CNN
—
White House chefs were at work in the West Wing on Friday laying out plates of rosemary chicken, celery root puree and collard greens when the sound of raised voices began floating over from the Oval Office.
Inside, a remarkable scene was unfolding. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance had begun berating their guest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a hitherto unseen public implosion of a key global relationship.
For supporters of Ukraine, the moment was disastrous: Everything that could have gone wrong in a meeting between two headstrong leaders did, in the span of 10 minutes.
Yet for all the shock, it was not an unforeseen outcome. Indeed, in the lead up to the talks — which were intended to culminate in the signing of a new agreement on rare earth minerals — many allies of both men quietly wondered whether their already combustible dynamic would end in triumph or catastrophe.
Efforts were taken to prepare Zelensky for a successful meeting with Trump, who is famously susceptible to flattery and highly attuned to how he’s being treated. The Ukrainian president was warned to focus squarely on the minerals deal — and to avoid getting drawn into a fight.
“I told him this morning, ‘Don’t take the bait. Don’t let the media or anyone else get you into an argument with President Trump. What he’s doing today is resetting the relationship,’” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was among a group of Republican and Democratic senators who met Zelensky before he came to the White House.
Other European leaders who’d come through the building this week offered Zelensky their own guidance, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who has found success in an approach to Trump that balances adulation with pushback.
Still others — including some US officials — tried to discourage Zelensky from making the trip to Washington at all, believing work was still needed to strengthen what had already become a hostile relationship.
Still, by the time Zelensky was pulling into the White House gates on Friday, few could have predicted quite how explosive the ensuing 139 minutes would become — though some detected early signs of trouble.
Stepping from his black SUV wearing what has become his standard uniform — drab military shirt and pants — Zelensky did not belie any tension with Trump, who had walked through the halls of the West Wing to greet him.
But some US officials watching from afar saw a problem: Zelensky’s attire.
“Oh you’re all dressed up,” Trump said with an air of sarcasm as he greeted Zelensky and shook his hand.
Before the Oval Office meeting devolved into a shouting match, Zelensky was asked by a reporter from a right-wing outlet — handpicked by the White House to be in the room during the talks — why he was not wearing a suit in the United States’ highest office.
“I will wear a costume after this war will finish, yes,” Zelensky said, responding in English. “Maybe something like yours, yes, maybe something better. I don’t know, we will see. Maybe something cheaper. Thank you.”
Perhaps taking a lesson from the parade of foreign leaders who had preceded him in the White House over the past month, Zelensky did not arrive empty handed. He brought with him the UFC belt won by the Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk last year.
The colorful gold belt, which sat propped on one of the end tables as the two men got to talking, went unmentioned during the talks, glinting under the lights.
For the first 40 minutes of their talks, Trump did not evince outward bitterness toward Zelensky, instead discussing the minerals deal they were planning to sign later in the day.
Indeed, upstairs in the East Room a long wooden table had been prepared for the signing ceremony, with four chairs ready for the signatories.
It was never to be.
The vice president speaks up
Joining the conversation after remaining mostly silent, Vance interjected — “Hold on. Hey, I want to respond to this” — to make the case for Trump’s efforts at bringing the conflict to an end.
“The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy,” he said, directing his comments to Zelensky.
That is where everything went south.
A bristling Zelensky – himself unaccustomed to public rebukes after three years of stalwart Western support – indignantly laid out the ceasefires Russia had broken in the past.
“What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about? What – what do you have – what do you – what do you mean?” he asked incredulously.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance responded from his place on the sofa next to Trump.
It only devolved from there.
“I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance said in a sharp reprimand. “You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
When Zelensky tried – somewhat unsuccessfully – to get a word in, Trump erupted in anger.
“You don’t have the cards right now,” he bellowed, talking right over Zelensky when he objected.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people,” he shouted. “You’re gambling with World War III.”
A few minutes later, Trump dismissed the media from the room.
“This is going to be great television, I will say that,” he called out as reporters filed out.
A rattled Ukrainian delegation — including the Ukrainian ambassador to Washington Oksana Markarova, who stopped taking notes during the meeting and simply placed her head in her hands — left the Oval Office to regroup in the Roosevelt Room, just down the hall.
Huddling with his own key advisers to assess the situation, including Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Trump was enraged, saying he felt disrespected by Zelensky’s tone.
“Zelensky played it as wrong as he could play it. He came into Oval acting like a tough guy. It didn’t play well. Everyone in the room felt insulted,” one US official said. “Now Zelensky will have to figure out how to fix this on his own. We can’t fix it for him.”
The president ultimately decided that Zelensky was “not in a place to negotiate,” one White House official said. He directed Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz to deliver the message to the Ukrainians who were waiting nearby: It was time for Zelensky to leave.
The Ukrainians protested, saying they wanted to continue the talks, the White House official said. But the request was declined.
As the plates of salad, chicken and crème brûlée that had been planned for lunch sat uneaten on carts in a hallway outside the press secretary’s office, the Ukrainians were instructed to leave.
The surreal day of broken diplomacy unfolded in the span of less than three hours.
Zelensky’s motorcade left the White House gates at 1:42 p.m., with no fanfare or sendoff. He was driven a short distance away to the Hay Adams Hotel, where he and his advisers were staying.
Less than an hour later, he sent a message on social media expressing his gratitude to his hosts: “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit.” He added, “Ukraine needs just and lasting peace and we are working exactly for that.”
Trump allies rally around the president
By then, a White House that had started the day looking to make a deal with Ukraine had suddenly changed course and sought to turn the diplomatic uproar into a moment of strength by launching an extraordinary public relations offensive.
“President Trump and VP Vance are standing up for Americans,” the White House said in the first of several statements Friday afternoon. A few hours later, another message was sent with words of support from members of the Trump cabinet.
“Amen, Mr. President,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said.
Graham, a close ally of Trump who had met with Zelensky earlier in the day, strode to the cameras outside the West Wings. He called on Zelensky to apologize or consider stepping aside.
“I have never been more proud of the president,” Graham said.
Meanwhile, inside the East Room of the White House, the set up for a news conference for Trump and Zelensky was dismantled. A large table for the two leaders to sign the agreement, against a backdrop of three Ukrainian and three American flags, was moved away.
For the next few hours, Trump worked inside the West Wing with his staff. He was seen in the Oval Office with Susie Wiles, his chief of staff, and other advisers before he stepped out to leave the White House for the weekend.
Marine One was waiting, but Trump stopped to talk one more time, trying to put his stamp on the day’s remarkable turn of events.
“He’s looking to go on and fight, fight, fight,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn. “We’re looking to end the death.”
Asked if he wanted Zelensky to step down, Trump declined to answer directly, only saying: “I want somebody that’s going to make peace.”
A whirlwind day in Washington drew to a close as Trump boarded Air Force One and flew to his Mar-a-Lago resort for the weekend. Shortly after takeoff, Zelensky came on Fox News, for an interview that Trump watched on the presidential aircraft.
Zelensky said he did not believe he owed Trump an apology for the fiery outbursts in the Oval Office, but expressed his regret that it all unfolded on television for the world to see.
“I think it was not good,” Zelenksy told Fox News’ Bret Baier. “I think it was not good.”
But he said he believes his relationship with Trump and America will survive.
“Your people helped save our people,” Zelensky said. “We are very, very thankful.”