Trevor Phillips compared Donald Trump to fictional mob boss Vito Corleone in a brutal live TV takedown on Sunday morning.
The Sky News presenter said Volodymyr Zelenkskyy “walked into a re-run of The Godfather ” during his extraordinary Oval Office bust-up with the US president.
In what appeared to be a pre-planned attack, the Trump and his deputy, JD Vance, ganged up on Zelenskyy, who was supposed to be in Washington to sign a deal which could ultimately lead to the end of his country’s war with Russia.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump told him.
In the opening monologue on his Sky News show, Phillips said: “Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have hoped that when he walked into the White House he would be meeting the kind of wise, steadfast, principled American president beloved of Hollywood movies – think Martin Sheen in the West Wing or Morgan Freeman in just about everything else.
“In fact, he walked into a re-run of The Godfather. Donald Trump made Zelenskyy an offer the Ukrainian president leader thought he could refuse, holding out for security guarantees in return for critical minerals.
“He got the full Vito Corleone treatment – a brutal, made for TV takedown, with a stand-out quote destined to be repeated down the ages: make a deal, or we’re out.”
Zelenskyy ended up leaving the White House without signing a deal which would have given America access to Ukraine’s mineral resources in exchange for military support.
The Ukrainian president received a much warmer welcome from Keir Starmer when he visited 10 Downing Street on Saturday.
The prime minister told him: “You have full backing from across the United Kingdom and we stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take.
