President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky canceled their closed-door meeting and press conference on Friday after a contentious sit-down with Vice President J.D. Vance and reporters in the Oval Office. Tensions rose as the Ukrainian leader explained his skepticism in trusting Russian diplomacy, detailing how Putin had not held up his end of a deal brokered in 2019 that involved a ceasefire and prisoner exchanges, while Vance told Zelensky that he “should be thanking the president” for the military aid provided by the U.S.
Vance went on to enumerate problems Ukraine is facing, including having to resort to conscription due to lack of manpower to keep on resisting Russia’s invasion. “During the war, everybody has problems,” Zelensky replied. “Even you, but you have a nice house and don’t feel [it] now. But you will feel it in the future.” The meeting quickly devolved as the three politicians talked over each other, with Trump and Vance making personal comments against Zelensky. “Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?” Vance asked Zelensky. President Trump framed Ukraine’s position in negotiations as one of weakness where they would have to make concessions, telling the Ukrainian leader “You don’t have the cards right now.”
As the meeting grew more contentious, Trump scolded Zelensky for not shrinking from the argument. “It’s going to be very hard to do business like this, I tell you,” he said, adding “you have to be thankful.” The president also brought up Vladimir Putin, expressing sympathy for the Russian president for reasons unrelated to his country’s invasion of Ukraine. “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said. “He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia,” referring to the allegations from the 2016 presidential campaign that Trump was an asset of Russian intelligence services.
Trump ended the meeting abruptly after about five minutes of the back-and-forth, saying “this is gonna be great television, I will say that.” The closed-door meeting, where the leaders were expected to hammer out a deal on mineral rights in his country, was canceled, along with the press conference that was supposed to take place afterwards. In a post from his account on Truth Social after the meeting, Trump stated that Zelensky “can come back when he is ready for peace.”
