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U.S. vice president J.D. Vance was notably quiet during a summit with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday — and social media users across the political spectrum are very happy about it.
Numerous posts on X (formerly Twitter) and its more liberal rival Bluesky expressed relief or gratitude that Donald Trump’s second in command had, in the words of one user, “kept his dumb mouth shut”.
It was a marked contrast to what happened when Zelensky last visited the White House in March, in which Vance berated the Ukrainian president for not saying “thank you” more.
“Things go a little better when J.V. [sic] keeps his trap shut and doesn’t try to act tough,” wrote one anti-Trump U.S. conservative on X.
JD Vance sits beside Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the Oval Office during talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky (Getty)
“I think they super-glued Vance’s mouth shut. But overall that went better than I expected,” said another, Trump-supporting user.
Democratic influencer Majid Padellan agreed, saying: “What a difference it makes when Trump is hemmed in by the adults in the room and J.D. Vance is sitting at the kids’ table instead of trying to ambush Zelensky.”
Others said they were happy that Vance had “kept quiet”, “remained silent”, “kept his mouth shut”, and refrained from making “smart-ass ‘look at me’ comment[s]”.
Users from outside the USA also chimed in. “Thank god that Vance wasn’t allowed to say anything,” said Estonian entrepreneur Alvar Laigna on X.
“See how much smoother things go when J.D. Vance stays silent,” said another user, seemingly from the UK.
One Canadian commented that “Vance is being awfully quiet, like a good little boy”, while a Swedish speaker on Bluesky declared: “Any time Vance stays silent is a win for humanity.”
Monday’s meeting was relatively cordial, ending with both Trump and Zelensky expressing willingness to engage in trilateral peace talks with Russia.
Trump even refused to rule out sending U.S. troops to the region in order to enforce any peace deal — something Russia has said it would oppose.