Thread by @JPLindsley

1/ 🚨 Before meeting Trump on Monday, Zelenskyy must understand one thing:

He's entering the most consequential reality show ever—the Oval Office Optics.

And I’ve got a trick to share—one I learned from America’s master of political theater 🧵⤵️

2/ My late mentor Roger Ailes—the man who staged Nixon’s broadcast to the Moon, got Reagan elected, and built Fox News—taught me:

Whoever understands the mood, controls the nation.

Trump has mastered the craft of understanding the American mood.

🎥Russell Crowe as Ailes⤵️

3/ Optics rule in America. We’re the Hollywood nation.

Lacking deep cultural roots, we turn politics into folklore—in a paranoid style:

Democrats: “Russia got Trump elected.”
Republicans: “Biden backs Ukraine for Hunter’s profit.”

Both false. Both powerful. ⤵️

4/ Zelenskyy can break us out of this bipartisan paranoid nightmare—

... but only if he understands that Trump is the channel of the American mood.

And Trump just gave him the perfect opening ⤵️

5/ Before the Alaska summit, Trump—for the first time—called Moscow the “Russian War Machine.”

He even said India should be punished for feeding this machine.

Huge!

But almost everyone ignored this development—except me (thanks to Ailes training) … and, of course, Russia. ⤵️

6/ The Kremlin full-on panicked. Their operatives went into overdrive to bury Trump’s words—pushing talk of “land swaps” instead.

Why? Because if Americans see Ukraine as the force STOPPING the War Machine, Moscow loses its best line: “Supporting Ukraine = supporting war.” ⤵️

7/ The Kremlin listens to the American mood: People are rightly sick of foreign forever wars.

So for years Moscow's peddled the lie that supporting Ukraine means fueling endless war—when in reality, Ukraine is the ONLY nation fully resisting the Forever War Machine. ⤵️

8/ Zelenskyy and European leaders are missing the moment.

They think they’ve cracked the code, echoing Trump’s old line: “Stop the killing.”

Come on—that’s weak and old.

The new, stronger, WINNING line is:

Let's Stop the Russian War Machine. ⤵️

9/ Here’s the script Zelenskyy must deliver Monday—to Trump and to America:

1️⃣ Ukraine is STOPPING the Russian War Machine. Help Ukraine END forever wars.
2️⃣ No deal is possible without the people, as Ukraine's July protests proved.
3️⃣ Ukraine is making Europe great again. ⤵️

10/ 4️⃣ “Mr. Trump, they’ve tried to kill both you & me—with bullets & missiles. Why? Because we actually listen to the people. The War Machine hates us.”

5️⃣ Ukraine’s drone tech + America’s big weapons = a Free West. Deport the illegal Russian immigrants & their China pals. ⤵️

11/ President Zelenskyy—remember: In The Apprentice: Oval Office Optics, the most important reality show ever, you’re not speaking TO Trump.

You’re speaking THROUGH Trump straight to the American heartland.

Declare a new era. Speak to the American heart.

You’ve got this. ⤵️

12/ Remember the Oval Office Optics “Alaska episode” with Putin.

Under the shadow of even a U.S. B-2 bomber, he stayed icy calm, playing the “reasonable” man.

That coldness can look like strength—UNTIL Zelenskyy, understanding America, wields emotion as truth.

Stay tuned🧵🎬