked when the couple died.
When asked whether Hackman and his wife died simultaneously or whether one died before the other, the sheriff replied, “I think that’s very difficult to determine. I think it’s going to be pretty close.
“You know, there’s no indication that anyone was moving about the house or doing anything different. So, it’s very difficult to determine if they both passed at the same time or how close they passed together. We’re trying to put that information together and, obviously, with the assistance of the office of the medical investigator, I think the autopsy report is going to be the key to this investigation.
“We’re trying to put things together, a timeline when the decedents were last spoken to. Of course, we understand that is a challenge because they were very private individuals and a private family. So, we’re trying to put all that information together right now.”
The Oscar-winning actor was found dead along with his wife, a classical pianist, and one of their dogs in their sprawling Santa Fe, New Mexico, home Wednesday afternoon.
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The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department revealed that autopsies have been completed on both Hackman and his wife. No external trauma was seen on either the actor or the musician.
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Carbon monoxide and toxicology tests were ordered for Hackman and his wife because the manner and cause of death have not been determined.
Meghan Markle accused of copying American icon’s cooking show ‘frame for frame’
Along with several recent controversies, Meghan Markle is now being accused of copying Pamela Anderson’s cooking show with her upcoming lifestyle series.
“Every single day another allegation regarding the conduct of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, seems to emerge, the latest being her new show is similar in style to the Pamela Anderson program,” royal expert Ian Pelham Turner told Fox News Digital.
The Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix show, “With Love, Meghan,” premieres Tuesday and will feature the 43-year-old talking with celebrity guests in the kitchen and garden near her home in Montecito, California.
Fans have started comparing the trailer for the duchess’ series to Anderson’s series, “Pamela’s Cooking With Love,” which premiered last week.
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Royal expert Neil Sean, in a video for his YouTube channel, called Markle’s show a “frame-for-frame” copy in some cases.
“As you can see, Meghan has been inspired by her [Anderson’s] cookery show, right?” Sean said, showing a shot of Markle high-fiving her guest on set next to one of Anderson high-fiving her guest.
He noted “there’s very little new in the world of cookery,” mentioning a popular show he used to watch as a kid.
“It’s difficult to reinvent it, but Meghan didn’t even bother with that. Clearly, she just got inspired,” he said.
Sean said a “very well-placed source” told him Anderson is “actually delighted with Meghan Markle. Well, maybe that’s stretching it a bit but, you know, kind of happy for this simple reason. You see, this has elevated Pamela’s show. You know, the sort of publicity she could have only dreamt about.”
“Not only that, this is going to be very successful for Pamela Anderson in effect, Meghan being inspired by Pamela’s show,” he added. “It’s literally been an injection back into Pamela’s brand.
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“So, if Meghan thought that nobody would spot this, well, now clearly nobody’s going to want to watch Meghan simply because they’ve kind of seen it first with Pamela.”
But he said Anderson isn’t interested in taking legal action against Markle, citing a “very good source” who is close with Anderson who said, “She’s not interested in going down that sort of route.”
“Apparently, she wishes everybody the very best,” Sean said.
British broadcaster and photographer Helena Chard told Fox News Digital, “Although Meghan will have a big say in her lifestyle series, it is steered and edited by Netflix. Netflix’s prerequisite is sales, and they will be using a trusted format to create the series and sales. It’s a numbers game.”
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She said that while she imagined Markle had taken “some tips” from Anderson, she felt it was unfair to say Markle “completely copied Pamela’s show”.
“Pamela also focuses on wholesome food and meals, whereas Meghan’s show doesn’t focus on cooking,” Chard explained. “It is a plus sign that the formats are similar as it signifies a possible success story for Meghan and her lifestyle show.”
Chard added that Markle would help her brand by coming off as “authentic and consistent.”
She predicted the first episode of “With Love, Meghan” would be a “huge success” because “people are curious, and there is an awareness drive around her series.
“The fact that she is married to Prince Harry with two beautiful children is the standout factor,” Chard added, saying she wasn’t sure how different Markle’s show was from different lifestyle series.
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She noted Markle could “thrive by taking a leaf out of Pamela Anderson’s book. Pamela has a sincere, raw and appealing character which automatically makes her a winner.”
Pelham Turner further explained that after his many years of working in TV, he’s found it’s “common practice” to follow the “trend” of another successful show.
“Although the artist will have a large say in the matter, in the end, it is the channel which decides the direction and flow of the show,” he said. “In reality, Pamela Anderson is a very nice, kind and thoughtful lady, so is Meghan, and so the two share the same dynamics and values.”
Public relations expert Matt Wolf noted that he didn’t think the accusations would hurt Marke’s brand “all that much.”
“People already feel strongly about her, one way or the other, so I think she’d have to do something much more radical than produce a show similar to Pamela’s in order to hurt her well-established brand,” he explained to Fox News Digital.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and a rep for Anderson for comment.
New report reveals what schools are keeping from parents about their own kids
More than 50 school districts in Maine have policies that allow minors to hide their gender identity from their parents, according to a new watchdog report.
Parents Defending Education (PDE), a grassroots organization tracking gender ideologies in schools across the country, filed public records requests to confirm that at least 57 of the state’s 192 school districts have policies excluding parents from knowing whether their children identify as another gender.
The report comes after President Donald Trump chastised Democrat Maine Gov. Janet Millis last week over her refusal to enforce Trump’s “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order.
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“It was totally unsurprising to see the governor of Maine go to the mat to keep males in women’s sports when over 50 school districts in Maine have written policies to deceive parents about their own child,” PDE spokesperson Erika Sanzi told Fox News Digital Friday.
“We have seen a groundswell of parents in Maine speaking out about this now that they are aware of it, and it is our hope that districts begin to roll back these policies, not only because of the executive orders from the Trump administration but because nearly 80% of their constituents oppose them,” she said.
In one example from the state’s largest district, Portland Public Schools, district policy on “transgender and gender expansive students” requires that if “a student and their parent or legal guardian do not agree with regard to the student’s gender identity or gender expression, the school shall abide by the wishes of the student with regard to their gender identity and gender expression while at school.
“School staff shall comply with the student’s wishes regarding disclosure of their transgender status to others, including but not limited to parents or guardians, students, volunteers or other school staff, unless the student has explicitly authorized the disclosure or unless legally required to do so.”
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Policies like Portland’s are also still in place after Trump signed an executive order at the end of January, “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which states that “steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement or allowing males access to private spaces designated for females may contravene Federal laws that protect parental rights.”
Trump has already threatened to cut off Maine’s federal funding if it continues to defy his orders.
“I heard men are still playing in Maine,” Trump told to a gathering of Republican governors in Washington last week.
“I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money. They are still saying, ‘We want men to play in women’s sports,’ and I cannot believe that they’re doing that. … So, we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.”
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Trump signed the executive order barring men from women’s sports earlier this month, which directs federal agencies to review grants, programs and policies that fail to align with efforts to block male participation in women’s sports “as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.” The order mandates strict enforcement of Title IX and threatens to revoke federal funding from noncompliant educational institutions and athletic organizations.
After the order, several other blue states indicated they would not be complying with it, including California and Minnesota.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Maine Department of Education for comment.