Trump, Zelensky talks in Oval Office canceled after hostile meeting; mineral resources deal on hold
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky left the White House Friday after a heated Oval Office exchange between President Donald Trump and himself. The White House said in an afternoon news conference that the meeting has been canceled. Trump said Zelensky can come back to the White House “when he is ready for peace”.
The two leaders along with Vice President JD Vance engaged in a tense back-and-forth in the Oval Office over the nature of US support for Ukraine’s war against Russia.
President Donald Trump declined in the meeting to offer details on if his administration would provide additional security assistance following Friday’s expected rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine.
“He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace,” Trump said.
US president told Ukraine’s leader, “make a deal or we’re out” and Vice President JD Vance questioning whether Zelensky had demonstrated enough gratitude for US support during the three-year war.
“You’re not really in good position right now,” Trump scolded Zelensky, raising his voice.
“You’re gambling with World War III,” the US president went on.
Vance called Zelensky “disrespectful” for trying to litigate the conflict in public.
“We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Donald Trump will no longer hold a joint news conference on Friday, a White House official confirmed.
The Trump-Zelensky high-level meeting was expected to yield a signed deal that would exchange US access to Ukraine’s mineral resources for security guarantees.
A source familiar with the matter said a rare earth mineral deal between the US and Ukraine was not signed on Friday after a hostile meeting between President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky departed without signing the minerals deal and without holding the joint news conference with Trump, as was earlier planned.
He did not speak to the media before departing in his motorcade.
A non-resident fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, Olga Tokariuk, said President Donald Trump was “siding with the aggressor” following his tense Oval Office exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Total bully tactics by the US president and VP. This is not diplomacy. This is not neutrality. This is siding with the aggressor and trying to finish off the victim,” Tokariuk said in a post on X.
President Trump, who has previously said Ukraine would have to forego its aspirations to join NATO and may have to cede some territory to Russia to end the war has declined to say what, if any, concessions Russia may have to make to end the war, once again avoided offering details on what Russia may have to give up.
Trump pushes back on concerns he aligns himself with Putin: “Well, if I didn’t align myself with both of them, you’d never have a deal. You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, ‘Hi, Vladimir. How are we doing on the deal?’ It doesn’t work that way. I’m not aligned with Putin. I’m not aligned with anybody. I’m aligned with the United States of America, and for the good of the world, I’m aligned with the world, and I want to get this thing over with,” Trump said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian military officers reacted Friday to the shouting match that broke out in the Oval Office between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
One military officer, who goes by the call sign Aleks, said on Telegram he doesn’t “give a damn” about the kind of peace Trump offers.
“It’s better to fight to death than to freeze the war and then be drained again in three years,” he said.
“Trump understands the aggressive manner of negotiations and is trying to crush Zelensky. There would have been no heated talks if Trump had offered at least a ceasefire on the contact line with minimal amendments,” said Stanislav Buniatov, another Ukrainian military officer, in a Telegram post.
“We are talking about handing over Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and a number of cities in the Donetsk region to the Russians,” Buniatov added.
“How do you imagine giving away cities with people? Trump does, because we are not people to him, he is negotiating on behalf of Putin’s interests, so don’t stoop to that,” he added.