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.

Axios reported:

“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.