Just hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy entered the Oval Office for a high-stakes meeting with President Donald Trump, he received a stark warning. “Don’t take the bait,” cautioned Senator Lindsey Graham, urging Zelenskyy to avoid getting dragged into Trump’s web of political maneuvering, according to the New York Times.
A tense start: The warning Zelenskyy ignored
Graham, a seasoned Republican from South Carolina, later told the Times that he explicitly advised Zelenskyy not to argue about security agreements. But as soon as the meeting began, the Ukrainian leader made his case for more aggressive US involvement in the war against Russia—only to be met with open hostility.
“I said, don’t get into arguments about security agreements,” Graham recalled as quoted by the New York Times.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Graham had repeated his caution multiple times in the hours leading up to the meeting.
During a private discussion at the Hay-Adams hotel, he warned Zelenskyy again, telling him that Trump would not respond well to pressure tactics or demands. “I told him—keep it simple, thank him for support, and don’t push for more,” Graham recounted. “But he didn’t listen.”
The exchange that set off Trump
Zelenskyy did not silence his concerns during his meeting with Trump, who has come to expect a level of capitulation from almost everyone who has met with him since Election Day, from foreign leaders to billionaire business executives. The result was an extraordinary dressing down by a US president of a foreign ally in the middle of the Oval Office, while the media’s cameras recorded it all.
The question hovering over Washington on Friday evening was whether the confrontation was a spontaneous outburst or a planned verbal smackdown by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, neither of whom respects Zelenskyy.
But three people with knowledge of what took place beforehand said neither Trump nor Vance had been looking to blow up a deal for Ukraine’s mineral rights, which Zelenskyy had been expected to sign in Washington. Instead, they said, Zelenskyy seemingly triggered the two American leaders by not sufficiently thanking the United States for trying to end the war (which Trump wanted to hear) and by pressing for commitments to protect Ukraine from Russian aggression going forward (which Trump did not want to hear).
In the end, Zelenskyy left the White House without a signed deal over mineral rights, which Trump had sought for weeks, and, for now, an even more contentious relationship with his country’s most important ally.
The day was not supposed to unfold this way
Graham has been one of the most vocal supporters of Ukraine in the Republican Party. Yet his warning to Zelenskyy underscored how significantly the GOP, business leaders, and even some Democrats had reoriented themselves around Trump’s desires in the wake of his November win.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut who also attended the Hay-Adams meeting, said it was “very positive and productive.” When Zelenskyy arrived at the White House soon after, Trump greeted him at the entrance to the West Wing and made a crack about his casual outfit.
“Oh look, you’re all dressed up,” Trump said, an early signal that he was going into the meeting somewhat peeved. Zelenskyy, who says he does not wear a suit to show solidarity with his soldiers, had on the unadorned, military-style clothing he usually wears at official events.
Trump, Vance, and their advisers have long disliked Zelenskyy, complaining that he just wants the United States to provide more money and resources for a war that has no end in sight. Trump in recent days has tried to shield Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, from criticism for instigating the conflict.
But as the two leaders sat down for a bilateral meeting without any cameras, the exchange was cordial, according to one person with direct knowledge of the events.
Then the reporters showed up, and the energy in the room instantly shifted, the person said. About eight minutes into the meeting, journalists started peppering the leaders with questions, exposing the divisions between Trump and Zelenskyy.
Trump began to grow frustrated at reporters who pressed him on security guarantees, which Ukraine was hoping to get in exchange for giving the United States a share in the country’s mineral wealth.
Those guarantees from Washington, the only nuclear-armed power truly capable of standing up to Russia, had been Zelenskyy’s most important demand.
There were several moments of pique, like when, nearly 40 minutes into the meeting, Trump was asked to address concerns that he was too closely aligned with Putin. Trump disputed that, arguing he was prioritizing a peace deal.
At another point, Trump tried to correct Zelenskyy on the year when Russia annexed Crimea, but he provided the incorrect year. Zelenskyy then corrected him and reminded the leaders that Putin had repeatedly broken negotiated cease-fires. Vance lashed out, telling Zelenskyy he was being disrespectful to the president.
But perhaps the most contentious point came when Zelenskyy said the war in Ukraine also threatened the United States.
“You have nice ocean and don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future,” he said.
That prompted Trump to pile on, telling Zelenskyy that he was “not in a very good position” and was “gambling with World War III.” Trump then mocked a reporter who asked what would happen if Russia broke a cease-fire.
“What if anything?” he asked. “What if a bomb drops on your head right now? OK? What if they broke it? I don’t know, they broke it with Biden because Biden, they didn’t respect him. They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me.”
As the extraordinary argument continued, Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States who was sitting beside the leaders, put her face in her hands.
Finally, Trump declared that there had been enough, adding that it would make for “great television” before leaving the room.
The fallout: Calls for Zelenskyy to resign?
In the aftermath, Senator Graham stunned reporters by suggesting that Zelenskyy should “resign and send somebody over that we can do business with.” Other Republican leaders either downplayed the confrontation or blamed the Ukrainian president for disrespecting Trump.
Zelenskyy, however, stood his ground. In a later Fox News interview, he admitted the exchange had been intense but insisted that fighting for Ukraine’s survival left no room for empty diplomacy.
As the world watches, one thing is clear: the battle lines in Washington are being drawn, and Zelenskyy is no longer the darling of American politics.