A White House meeting that was intended to kick off negotiations on a deal over Ukraine’s rare earth minerals devolved Friday into a remarkable confrontation, with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance chastising Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and telling him he wasn’t grateful enough to the United States.
The Oval Office shouting match has for now shattered hopes for the minerals deal, which Trump and his allies had presented as an important step forward for Ukraine on the road to peace with Russia more than three years after the war began.
“He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website after the meeting ended. “He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Trump dug in further hours later, telling reporters that Zelenskyy “overplayed his hand” and accusing the Ukrainian president of “looking to go on and fight, fight, fight.”
“We’re not looking for somebody that’s going to sign up a strong power and then not make peace because they feel emboldened,” Trump said. “We’re not looking to go into a 10-year war and play games. We want peace.”
After departing the White House, Zelenskyy posted on X, “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
During a Fox News interview Friday evening, Zelenskyy reiterated his appreciation of U.S. support but rebuffed calls to apologize for his comments at the White House.
“I think that we have to be very open and very honest. And I’m not sure that we did something bad,” Zelenskyy said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is among the Trump allies who have called on Zelenskyy to issue an apology, telling CNN in an interview Friday night that Zelensky should “apologize for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became.”
“There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic,” Rubio said. “We were hoping that that meeting would begin by: ‘Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you. We wouldn’t even have a chance to negotiate a piece without the help you gave us.'”
Despite Trump’s assertion that Zelenskyy “doesn’t have the cards” to negotiate, the Ukrainian leader remained adamant Friday night that security guarantees be included in any agreement to end the war, as well as the rare earth minerals deal drafted by the Trump administration.
The security guarantees, he added in the Fox News interview, are critical given what he described as a long history of Russian President Vladimir Putin disregarding ceasefire agreements.
Zelenskyy made many of those same points during his meeting with Trump and Vance when the cameras were rolling. A White House official told NBC News that Trump and other U.S. officials later asked Zelenskyy to leave the White House, saying that he was not welcome back on Friday. Zelenskyy abruptly departed the White House, and a planned joint news conference with the two leaders was called off.
The Oval Office exchange underscored the tension that has emerged between the United States and Ukraine — along with many of its European allies — over the tougher line that Trump has taken toward the country since coming into office. He has called Zelenskyy a “dictator“ and falsely said that Ukraine, not Russia, started the war.
Rubio said Friday that frustrations over Zelenskyy’s behavior are not new, pointing to reporting by NBC News that President Biden lost his temper and raised his voice while on the phone with the Ukrainian leader, according to four people familiar with the June 2022 call.
“These frustrations are not unique to President Trump,” Rubio said.
Zelenskyy told Fox News that he believes his relationship with Trump could still be salvaged. But he said in the interview that he wants to see signs of Trump favoring Ukraine over Russia.
“I want really, him to be more at our side,” Zelenskyy said. “The war began when Russia brought this war to our country. And they are not right.”
The verbal skirmish in the Oval Office began after Vance said that the path to peace between Russia and Ukraine is diplomacy. Zelenskyy disagreed, noting that Russia had broken agreements with his government in the past.
“He killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners,” Zelenskyy said about Putin. “What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance shot back. “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media right now.”
Vance has long opposed U.S. aid to Ukraine. As a senator, he voted against a $95 billion foreign aid package that included substantial funding for Ukraine. As a Senate candidate, Vance said in a 2022 podcast, “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”
When Vance told Zelenskyy on Friday that Ukraine has “manpower problems” in recruiting troops, Zelenskyy challenged Vance, noting he had never even been to his country.
“I’ve actually watched and seen the stories,” Vance responded. “And I know, what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr. President.”
“Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?” he added.
Zelenskyy said that everyone has “problems” during the war and suggested that the U.S. doesn’t feel the effects of the war because of the “nice ocean” between the two countries. He said the U.S. may not feel the effects now, but added, “You will feel it in the future.”
“Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel because you’re in no position to dictate that,” Trump said, raising his voice and pointing his finger at Zelenskyy. “You’re not in a good position.”
“You’re gambling with World War III,” Trump said. “And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country — this country.”
“I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy,” Trump said. “And I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States. And your people are very brave, but you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out.”
Trump and Vance repeatedly suggested that Zelenskyy was not thankful enough to the United States for its assistance.
“You’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing,” Trump said at one point.
“Have you said thank you once, this entire meeting?” Vance also asked.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly thanked the United States for its help. In December 2022, he spoke before both chambers of Congress and his first words were: “Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. It’s too much for me. All this for our great people. Thank you so much. Dear Americans, in all states, cities and communities, all those who value freedom and justice, who cherish it as strongly as we Ukrainians in our cities, in each and every family, I hope my words of respect and gratitude resonate in each American heart.”
Republican allies of the president largely applauded Trump after the meeting. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., an outspoken critic of Putin who has supported U.S. aid to Ukraine, called the meeting a “complete, utter disaster,” and said, “I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskyy again.”
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Graham — who attended a bipartisan group of senators’ meeting with Zelenskyy earlier Friday — said the Ukrainian leader “either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”
Zelenskyy rebuffed Graham’s suggestion during his Fox News interview, stating that only the Ukrainian people can demand his resignation.
Meanwhile, Trump and Vance’s handling of the meeting stunned Democrats, who said that they were kowtowing to Putin.
“What we saw in the Oval Office today was beyond disgraceful. Trump and Vance berating Zelenskyy — putting on a show of lies and misinformation that would make Putin blush — is an embarrassment for America and a betrayal of our allies. They’re popping champagne in the Kremlin,” wrote Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who was also part of the meeting with Zelenskyy on Friday morning.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., said during an interview on MSNBC that “this is the beginning of the end. Putin starts not only walking all over Ukraine, but walking all over Europe.” Trump has “completely thrown out American tradition, Republican tradition, everything they’ve run on for decades just to be beholden to Putin.”
Zelenskyy’s visit had been expected to focus in large part on a potential deal for the U.S. to access Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals, which are used to make a variety of tech products.
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said that the two countries had made progress on an agreement that would grant the U.S. a significant ownership stake in Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals as a form of repayment for Washington’s support of Kyiv since Russia’s invasion.
U.S. officials initiated peace talks with Russian negotiators this month in Saudi Arabia, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the U.S. delegation. It was the first time Russian and American officials had met in person during the Trump administration with the express intent of bringing an end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump has long accused Zelenskyy of taking undue advantage of the U.S. and goading then-President Joe Biden into spending billions of U.S. dollars on a war that “couldn’t be won.”
The minerals agreement, Trump has argued, would serve as reimbursement for the nearly $66 billion in military assistance the U.S. has provided Ukraine over the past three years, and it could create an “economic partnership” between the two countries.
Ukraine has some of the world’s largest reserves of titanium and iron ore. Many of the minerals, however, are in areas controlled by Russian troops, according to U.S. officials.