Trump and Zelenskyy’s Clash in the White House: What Went Wrong?

Trump and Zelesnkyy’s heated meeting at the White House on February 28 shocked the world (Wikimedia Commons).

The heated back-and-forth between President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance was an unusual sight in the White House. Trump told Zelenskyy that he was not in a position to make demands of the United States, suggesting that peace talks could derail unless Ukrainian attitudes changed. According to The Washington Post, Trump’s fury “had no modern precedent.” It is also striking that the White House was now more sympathetic to Moscow than to Kyiv after previous U.S. presidential administrations, including during Trump’s first term, supported Ukraine diplomatically and militarily against Russian aggression.

Trump’s advisers have already declared the meeting a win for “putting America first,” rationalizing it as a heated conversation. However, the Atlantic suggested that the meeting was a “planned attack,” with Trump blaming Ukraine for causing the war. The Atlantic also argues that the talk was “designed to humiliate Zelenskyy on national television,” allowing Trump to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin and to bring the Russo-Ukrainian war to an end on Russia’s terms. 

Zelenskyy expressed “significant disappointment” with the  United States. Although Zelenskyy thanked Trump in a Fox Interview on February 28, he neither apologized to Trump for what Trump described as inappropriate behavior nor accepted a peace treaty that Ukraine did not participate in drafting.

Unlike the United States, European leaders continued to rally around Zelenskyy: leaders of Spain, Lithuania, Moldova, Sweden, Latvia and Norway, among others, all posted messages in solidarity with Zelenskyy. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X: “Dear Zelenskyy, dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone.” French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his support for Ukraine in remarks to reporters on February 28: “I think we were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago and to continue to do so. Leader of Germany’s CDU Party Friedrich Merz, who is likely to become the country’s new chancellor after recent elections, wrote to Zelenskyy: “We stand with Ukraine in good and in testing times.” Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said his country continues to support Ukraine, “especially now.”