President Trump said Friday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had “overplayed his hand” following an explosive Oval Office meeting earlier in the day, and he signaled future U.S. support would be in jeopardy if Zelensky does not want to end the fighting.
“We had a meeting today as you know with Zelenskyy, and I would say it didn’t work out exactly great from his standpoint. I think he very much overplayed his hand,” Trump told reporters at the White House as he prepared to depart for a weekend in Florida.
Asked what Zelensky would have to do to restart talks, Trump said the Ukrainian leader would have to say, “I want to make peace,” instead of criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“He’s got to say, ‘I want to make peace,’” Trump said. “He doesn’t have to stand there and say about ‘Putin this, Putin that.’ All negative things. He’s got to say ‘I want to make peace. I don’t want to fight a war any longer.’”
The moment the meeting went from cordial to off the rails occurred when Vance said Trump was engaging in diplomacy and Zelensky questioned “what kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about?” noting that Putin has broken ceasefires and killed Ukrainians.
Trump indicated the U.S. would not continue to support Ukraine if Zelensky did not come to the negotiating table to end the war.
“I just want to get a deal done, and if a deal happens, good. But you can’t embolden somebody that does not have the cards and all of a sudden that person says, ‘Oh, well now I can keep fighting.’ We are not going to keep fighting. We’re going to get the war done, or let them go and see what happens, let them fight it out.”
Zelensky arrived at the White House earlier Friday, where he was expected to meet with Trump and sign off on a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical mineral supply. Trump had touted the deal as a way for the U.S. to recoup some of the aid it had provided to Ukraine in its war against Russia, while boosting Ukraine’s economy in the long-term.
But after roughly a half hour of relatively cordial back-and-forth, the meeting devolved into chaos, with Trump and Vice President Vance accusing Zelensky of being ungrateful for U.S. support and of having little leverage in talks.
White House officials asked Zelensky to leave after the meeting ended, signaling talks could not be salvaged on Friday.
Trump has pushed for an end to the war in Ukraine, speaking with both Zelensky and Putin. He met earlier this week with European allies from France and the United Kingdom, both of whom argued any peace deal had to have guarantees that guarded against future Russian aggression.
Tensions have been heightened between Trump and Zelensky in recent weeks after the U.S. president called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator without elections” who had done a “terrible job.” Trump recently suggested Ukraine was to blame for the start of the war with Russia. Moscow invaded Ukraine without provocation more than three years ago.
