Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) strongly criticized President Trump for yelling at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an Oval Office meeting Friday, saying, “History will remember this day.”
Trump and Vice President Vance got into a spat with the visiting Ukrainian leader, in which Trump raised his voice and called Zelensky “disrespectful” in front of cameras.
“Generations of American patriots, from our revolution onward, have fought for the principles Zelenskyy is risking his life to defend. But today, Donald Trump and JD Vance attacked Zelenskyy and pressured him to surrender the freedom of his people to the KGB war criminal who invaded Ukraine,” Cheney wrote in a post on the social platform X.
“History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for.”
During the Friday meeting, when Zelensky suggested that the United States did not feel the ramifications of the war in Ukraine yet because of geography, Trump interrupted the foreign leader.
“Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel because you’re in no position… to dictate what we’re going to feel,” Trump said. “We’re going to feel very good and very strong. You’re right now, not in a very good position.”
The president further told Zelensky, “You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.”
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people, you’re gambling with World War III… and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have,” Trump said.
During this back and forth, Zelensky was repeatedly asked by Trump and Vance if he had said “thank you” for the billions in weapons the U.S. has sent Ukraine since the war started in 2022.
“If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks,” Trump said. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.”
“Just say thank you,” Vance added. “We know you’re wrong.”
Monday marked the third anniversary of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began after the country gathered troops along the border and insisted on prohibiting Ukraine’s NATO membership. This invasion occurred nearly ten years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
