WATCH LIVE: President Trump Hosts Bilateral Meeting in Oval Office with Zelensky – 1:15 PM ET
August 18, 2025
UPDATE: Zelensky arrived at the Oval Office wearing a black coat and a collared shirt but with no tie. Typically, he has worn a t-shirt to the White House.
President Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a handful of European leaders at the White House today in an attempt to reach an agreement on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Zelensky will be joined at the White House by several European leaders, including NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Trump is scheduled to meet with Zelensky in the Oval Office and later have a multilateral meeting with all of the European Leaders in the East Room.
President Trump teased the “big day” on Truth Social, adding, “We have never had so many European Leaders here at one time. A great honor for America!!!”
“Lets see what the results will be???” the President said.
It can be recalled that the last time Zelensky was at the White House, he sabotaged a previously agreed-upon deal and disrespected President Trump, attacking his diplomatic approach to the war.
During the heated exchange, Trump blasted Zelensky for making demands and “gambling with World War III.”
President Trump is reportedly also pushing for a trilateral meeting with himself, Zelensky, and Putin as soon as Friday.
Trump's meeting with Zelensky is scheduled to begin at 1:15 pm ET.
NO SUIT! Zelensky Meets with Gen. Keith Kellogg Near White House in a T-Shirt Ahead of High Stakes Meeting with Trump (VIDEO)
August 18, 2025
General Keith Kellogg, who is currently serving as President Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, hosted a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday ahead of Zelensky’s meeting with President Trump.
President Trump and Zelensky are set to discuss a potential deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, following Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the two came to an agreement to secure peace, pending Ukraine and NATO cooperation.
As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, Zelensky is expected to wear a suit during his meeting with Trump at the White House.
However, while meeting with Kellogg at a hotel near the White House, Zelensky showed up in a black t-shirt and black pants.
He told Kellogg that he wants the meeting to focus on "architecture of security guarantees," calling the subject "the most important."
WATCH:
After the meeting, Zelensky shared photos and a clip from the meeting on X, commenting,
I thank @GeneralKellogg for the meeting and for the joint work with our team. President Trump invited Ukraine and other European countries to Washington today – this is the first meeting in such a format, and it is very serious.
When peace is discussed for one country in Europe, it means peace for all of Europe. We are ready to continue working with maximum effort to end the war and to ensure reliable security. These are the key issues.
Last night, Russian attacks on our cities continued – among those killed were two children, and dozens of people were wounded. People were simply sleeping when the Russian army launched strikes on the cities.
We discussed the battlefield situation and our strong diplomatic capabilities – Ukraine’s and all of Europe’s together with America. Russia can only be forced into peace through strength, and President Trump has that strength. We have to do everything right to make peace happen. Thank you!
Пане генерале Келлог! Дякую за зустріч і за спільну роботу з нашою командою. Президент Трамп запросив сьогодні до Вашингтону Україну та інші країни Європи. Це вперше такий формат зустрічі – дуже серйозно.
‘WEAR A SUIT!’: Zelensky Expected to Dress Formally in His Meeting With Trump Today at the White House
August 18, 2025
Will Zelensky show up dressed appropriately?
For three and a half years, Western elites have treated Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky as the consummate hero of democracy, a historical figure to whom no conventions applied.
That includes the dress code expected from heads of state in official meetings.
For a long time, it’s been a widely shared opinion in the Trump administration that his habit of showing up in his military fatigues was unacceptable.
Trump greets Zelensky at the last White House meeting, and trolls the Ukrainian: ‘Look at him, he came all dressed-up!’
Since yesterday, we have been hearing that the White House would have informed the Ukrainians that Zelensky must wear a suit, otherwise the meeting will not take place.
An official meeting with the US President requires the highest level of formal requirements, including in terms of dress code.
Today, more reports state that the White House ‘asked’ Bankova palace if Zelensky will wear a suit.
“Zelensky’s outfit became an issue ahead of his previous Oval Office meeting with Trump in March, which exploded into a diplomatic fiasco.
Trump didn’t like Zelensky’s military-style attire. He offered a sarcastic aside — “he is all dressed up today” — when he welcomed him into the West Wing.
Some U.S. officials thought at the time that the suit issue contributed somewhat to the disastrous outcome of the meeting.”
Zelensky’s lack of dress-code compliance reflected his mistaken attitude that led him to be expelled from the White House.
“The sources said Zelensky will show up at the White House on Monday wearing the same black jacket he wore to a NATO summit in the Netherlands in June. ‘It is going to be ‘suit-style’ but not a full suit’, one of the sources said.”
Zelensky’s suit in the NATO summit was the first time he ditched his fatigues since the war started.
U.S. officials have been quoted as saying that Trump ‘was pleased by it’.
