A White House meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was meant to set terms for bilateral cooperation collapsed Friday into anger and recriminations in full view of the world.
The stunning clash left a deep sense of foreboding for the embattled Ukraine’s future, and hinted loudly at the U.S. shift away from an alliance-based foreign policy toward one of big-power politics.
What the White House had billed as a meeting to sign a bilateral deal on development of Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals instead unraveled – in real time, with media cameras rolling – into a clash between Mr. Zelenskyy and the president and vice president of the United States.
Why We Wrote This
It was a clash of world-views, not just of individuals. A falling-out between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy reflects the U.S. pivot toward the view that big powers, not global norms, drive events.
Mr. Trump lauded the Ukrainian people as “very brave” in the face of war but told the Ukrainian leader that his resistance to reaching peace quickly with Russian President Vladimir Putin risked setting off “World War III.”
As Mr. Zelenskyy pushed back that accepting peace on Russia’s terms now would reward the aggressor and only put off war to recommence in the future, Vice President JD Vance chastised the Ukrainian leader for lacking gratitude toward the United States and disrespecting President Trump.
At one point a camera captured Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova with head in hands – an apt symbol of the diplomatic disaster unfolding before the White House audience.
After the aborted meeting – Mr. Zelenskyy was abruptly asked to leave the premises, according to some White House officials – Mr. Trump took to his Truth Social website to unceremoniously blast the Ukrainian leader.
“He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office,” he wrote. “He can come back when he is ready for peace.”
As extraordinary as the meeting was, it did offer hints of how U.S. foreign policy may be shifting in a world where big-power politics and competition replace a post-World-War-II approach based on alliances and American leadership.
That shift is hitting Ukraine like a whiplash, coming only months after the embattled country was being supported by the U.S. as the epicenter of a geopolitical struggle for the principles of national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Putin is going to relish this as a big win, no doubt about that,” says Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense who served in the Reagan administration. “This is very worrisome for prospects for continued U.S. aid” to Ukraine, he adds, “and that can only make the Russians happy.”
Beyond one fiery White House meeting, the spectacle of the U.S. publicly lashing a determined but war-weakened ally for resisting capitulation to the regional aggressor underscores how American global leadership has abruptly changed under President Trump, Mr. Korb says.
“Can you imagine if we had told the South Koreans in their dark hour that ‘You have no standing here, we’ll settle this with China and Russia without you at the table,’” he says. “Would South Korea be our valuable ally today?”
