‘Have You No Shame?’: JD Vance Faces Backlash as Hundreds of Protesters Force Him to Cut Family Vermont Ski Trip Short After Igniting White House Clash with Zelenskyy
Vice President JD Vance was forced to abandon his vacation plans at a Vermont ski resort after hundreds of angry protesters showed up to greet his family following the disastrous Feb. 28 White House clash where he and President Donald Trump berated Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who pushed back on accepting Russia’s terms to end the war.
Reports said Vance and his family were confronted by hundreds of protesters at the Sugarbush Resort in Waitsfield, Vermont, forcing them to cut their four-day trip short amid the outrage.
Demonstrators loudly denounced Vance as a “national disgrace,” with the protesters standing along a half-mile stretch of road leading to the resort, with some holding signs saying, “Vance is a traitor, go ski in Russia.”
Protesters also gathered near the slopes where Vance’s family was skiing, though it remains unclear how close the demonstrators came to the second family. Other signs in the crowds beckoned, “Trump serves Putin” and “Theocracy is not freedom.”
Meanwhile, critics of Friday’s Oval Office meeting described it as a “disaster” for the United States and accused Trump and Vance of handing a major victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin after clashing with Zelenskyy on live TV.
The Kremlin was reportedly celebrating the stunning turn of events, while many Americans and Ukrainians remain dismayed, as Russia has been an ideological adversary of the United States for more than a century since the 1917 October Revolution.
At the resort, protesters made their outrage clear, condemning Vance for turning argumentative during the meeting with Zelenskyy and questioning whose interests he was truly serving.
“Have you no shame? Support Ukraine,” one protest sign stated amid others that showed support for Ukraine. In the background, a smaller crowd of Trump supporters showed up with signs that said, “Make America Great Again.”
In places about town, some locals expressed frustration over the demonstrations. One skier told Fox News Digital that the protests disrupted the peaceful atmosphere of the resort, suggesting that political disagreements should not interfere with recreational activities.
“Those people protesting Vance are f—ing morons,” the skier said, according to reports.
Resort spokesperson John Bleh said a small group of peaceful protesters gathered throughout the day but did not cause disruptions. He declined to comment further.
Fox News claims it was told by a source it did not identify that the Vances had planned to stay at a four-star inn near the resort but opted for an undisclosed location instead — a decision made before the protests erupted.
Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott urged protesters to remain peaceful and to respect his privacy while traveling with his family.
JD Vance can always say he saw the ski slopes from his car like he told Zelenskyy he saw the Ukraine-Russia war on tv
pic.twitter.com/P8ObFtEcJU
— Piyush Mittal
(@piyushmittal) March 2, 2025
“I hope Vermonters remember the Vice President is here on a family trip with his young children and, while we may not always agree, we should be respectful,” Scott said in a statement issued before the Vances arrived.
“Please join me in welcoming them to Vermont, and hoping they have an opportunity to experience what makes our state, and Vermonters, so special,” Scott wrote.
Somehow Vance’s vacation plans got leaked beforehand as protesters had been planning a surprise blitz at the resort since early last week.
Republican residents had been seething over deep cuts to the federal government, but that anger intensified after Friday’s Oval Office confrontation, in which both Vance and Trump bombarded Zelenskyy with criticisms, misleading rhetoric, and demands of obeisance, leaving many viewing the meeting as a pretext to shift the narrative of the war and advance the Kremlin’s agenda in Ukraine.
The extraordinary sit-down started out smooth but turned to shouting and finger-pointing when Vance accused Zelenskyy of being unappreciative of the president’s help and then accused the embattled leader of trying to litigate the peace deal in front of news cameras that the White House had brought in for the stage-managed occasion.
“Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance told Zelenskyy. “Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
Vance then asked Zelenskyy if he had “said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting?”
Vance then criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of the conflict, which began in February 2022.
“You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country,” the former Ohio senator said.
Vance’s comments ignited the president, causing him to explode on Zelenskyy when he questioned why Vance was speaking “loudly.” That’s when Trump jumped in to support Vance, telling Zelenskyy that his country was in danger of total destruction and that he “didn’t have the cards” to make any demands in a forthcoming peace deal with Russia.
Globally, the explosive meeting was seen as a sign of the Trump administration’s alignment with Moscow — a shift in American diplomacy that suggested Trump was steering the United States away from its role as a defender of democracy in Europe while making major concessions to Russia.
Notably, top U.S. and Russian officials met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on Feb.18 for high-level talks on improving bilateral relations and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine—without any Ukrainian officials present.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer reaffirmed the country’s steadfast support for Ukraine during his meeting with President Zelenskyy in London, just hours after the White House confrontation. Talks over the weekend focused on a strategy to continue funding the Ukrainians and provide military support now that the U.S. was taking a step back.
The main fear arising from the meeting was that Trump and Vance had potentially given Russia the green light to invade other sovereign EU nations along its western border, challenging the current world order that has been upheld by the NATO alliance since the end of World War II.
The hastily scheduled sit-down at the White House had been intended to seal a critical minerals deal for the U.S. in exchange for future security guarantees that would help protect Ukraine from any future aggressions after Russia invaded the region twice over the past decade.