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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky exploded inside what he’s called the “disinformation space” Russia has created around US President Donald Trump, but he may have jeopardized further American support for his country.
Unwilling to sit by while Trump and Vice President JD Vance projected a Swiss-style ambivalence about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky threw out the recognized world leader playbook for dealing with Trump — fawning and deference — and talked back.
The scene was in stark contrast with the audiences Trump held with two other world leaders this week.
French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer both wanted to entice Trump to deal with Zelensky. Both deployed flattery, with Macron reminiscing about Trump’s visit to Notre Dame and Starmer hand-delivering a letter from King Charles.
Zelensky was at the White House to sign an agreement with the US over rare earth minerals to which Trump wants access in exchange for continued military support. But Zelensky apparently could not stomach a revisionist history in which Putin is not seen as a villain.
Trump, meanwhile, accused Zelensky of “gambling with World War III.”
The resulting Oval Office shouting match, conducted in front of reporters, was a spectacle without precedent in front of TV cameras at the White House.
Trump later kicked Zelensky out of the White House and issued a statement on social media.
“President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations,” Trump wrote on social media. “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.”
Americans aren’t used to seeing video of Trump visibly upset – and certainly not at the leader of a democracy the US is supporting with military aid.
Vance also spoke up, and instigated the argument when he said the US condemning Putin during the Biden administration had only brought years of war.
“The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy,” Vance said, defending Trump’s apparent trust in Putin. “We tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest,” Vance said.
Zelensky countered that Putin has broken agreements before, such as the one reached in 2019, when Trump was in office. Zelensky didn’t mention it, but that agreement was reached at a time when Trump was preparing to face his first impeachment trial, for withholding aid to Ukraine and pressuring Ukrainians to spin up an investigation ofBiden.
Both Vance and Trump accused Zelensky of not being grateful enough for the aid Zelensky and Ukraine have received from the US, and they both also criticized Biden. Zelensky said he worked with Biden because he was who voters had made the US president at the time.
While Zelensky did try to interject with more thanks during the Oval Office appearance, Trump berated him, saying the war would have been over in “two weeks” without American military aid. Trump also inflated the amount of US aid to Ukraine, which is less than $200 billion, by saying it was $350 billion.
That’s when Zelensky cut Trump off, all but accusing Trump of using Putin’s talking point that the war would have been over in three days without US support for Ukraine.
Trump clearly has animus toward Zelensky and feels kinship with Putin.
“Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said. “He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia.”
That’s a reference to the US intelligence community’s assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election in an effort to help Trump’s campaign. A resulting special counsel investigation found multiple contacts between Trump’s campaign and Russians but did not find enough evidence to allege collusion. The investigation overshadowed much of Trump’s first term.
Now, back in office, Trump does not view Putin as an enemy.
“Donald Trump has switched sides in the war, and I think that is the context for the confrontation we just saw,” said Susan Glasser, a journalist who wrote a book about Putin’s rise in Russia.
In Russia, officials were borrowing Trump’s talking points to praise the US president for lecturing Zelensky.
“The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office and @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with World War III,’” said Dmitry Medvedev, a top official in Putin’s government, in a post on X.
Zelensky, on the other hand, took to X to again thank the US and Trump for their support, as if the blowup had never occurred.
“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.”
But the damage may be irreparable. Even supporters of Ukraine in the GOP, like Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, were questioning whether Zelensky can be a partner.
“I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again,” Graham said outside the White House on Friday.
This headline has been updated.