Campaigning in Pennsylvania last September, JD Vance seemed to strike at an unlikely political foe: the besieged president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who’d spent most of the previous two years being hailed by Western leaders as a hero.

Vance, a potential heir to the MAGA movement, has carved out a spot as a sharp-tongued defender Trump, elevating him among other lieutenants, including Elon Musk.

Speaker Johnson on Sunday said that Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy may need to resign for Ukraine to continue pursuing a U.S. negotiated peace deal