Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told President Donald Trump, “No deal for now”, after a meeting at the White House went awry.
Zelensky, Trump, and Vice President JD Vance met in the Oval Office to discuss a minerals deal that was supposed to be signed yesterday. Talks stalled after Trump and Vance called Zelensky disrespectful for insisting that the minerals deal would only be signed if the United States agreed to security guarantees against another Russian offensive.
President Trump was extremely frank in his response to Zelensky’s request.
“You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country,” Trump said to Zelensky during their meeting. “This country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have.”
Both parties separated for a few minutes before Zelensky’s team was notified that President Trump had requested them to leave the White House. Zelensky appeared on Fox News to discuss the verbal scuffle in the Oval Office.
“It’s so sensitive for our people,” Zelensky said in the interview. “And they just want to hear that America (is) on our side, that America will stay with us. Not with Russia, with us. That’s it.”
The discussion yesterday has brought out a variety of responses from other lawmakers, some in support of President Trump’s handling of Zelensky’s request and others offering a complete rebuke of his actions.
“Somebody asked me, am I embarrassed about Trump? I have never been more proud of the president,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said to reporters after the meeting. “What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful, and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again.”
Democratic politicians offered a different view of the meeting between the two presidents.
“What we just witnessed between Donald Trump, JD Vance, and President Zelensky inside the White House was an ambush,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said in a video discussing the meeting. “It was a planned ambush designed to embarrass President Zelensky to benefit Vladimir Putin.”
The future of the mineral deal between the United States and Ukraine is up in the air after yesterday’s meeting. No future meeting is scheduled at this time.
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