It was a sickening spectacle: the man who tried to upend democracy bullying the man who is fighting for democracy.

The air seemed to turn flame red as the TV stars-turned-politicians sat side by side in elegant yellow armchairs and had the wildest dust-up ever televised from the Oval Office.

Donald Trump’s meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky broke down on Friday.Credit: Bloomberg

“This is going to be great television – I will say that,” President Donald Trump noted. The Ukrainian ambassador, Oksana Markarova, hung her head in her hands.

It looked like a set-up. Vice President J.D. Vance, a malign presence who has said he does not care a fig about Ukraine, chided Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for not being grateful enough to America, i.e. Trump.

“Have you said, ‘thank you’, once this entire meeting?” Vance pressed Zelensky, who has thanked America over and over.

Trump barked at Zelensky, “You’re gambling with World War III”, and wagged a finger at him: “You’ve got to be more thankful because, let me tell you, you don’t have the cards. With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards.”

Pretty rich for a draft dodger to lecture a man whose name has become synonymous with wartime bravery. (Trump once said that avoiding sexually transmitted diseases was his personal “Vietnam”.)

When a reporter asked what would happen if Russia broke the ceasefire again, Trump snapped: “What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now?”

The bust of Winston Churchill so beloved by Trump watched over........

© The Sydney Morning Herald