Along with the rest of the world, Hall saw a far less happy version of Zelenskyy when the Ukrainian president visited President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last month. That uncomfortable encounter put Zelenskyy on the defensive against Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance‘s at times caustic questions and comments, and strained relations between the two countries.
“That’s how President Trump does diplomacy,” Hall says when asked for his take on that Oval Office meeting, which he didn’t witness in person. “It’s certainly not how President Joe Biden would have done it or other former presidents. No we have to see if he’s going to be tough on Putin and make Putin take the ceasefire that’s on the table. In that case, he’s treating both sides the same, and that is his transactional reaction to how gets things done.”
“But President Trump has been very clear and very open about how he feels and that’s what we saw on that day,” Hall adds. “No one saw it coming… but that’s how his policy is going to be made.”
For the record, Trump and Vance weren’t the only ones in the room who had unexpected questions for Zelenskyy. Brian Glenn, the chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, raised eyebrows when he asked the embattled Ukrainian president why he didn’t wear a suit to the White House—a query that had the perceptible tone of a schoolyard taunt. (Glenn later posted a statement to social media expressing “extreme empathy” for Ukraine, but standing by his question.)
“Throughout my career, I’ve heard journalists asks questions that I would not have asked, and that’s one example,” Hall says diplomatically of that controversial exchange. “For me, I was interested in what security guarantees could be put in place and how they would pressure Putin if he doesn’t agree to the ceasefire. I would not have asked why he wasn’t wearing a suit, that’s for certain.”
In an expansive conversation, Hall discusses the process of writing Resolute and looks ahead to the kinds of questions he wants to ask—and the kinds of stories he hopes to tell—as his journalistic career enters its next act.
(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
There’s a line towards the end of Resolute that jumped out at me: “That is where I am today: somewhere between who I was and who I’ll eventually be.” I thought that was an interesting admission for you to make—what did it mean for you to write that on the page?