Susan Page analyzes Trump, Zelenskyy’s Oval clash impact on the world
USA TODAY’s Susan Page breaks down Trump and Zelenskyy’s fiery Oval clash and its impact on U.S. support, global alliances and Zelenskyy’s future.
WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he is “ready to sign” a deal to grant the U.S. access to his country’s rare earth minerals, days after President Donald Trump publicly berated him at the White House.
In an Oval Office clash before the press corps on Friday with shockwaves that reverberated worldwide, Trump admonished Zelenskyy for “gambling with World War III.” His vice president, JD Vance, demanded he thank Trump more for U.S. support. Trump, who’d been expected to sign a deal, abruptly sent Zelenskyy packing, saying in a social media post that the Ukrainian president could “come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Zelenskyy stated on Sunday he was still prepared to sign the agreement. “I just want the Ukrainian position to be heard,” he told reporters, through a translator, in London, where European leaders convened a hasty meeting after the blowup.
“I think our relationship will continue,” Zelenskyy said of the U.S. “I do not think it’s right when such discussions are totally open.”
The shouting match between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy left the deal, and U.S. military support for Ukraine, in the air, as Europe scrambled to cobble together a separate peace plan. Since he took office, Trump has made an about-face in the country’s financial support for Ukraine, first demanding economic payback in the form of the mineral deal, then signaling after Friday’s fight that additional U.S. military assistance could be on the line.
The Ukrainian president has said he would sign the minerals deal, but he wants a clear commitment from the U.S. about protection for his country.
Hours after the Oval Office clash, Zelenskyy said he intended to sign a deal, telling Fox News host Brett Baier it would be the “first step to security guarantees.”
“But it’s not enough,” he added.
The Trump administration has since pulled back from the talks, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying on Sunday that a deal was “not at present” on the table. “It’s unclear now. President Zelenskyy has thrown off the sequencing,” he said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“What’s the use in having an economic agreement that’s going to be rendered moot if he wants the fighting to continue? President Trump wants a peace deal,” Bessent said.
The minerals agreement would set up a joint fund for the U.S. and Ukraine in which 50% of the proceeds from future investments in government-owned natural resources would be deposited. The framework agreement does not include a commitment from the U.S. to support the country militarily against Russia’s invasion, an event that marked its third anniversary last week.
Trump suggested Friday evening that he did not want to provide the country with more weapons as part of the minerals agreement because it would not get the U.S. closer to his immediate goal of bringing the war to an end. He’d said earlier in the day before the dispute with Zelenskyy that he was willing to arm Ukraine but was looking to advance peace talks.
Instead, Trump has said the agreement itself is a long-term security guarantee because Russia will not want to attack Ukraine if American businesses and workers are in the country.
Trump has also said the U.S. has not received enough in exchange for the more-than-$100 billion it has already provided Ukraine since the war began – a sharp contrast from the policy of former President Joe Biden, who gave Kyiv open-ended support in its effort to confront Russian aggression.
Ex-Trump ambassador calls clash ‘classic negotiation’
Gordon Sondland, Trump’s former ambassador to the European Union, who testified against the president in his first impeachment case, said that the U.S. and Ukraine are in the midst of a “classic negotiation” that the president allowed to play out publicly to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“There will be a deal signed with Zelenskyy, there’s no question about it,” Sondland predicted on Friday night. “Maybe Zelenskyy has to fight a little further and realize that he doesn’t have any cards to play, but there will be a deal.”
Sondland said of Trump, “He’s a real estate guy. And do you know how many negotiations over a building or a lease, people storm out, say, ‘F–k you, we’ll never talk again.’ And then someone calls someone back a day later?”
The ex-Trump ambassador said the minerals deal “is almost as good as any other security guarantee” because Putin is not going to want to launch an attack that endangers American workers. Whoever succeeds Trump as president would have to keep that pressure on Ukraine though, he said.
Europe finds an alternative to support Ukraine
In the wake of the Oval Office shouting match, European leaders have signaled they are ready to take up the mantle of support for Ukraine as the Trump administration pulls away. European leaders, led by U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, met in London over the weekend to draw up a peace deal to present to Trump.
Starmer stepped up to offer a vast swath of military resources to guarantee Ukraine’s security, including British boots on the ground. But any agreement would need U.S. support, he said.
“I’ve always been clear that that is going to need a U.S. backstop, because I don’t think it would be a guarantee without it,” he said on Sunday.
Starmer waved away calls from British politicians to cancel an invitation he gave Trump to visit London amid the dustup. He visited Trump in Washington last week but left without a firm commitment the U.S. would back a peacekeeping force.
Trump has pushed Europe to take a larger stake in support for Ukraine, including pushing NATO allies to spend at least 5% of their GDP on defense – more than double the current guidelines.
“We welcome Europe stepping up for Europe,” Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security advisor, told reporters on Monday. “But they also have to invest in the capabilities to do so.”
“All of that was evident and repeatedly communicated with the Ukrainians before Friday,” Waltz said, adding that Zelenskyy could have left the meeting with Trump “with an economic guarantee that would have benefited Ukraine, and I think the world for a generation.”
Trump administration officials, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, convened with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia earlier this month to kickstart negotiations to end the war in a meeting that did not include Ukrainian representatives. Trump also held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin – the first confirmed direct contact with Putin from a U.S. leader since the war began – before the administration’s talks in Saudi Arabia last month.
Zelenskyy has underscored since the start of the war that a peace deal would need to include a guarantee of Ukraine’s security against further Russian aggression. Otherwise, there would be nothing to stop Putin from launching yet another invasion, as he did of Crimea in 2014 and the entirety of Ukraine eight years later, Zelenskyy and his allies say.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, who served in the George W. Bush administration, said it’s in the strategic and financial interest of the United States to move forward with the minerals deal.
China has more critical materials under its control than the U.S., and the competitor nation could withhold access to them in the future, Herbst said.
“They’ve been willing to use, to play hardball, to deny these minerals, to show unhappiness with policies of other countries,” said Herbst, senior director of the Eurasia Center at the Atlantic Council. “And so we have to be prepared for that, and Ukraine can help us resolve at least part of this problem.”