‘You don’t have the cards’: Trump, Vance berate Zelensky in Oval Office blowup
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- Trump berated Zelensky for “gambling with millions of lives” and suggesting his actions could trigger World War III.
- It was an exceptional rebuke of a U.S. ally without precedent even for Trump, who in his first term frequently used joint appearances with world leaders to further his interests.
WASHINGTON — An extraordinary diplomatic rupture unfolded in the Oval Office on Friday when President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance publicly berated Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as an ungrateful ally risking global war in its ongoing defense against Russian invaders.
Trump and Zelensky opened their meeting, scheduled around the signing of a joint agreement on access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, in complimentary terms, hailing the deal as a concrete American investment in Ukraine’s future.
But tensions quickly boiled over in unprecedented fashion when Vance accused the Ukrainian president of undermining Trump in public.
“I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said. “Have you said thank you once?”
Zelensky’s first words to the president at the meeting were, “Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thank you for the invitation.”
Zelensky had told Trump that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not be trusted, that his territorial ambitions had to be stopped, and that Ukraine would require security guarantees in any future peace deal ending the war.
“We will never accept just [a] ceasefire,” Zelensky said. Kyiv has repeatedly warned that freezing the battlefront would allow Moscow to fortify its positions, entrench in occupied territory and rearm to come back for more.
The remarks prompted Trump to accuse Zelensky of lacking appreciation for U.S. assistance. “You can’t make any deals without compromises,” Trump said. Both Trump and Vance warned Zelensky that Ukraine is running low on soldiers.
“The problem is, I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy. And I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States,” Trump said. “Your people are very brave. 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, but you’ll fight it out. But you don’t have the cards.”
“Once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position,” he added. “But you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing.”
“I’m not playing cards,” Zelensky said.
“You’re not really in a good position right now,” Trump said, raising his voice. “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III.”
In the room, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States held her face in her hands. Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, appeared visibly uncomfortable as the meeting deteriorated.
It was an exceptional rebuke of a U.S. ally without precedent even for Trump, who in his first term frequently used joint appearances with world leaders to further his interests. This time, Zelensky pushed back, engaging in crosstalk with Trump and Vance that demonstrated a level of defiance to the president and his team.
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Trump and Zelensky canceled a scheduled joint news conference shortly after the meeting. The mineral deal was not signed.
Instead, Zelensky was asked to depart, White House officials said, and Trump posted on social media that Zelensky should come back to Washington “when he is ready for peace.”
“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.”
Zelensky, too, wrote on social media after the meeting. “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit,” he said. “Thank you @POTUS , Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
Democratic lawmakers were shaken by the joint appearance, and at least one Republican criticized Trump’s performance. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the meeting marked “a bad day for America’s foreign policy.”
“Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law,” he said. “It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.”
But Trump’s cabinet members — including those leading agencies unrelated to foreign policy — praised the president’s performance as a display of American toughness.
So, too, did Russian leadership. “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office,” wrote Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president.
European leaders are imploring Trump to maintain U.S. support for Ukraine despite declining Republican support for the war effort. Trump has opened up direct negotiations with Russia — the first talks between the two nations since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago — and has pulled back U.S. government language characterizing Russia as the aggressor in the war.
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Both France and the United Kingdom have said they are open to contributing to a peacekeeping mission, deploying boots on the ground inside Ukraine alongside other European troops. The Trump administration has ruled out contributing U.S. forces to that effort, and the president has said Ukraine can “forget about” joining North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a longtime goal of Kyiv opposed by Putin.
European officials signaled concern after the Oval Office meeting, with Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland, expressing solidarity with Ukraine. “Dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” Tusk wrote.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in the Oval Office on Thursday, told Trump that he had created a “tremendous opportunity” to forge peace. But he said that an agreement had to be crafted that would prevent Russia from restarting the war down the line.
Zelensky has been vague on exactly what kinds of security guarantees would be suitable for his country. He had come to Washington hoping for clarity on whether Trump would support the use of Russian assets frozen at the beginning of the war and whether Washington plans to lift sanctions on Moscow.
Fears that Trump could broker a peace deal with Russia that is unfavorable to Ukraine have been amplified by recent precedent-busting actions by his administration. Trump held a lengthy phone call with Putin, and U.S. officials met with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without inviting European or Ukrainian leaders — both dramatic breaks with previous U.S. policy to isolate Putin over his invasion.
Trump later seemed to falsely blame Ukraine for starting the war, and claimed Zelensky was a “dictator” for not holding elections after the end of his regular term last year, though Ukrainian law prohibits elections while martial law is in place.
After taking control of press access to the president earlier this week, the White House allowed a reporter from TASS, a Russian news agency, to join other reporters in the Oval Office as Trump and Zelensky met on Friday. Reuters and the Associated Press were excluded.
Pinho reported from Washington, Wilner from Los Angeles. This article includes reporting from the Associated Press.
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