Ugly Diplomacy: Trump Warns Zelensky of Gambling with WWIII, Minerals Deal Canceled

By Staff, Agencies

US military support for Ukraine hangs in the balance and talks over a minerals deal have collapsed following a disastrous White House summit in which Donald Trump warned Vladimir Zelensky that he was “gambling with World War three” and told the Ukrainian president to come back “when he is ready for peace”.

Zelensky left the White House early, and a press conference to announce the minerals deal was cancelled, after Trump gave Zelensky a dressing-down that followed an ambush led by vice-president JD Vance to shatter the fragile relationship between the two leaders.

The US president received the Ukrainian president on Friday to discuss controversial mineral resources deal that Trump has said is the first step towards a ceasefire agreement he is seeking to broker between Russia and Ukraine.

But the meeting on Friday degenerated after Zelensky suggested that Vance, a skeptic of US support for Ukraine, should come to the country to see the destruction from the invasion and that Russia was responsible for the continued fighting.

The meeting had been due to continue behind closed doors, but was cut short after the open display of antagonism in the Oval Office.

“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,” he said. “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.”

During the public part of the meeting, Trump and Vance took turns to berate Zelensky, with Vance accusing him of carrying out “publicity tours” and Trump telling him: “You’re not really in a good position right now.”

At one point Vance demanded: “Have you said thank you once?”

Picking up the theme, Trump told 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?”                                                       

Trump then delivered Zelensky an ultimatum, telling him that Ukraine must either “make a deal or we are out” – suggesting the US could walk away from negotiations and cut off support to Kyiv more than three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

“Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem,” Trump continued. “You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good … You don’t have the cards right now with us, you’ll start having problems right now.”

Trump also told Zelensky that “Putin went through a hell of a lot with me” over the impeachment scandal during his first term in office. “He wants to make a deal,” said Trump. “I don’t know if you can make a deal.”

At one point in the exchange, the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington appeared to be holding her head in her hands.

“The problem is, I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think he’d be a tough guy without the United States, and your people are very brave,” Trump said. “But you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”

Trump ended the meeting by saying that Zelensky was not “acting thankful” and “that’s not a nice thing”.

“This is going to be great television,” he concluded.

Interviewed by CNN after the stunning blowup, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, questioned whether Zelensky really wanted peace, and said the Ukrainian leader should apologize after the meeting devolved into what he described as a “fiasco”.

“There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic,” Rubio told CNN.

“When you start talking about that aggressively – and the president is a deal-maker, he made deals his entire life – you’re not going to get people to the table,” he said. “And so you start to perceive that maybe Zelensky doesn’t want a peace deal. He says he does, but maybe he doesn’t.”

Russian officials reacted with glee to the extraordinary scenes at the White House, while Ukraine’s European allies expressed support for Kiev.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president, said Zelensky had got a “solid slap” from Trump in what he described as “a brutal dressing-down in the Oval Office”.

The European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Europe would step up its support for Ukraine “so that they can continue to fight back the aggressor.” In an indirect rebuke to Trump, she said: “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, praised Zelensky. “Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless,” she posted on X. “We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.”

The French president, Emanuel Macron, told reporters: “Russia is the aggressor, and Ukraine is the aggressed people … These are simple things, but they’re good to remember at times like these.”

In a later interview with Fox News, Zelensky said the Oval Office exchange with Trump and Vance was “not good for both sides”. Asked to respond to Trump’s claim that Zelensky was not interested in peace, he said nobody wanted the three-year war to end more than Ukrainians. But he said Ukraine and Europe needed security guarantees from the US before entering peace talks.

Even if he gave the order to stop fighting, Zelensky said “nobody will just stop” because everyone is afraid “Putin will come back tomorrow”.

“We want just and lasting peace,” he added.

Despite the tense dialogue, the Ukrainian leader said he was hopeful that his relationship with Trump could still be salvaged and a minerals deal could move forward.

Before departing to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House that Zelenskyy was “looking for something that I’m not looking for” and again claimed that the Ukrainian leader wanted to “fight, fight, fight”.

“Either we’re going to end it or let him fight it out, and if he fights it out, it’s not going to be pretty because without us, he doesn’t win,” Trump said.

The personal relationship between Trump and Zelensky has been strained since Trump’s previous administration, when he was impeached – though not convicted and removed from office – on the grounds that he had pressured Zelensky to investigate business dealings involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter in Ukraine.

But Friday marked a true low point in the relationship, with the public blow-up coming as Ukraine is desperate for foreign military aid and international support to keep the country afloat amid its grinding defense from the Russian invasion.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser described it as “the most shocking behavior by Trump and Vance I’ve ever seen in the Oval Office. An ambush.”