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Alsharq Tribune- World News
What was supposed to be a triumphant White House visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to mark the signing of a mineral rights deal between the United States and Ukraine devolved into an Oval Office shouting match between Zelensky, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The conflagration kicked off on Friday after the American vice president began lecturing Zelensky for what he called a lack of open gratitude towards the United States for the aid his country has received to combat Russia’s invading forces.
Earlier in the day, Zelensky had arrived at the White House and was greeted by Trump outside the West Wing, with the U.S. leader shaking his hand and making a jovial quip about the Ukrainian president’s customary wartime outfit before escorting him to the Oval Office.
As reporters watched, the two men spoke about the mineral deal that Zelensky’s government has been discussing with Trump administration officials for several weeks, with Trump saying it was “an honor” to have Zelensky at the White House — his first visit to Washington since the change of administration — and describing the work to reach a deal as “very hard” while saying it was going “very well.”
“We have something that is a very fair deal, and we look forward to getting in, getting some of the rare earth, but it needs to look at the inside, and it's a big commitment for the United States, and we appreciate working with you very much, and we will continue to do that,” said Trump, who also commended Ukraine’s armed forces as having been “very brave” during the three-year-old war that began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
But the conversation took a turn after roughly 30 minutes of questions from reporters as the subject turned to whether the agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine would include any security guarantees from the American side.
When Trump was asked by a reporter from Polish radio about concerns that he is “aligned” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump replied that he was “not aligned with anybody” save for “the United States of America, and for the good of the world.”
He also accused Zelensky of harboring “tremendous hatred” for Putin and said that made it harder to “make a deal” to end the war. It was then that Vance, who had been silently sitting with other Trump administration officials, decided to speak up.
he 40-year-old former Ohio senator began by mocking Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, and blaming him for Putin’s decision to escalate the conflict with Ukraine by invading one year into Biden’s term in 2022.
“For four years the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country ... we tried the pathway of Joe Biden, of thumping our chest and pretending that the President of the United States's words mattered more than the President of the United States' actions,” Vance said.
