Enter JD Vance – Trump's attack dog who got the fight he wanted all along

He was supposed to be the inconsequential vice-president. But JD Vance's starring role in Friday's blowup between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy - where he played a cross between Trump's bulldog and tech bro Iago - may mark the moment that the post-war alliance between Europe and America finally collapsed.

- Andrew Roth

Trump and Vance teamed up to goad Zelenskyy into a feud in the Oval Office. But it was Vance who snaked his way in first, riling up the Ukrainian president by telling him that he was leading "propaganda tours" of the destruction wrought by Russia's invasion.

"I think it's disrespectful to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media," Vance said, his voice rising. "You bring people on a propaganda tour, Mr President ... Do you think that it's respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?"

"During the war, everyone has problems," Zelenskyy replied. "But you have nice ocean and don't feel now. But you will feel it in the future."

"You don't know that," Trump interjected angrily. "You don't know that. Don't tell us what we're going to feel." The rest, as Trump would later call it, was "great television". By design, it was disastrous for Ukraine.

This was Vance's second great intervention in a month. His Eurosceptic worldview came into focus in Munich, where he accused shocked European leaders of stifling free speech, telling them that "if you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you".