Geert Wilders, now a strongman in the new Dutch government, lightheartedly reflected on how President Biden ruined the NATO summit by mispronouncing the names of Ukrainian President Zelensky and his own vice president.
President Joe Biden dashed any hopes that his diplomatic efforts in the run-up to the NATO summit would yield positive headlines on Thursday, when he appeared to get deeply disorganized and struggled to remember the names of key players. As he attempted to introduce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden declared to the room, “I now want to hand the baton over to a courageous and determined president of Ukraine: Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin.”
Soon after, perhaps prompted by murmurs of surprise and slow applause from the audience, Biden realized his mistake and tried to redeem the moment, saying, “President Putin?! We’re going to defeat President Putin. President Zelenskyy. I’m focused on defeating Putin, so we have to worry about that. Anyway.”
In another gaffe, President Biden appeared to portray Vice President Kamala Harris as his biggest political opponent, saying, “Look, if I didn’t think President Trump was qualified to be president, I wouldn’t have chosen her to be my vice president. So let’s start there.”
Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders simply poked fun at the gaffe on Friday morning, posting a photo of Kamala Harris and Zelensky standing together with the caption “Putin meets with President Trump.”
Wilders, long the Netherlands’ most popular politician, came in first in last year’s Dutch elections. He is a member of the right-wing populist Freedom Party, which advocates border controls and fighting the Islamization of the Netherlands. As is typical in European political systems where multiple parties rule rather than just two parties as in the United States, the election was followed by lengthy negotiations to form a new government.
Normally the leader of the largest party would be expected to become prime minister – in this case Wilders – but to get the coalition government on track, all the parties gave up that role, handing it instead to an apolitical outsider.
Wilders, a prominent critic of radical Islam, has lived under constant police protection for decades due to threats to his life from Muslims.
President Putin meets with President Trump. pic.twitter.com/ZIMylo45ae
— Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) July 12, 2024
