The United States’ relationship with Ukraine erupted in a storm of acrimony as President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance berated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in an explosive televised Oval Office showdown and abruptly cut short a visit meant to coordinate a plan for peace. In a fiery public confrontation unlike any seen between a US president and foreign leader in modern times, Trump and Vance castigated Zelensky for not being grateful enough for US support in Ukraine’s war with Russia and sought to strong-arm him into making a peace deal on whatever terms the Americans dictated.
With his voice raised and temper flaring, Trump threatened to abandon Ukraine altogether if Zelensky did not go along. After journalists left the Oval Office, Trump canceled the rest of the visit, including a planned joint news conference and signing ceremony for a deal on rare minerals, and US officials told the Ukrainians to leave. A grim-faced Zelensky strode out, climbed into a waiting black SUV and departed the White House grounds. “I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations,” Trump wrote on social media. “I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
The White House later sent out Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a close Trump ally, to tell reporters that Zelensky should consider stepping down. “He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with or he needs to change,” Graham said on the White House driveway. The president’s verbal assault on Zelensky was a stunning display of anger and resentment toward the leader of a country that has been attacked by a larger power intent on eliminating it as an independent state. No other president in memory has lashed out at a visiting foreign leader in the Oval Office on camera in such a vituperative way, not even at an adversary of the United States, much less a putative ally.
Talking over the Ukrainian leader, Vance called Zelensky “disrespectful” for coming into the Oval Office and making his case in front of the American news media and demanded that he thank Trump for his efforts to broker a peace deal with Russia. Trump jumped in and told the Ukrainian leader that “you’re not really in a good position right now” and that “you’re gambling with World War III.” “You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Trump added. “And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out, and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
The spectacle underlined how radically Trump has reoriented US foreign policy in less than six weeks back in office, all but switching sides in the war in Europe as he expresses sympathy for President Vladimir Putin of Russia and antipathy for Zelensky. Even as he shouted at the Ukrainian leader in the Oval Office, the president spoke of Putin as if they were friends, saying that the Russian leader has “been through a lot with me” in enduring the “Russia hoax,” referring to the investigation of Putin’s clandestine efforts to help Trump win the 2016 election.
The confrontation provided a major boost to Putin, who has long sought to drive a wedge between Ukraine and its most important patron, the United States. Russian officials seemed overjoyed on social media. “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office,” Dmitry Medvedev, a top Putin lieutenant, wrote online.
After leaving the White House, Zelensky tried to smooth over the rupture with a social media post aimed at Vance’s complaints about ingratitude. “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people,” he wrote, using the acronym for president of the United States. In a later interview with Fox News, Zelensky refused to apologize to Trump but expressed regret about the exchange and appreciation to the United States for its support. “We are thankful and sorry for this,” he said.
Trump seemed less interested in making up. Speaking with reporters on the South Lawn before heading to Florida for the weekend, the president said that Zelensky opposes peace. “He’s looking to go on and fight, fight, fight,” Trump said. Asked if he wanted Zelensky to step down, he said, “I want somebody that’s going to make peace.”
Graham later called the meeting a “complete, utter disaster” but blamed it on Zelensky, saying that he had advised the Ukrainian leader in a meeting earlier in the day: “Don’t take the bait. Don’t let the media or anyone else get you into an argument with President Trump.” It was a measure of how much Republicans have fallen behind Trump that Graham and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both onetime hawks and strong supporters of Ukraine against Russia, backed the president and vice president. “Somebody asked me, am I embarrassed about Trump?” Graham said. “I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of JD Vance standing up for our country.”
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