“’Zelensky came like a normal human being, not crazy, and was dressed like a somebody that should be at NATO. … So they had a good conversation’, a U.S. official told Axios at the time.”
But, in a pre-meeting with Special Envoy General Kellog, he was the same old Zelensky.
Today’s episode of “Patriot TV Premieres” should be the last in which we double up on exposing shows from the network to the new audience at The Gateway Pundit. Tom Del Beccaro’s show is the final one that hasn’t been given airtime, so we’re bringing his raw episode to today’s show.
Plus, we have Christina Bobb joining Veronica Live.
With a peace deal on the table, we’ll see what Volodymyr Zelensky does… if anything at all.
Trump Orders English Requirement for HUD Housing and Federal Benefits
August 18, 2025
Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) building image with text overlay, created by Antonio Graceffo for illustrative purposes.
Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order establishing English as the official language of the United States. Now, he is requiring English usage in housing assistance programs and some other benefits programs. And as usual, Democrats and liberals are outraged.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is a federal agency that provides housing assistance to low-income Americans through programs such as Section 8 rental vouchers, public housing units managed by local authorities, emergency aid for the homeless, first-time homebuyer support, and community development projects.
HUD is adopting an English-only policy for nearly all of its services, following President Trump’s March 2025 executive order that made English the official language of the United States for the first time in the nation’s history. The order revoked President Clinton’s 2000 directive requiring federal agencies and federally funded programs to provide language assistance for people with limited English proficiency (LEP).
While it does not override civil rights protections such as Title VI or mandate the elimination of multilingual services, it gives agencies discretion to reduce or end them. At HUD, this means removing non-English materials from websites and offices, ending translation services in more than 200 languages, and requiring all official communications to be in English.
Across government agencies, exceptions will remain where legally required, such as under the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Violence Against Women Act. Supporters argue the policy will save taxpayer money, while critics warn it rolls back efforts to expand access for LEP individuals. The rules take effect immediately, with the Justice Department expected to issue further guidance within six months.
On July 14, the Department of Justice issued guidance to implement the order, announcing plans to rescind prior LEP guidance, suspend public-facing language access resources, and phase out “unnecessary multilingual offerings.”
Agencies were encouraged to consider English-only services, redirect translation funds toward English education programs, and include disclaimers that English is the official version of federal documents. Supporters say the policy promotes unity and efficiency, while critics warn it could limit access for more than 25 million LEP individuals to essential services such as healthcare, education, and voting. Advocacy groups describe it as discriminatory and a major departure from decades of language access protections.
The policy aligns with the Trump administration’s broader immigration agenda, but its full implementation across federal agencies will not be clear until the DOJ issues updated guidance within 180 days.
Under the new policy, all federal agencies and federally funded programs, including Social Security, FEMA, HUD, the CDC, and court and education services are affected. Agencies are not required to eliminate multilingual services altogether, but they now have discretion to reduce or discontinue them.
The DOJ guidance calls for reviewing and phasing out unnecessary translation services, suspending prior language-access resources, and issuing new rules within 180 days. It also recommends agencies use cost-saving technology like AI translation and include disclaimers that English-language versions are the official record.
The memo emphasizes that the shift is intended to promote national unity and government efficiency while giving agencies flexibility to maintain essential multilingual services when necessary.
Most Americans recognize English as the country’s de facto language, and many are surprised to learn that there is no official language of the United States. It is such a common trivia question that a large percentage of people likely get it wrong. Against this backdrop, liberals and Democrats have railed against President Trump’s decision to formally designate English as the official language, ironically, doing so in English.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) suggested the order may be unconstitutional and predicted lawsuits. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, argued the policy would undercut U.S. competitiveness and delivered the Democrats’ Spanish-language rebuttal to Trump’s address to underscore his point.
The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus called the move “a thinly veiled attempt to allow federal agencies to discriminate against immigrants.”
Advocacy groups also joined the opposition: United We Dream said it unfairly targets immigrant communities; LULAC claimed it contradicts First Amendment protections; TESOL International Association pledged to petition Congress in defense of linguistic diversity; and the Hispanic Federation emphasized the nation’s immigrant roots.
Opponents are claiming that the new policy violates the Constitution or civil rights. They also express fears that limiting multilingual services will harm immigrants and weaken U.S. competitiveness.
Yet the Constitution contains no prohibition against establishing an official language. Multilingual services are only necessary if immigrants refuse to learn English, a problem easily solved through incentivization. The competitiveness argument also falls flat. English is already the global language of business, science, and technology.
The rest of the world is racing to learn it because they believe it makes them more competitive. Apparently, liberals think the rest of the world is wrong.
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(@PhilHollowayEsq) August 18, 2025
