What was supposed to be an opportunity to sign a mineral rights deal between the United States and Ukraine erupted into a heated exchange between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and JD Vance on Friday that unfolded in front of international cameras.
In the end, the two world leaders didn’t sign a deal, a White House official told NOTUS. Instead, Trump and Vance called Zelenskyy “disrespectful” and the Ukrainian president left the White House without even participating in a customary pre-scheduled press conference.
“This is going to be great television, I will say that,” Trump said in the Oval Office at the end of the bitter yelling match.
The big blow-up from the highly anticipated meeting — where allies of both sides had hoped the two men would come to a deal — dominated the day in Washington. It set off world leaders to make a flurry of calls to salvage the talks, but Trump’s day in Washington ended without resolution.
“I would say it didn’t work out exactly great from his standpoint,” Trump said speaking to reporters at the end of the day, before flying to Winter Home in West Palm Beach, FL. “He very much overplayed his hand. We’re looking for peace.”
Tensions first rose Friday when Zelenskyy brought up negotiations regarding a possible ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, expressing his need for security assurances should Russian President Vladimir Putin break a ceasefire agreement.
“I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front line because you have man power problems,” Vance told Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy asked if Vance had ever been to Ukraine, to which the vice president said he had watched the “stories” coming out of the country. Vance went on to claim that Zelenskyy brings people on a “propaganda tour” when they visit Ukraine.
Zelenskyy, who was shaking his head during Vance’s comments, tried to respond but was repeatedly cut off by Trump and Vance.
“You have a nice ocean, and you don’t feel it now, but you will feel it in the future,” Zelenskyy said at one point, referencing the possibility that the war could eventually impact the United States. The comment set Trump off.
“You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel,” Trump said, appearing to lose his temper.
Trump, talking over the others in the room and raising his voice, told Zelenskyy he was “not in a good position right now” and that the Ukrainian president was “gambling with World War III.”
“You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump continued to say during the almost 10-minute yelling session between the three men.
“Have you said thank you once? You went to Pennsylvania to campaign for the opposition,” Vance said. Trump picked up the line, saying, “You gotta be more thankful, ‘cause let me tell you, you don’t have the cards.”
Zelenskyy has made numerous statements thanking the United States for its support and has acknowledged Ukraine’s dependence on it.
“I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on, that’s why I kept this going so long,” Trump said before mocking Zelenskyy, mimicking him saying, “I don’t want a ceasefire, I don’t want a ceasefire. I want to go, and I want this and …”
“Look,” Trump said, “if you could get a ceasefire right now, I’d tell you you’d take it to stop the bullets flying.”
The tension between the two world leaders comes after Trump last week referred to Zelenskyy as a “dictator without elections,” a comment that many Republicans in Congress bristled at. Trump walked back the comment this week.
It’s not clear where the minerals deal or ceasefire negotiations go from here. Zelenskyy called the agreement a good first step, but said he would “never accept just a ceasefire” without “security guarantees.”
Trump told reporters on Friday, before leaving DC, that Zelenskyy had to say he wants peace before talks could begin again.
“We’re not looking to go into a 10-year war and play games. We want peace,” he said. “He’s gotta say I want to make peace. He doesn’t have to stand there and say Putin this, Putin that, all negative things.
Trump has continued to pressure Ukraine for some form of repayment for U.S. military aid. He claimed this week that European nations are “loaning the money to Ukraine” and would “get their money back,” though both French President Emmanuel Macron and United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer corrected the record.
“No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60% of the total default,” Macron said of loans made to Ukraine. He went on to say that France would look for recompensation, possibly from frozen Russian assets, during peace negotiations, saying, “If they’re ready to give it to us, super.”
“We’re not getting all of ours,” Starmer said this week when Trump told the press the U.K. would be repaid. “I mean quite a bit of ours was gifted, it was given. There were some loans but mainly it was gifted, actually.”
But when Zelenskyy appeared to attempt the same tactic, sporadically correcting Trump during the hour-long meeting, it fell flat.
Trump said Friday during his meeting with Zelenskyy that both France and the U.K. would put soldiers in Ukraine after the ceasefire. But the president has said that security guarantees are “off the table.”
A White House official told NOTUS that the Ukrainian president left the Oval Office shortly after the press did. Trump and his team then huddled to chart a path forward. Trump issued a statement on Truth Social after the meeting again calling the Ukrainian president disrespectful.
“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. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace,” the statement read.
One administration official told NOTUS that talks will continue in some form, but are unlikely to happen at the White House level.
“Zelenskyy needs to wake up and smell the coffee,” a White House official said. “He’s not in the same strategic position that he was,” a few months ago, when former president Joe Biden — a unabashed supporter of Ukraine — was president.
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS.