Davies is a podcast consultant, host and solutions journalist at daviescontent.com.
The sudden change in mood probably came as a complete surprise to the worldwide audience watching the Grammys. Right in the middle of Sunday night’s musical performances and glitzy celebrations, a bearded wartime leader, dressed in an everyman olive-green T-shirt, made a brief yet solemn plea for the lives of his people.
“Our musicians wear body armor instead of tuxedos. They sing to our wounded in hospitals,” said Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. “Support us in any way you can, but not silence. … And then peace will come.”
It was a passionate, profound message — as were Zelensky’s other recent video-taped statements to Congress, the European Parliament and the U.K. Parliament. At the Grammys, his stark words of controlled rage against Russia’s invasion almost seem to tumble out of him.
The moment also provided a powerful new definition of what it means to be pitch perfect. The former TV actor and comedian turned politician certainly understands the visual impact of his chosen medium.
“The T-shirt is a reminder of Mr. Zelensky’s origins as a regular guy; a connection between him and the citizen-soldiers fighting on the streets; a sign he shares their hardship,” wrote New York Times fashion critic Vanessa Friedman last month. He could have chosen to wear a business suit. “That Mr. Zelensky chose instead to adopt what may be the single most accessible garment around — the T-shirt — is as clear a statement of solidarity with his people as any of his rhetoric.”
The brevity of the language makes Zelensky’s messages all the more powerful, and his brave decision to remain in Kyiv, a city still under Russian bombardment, is another reason why he is so widely admired.
“In a matter of weeks, Ukrainian President Zelensky has become a beacon to the world, a wartime leader rallying his country, a symbol of courage in the face of personal danger, a politician who has shown anew the power of words and language,” wrote veteran political writer Dan Balz.
Direct comparisons have been made to Winston Churchill, who used the medium of radio and speeches in the House of Commons to rally the British people during the dark days of June 1940, when a German Nazi invasion was a distinct threat.
“We shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender,” Prime Minister Churchill said then. In his address last month to the British Parliament, Zelensky echoed that famous speech.
“We shall fight in the woods, in the fields, on the beaches, in the cities and villages, in the streets. We shall fight in the hills … on the banks of the Kalmius and the Dnieper. And we shall not surrender,” he said. In a break with tradition, the Ukrainian president was given a long standing ovation by British lawmakers.
All of this drama comes at a trying time for democracy around the world, when autocratic leaders have become more outspoken in their dismissal of systems that protect free expression and value individual liberties. Zelensky’s well-chosen words at the Grammys were another powerful reminder of what’s at stake not only for his embattled nation, but for those in many other nations who need encouragement as they defend democratic values they hold dear.
Richard Davies is a journalist, podcast consultant and host at daviescontent.com.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.