Donald Trump blasted by Lorraine Kelly as she wades into Zelensky's defence

Volodymyr Zelensky’s combat outfit was mocked by Donald Trump and now Lorraine Kelly has jumped to his defence.

The daytime television presenter has posted a photo of Winston Churchill visiting the White House in military fatigues during WW2 and said that the treatment of the Ukrainian leader was “appalling and shameful”.

Zelensky appeared in his usual fatigues while meeting with Trump on Friday, an outfit he has sported during every meeting with a foreign leader since the war with Russia began.

Trump sarcastically said he is "all dressed up" when he was awkwardly caught on mic as the two men met after Zelensky stepped out of his SUV and approached the West Wing entrance to the White House. “Yes I had to,” replied the Ukrainian leader.

It is traditional that leaders fighting a war not wear suits during diplomatic events, with Churchill famously wearing his "siren suit", an air raid uniform, during a White House meeting at the height of World War Two in 1942. Zelensky said that he would wear a suit once the war is over when he was also asked by a Trump reporter why he was dressed as he was .

And Lorraine has posted a message on Instagram stating: “Winston Churchill at the White House - not wearing a suit because we were at war. The disrespect to President Zelensky throughout was appalling and shameful.”

Outside the Oval Office, Brian Glenn, the chief White House correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a right-wing network, asked Zelensky about his black outfit. "Why don't you wear a suit? Do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have a problem with you not respecting the dignity of the office," the reporter asked.

And Zelensky replied: "I will wear [a] costume after this war will finish,” he told the reporter. “Maybe something like yours, maybe something better… Maybe something cheaper."

The awkward questioning over Zelensky's outfit was just the start of a frosty confrontation. Trump went on to blast Zelensky for being “disrespectful” at the explosive Oval Office meeting and he left without a minerals deal that Trump said would have moved Ukraine closer to ending the war with Russia.

In the wake of the debacle, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to shift the blame to the Ukrainian President, saying: "You guys only saw the end, you don't see all the things that led up to this." The Ukrainian leader was asked to leave by top White House advisers shortly after Trump shouted at him, showing open disdain. “You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” Trump told Zelensky.

The last 10 minutes of the nearly 45-minute meeting devolved into a tense back and forth between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelensky, who had urged scepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, citing Moscow’s years of broken commitments on the global stage.