WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his vp, JD Vance, on Friday successfully took the aspect of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in his brutal invasion of Ukraine, calling visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “disrespectful” and telling him he has “no cards” with which to barter.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump mentioned, berating Zelenskyy within the Oval Administrative center in entrance of collected newshounds.
Vance added: “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media… You should be thanking the president for trying to bring you into this conference.”
Trump has been looking to coerce Zelenskyy into delivering Ukraine’s mineral rights in alternate for U.S. beef up, and the aim of Zelenskyy’s talk over with was once ostensibly to achieve an settlement. Trump then informed Zelenskyy that the Ukrainian chief was once recently in no place to bitch in regards to the situation, despite the fact that it was once Putin, now not Zelenskyy, who started the bloody three-year battle.
“You don’t have the cards, but once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position, but you’re not acting at all thankful. And that’s not a nice thing, I’ll be honest, that’s not a nice thing,” he mentioned.
Trump and Vance’s insults of Zelenskyy got here on the tail finish of a just about hour-long photograph alternative by which Trump invited questions. Trump grew visibly offended and ended media availability with: “I think we’ve seen enough.”
Through that time, Trump had already attacked Zelenskyy in a social media submit:
“We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It’s amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Trump is attempting to power Ukraine, which has been below a near-daily missile and drone barrage from Russia for 3 years, to show over uncommon earth mineral deposits to america to pay for U.S. army help the rustic was once equipped below former President Joe Biden.
The brand new efforts at coercion come six years after Trump’s first try to extort Ukraine, which had its origins in Trump’s selection to simply accept Russian assist to win the 2016 election towards Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Right through his dialogue with Zelenskyy, Trump went off on an extended tangent in regards to the investigations into Putin serving to Trump win the presidency within the first position in 2016. Despite the fact that the main points of Russian involvement have been showed through each particular suggest Robert Mueller’s probe and a separate inquiry through the Senate Intelligence Committee, Trump has lied that it was once a “hoax.”
After sending his legal professional Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to dig up proof that Ukraine had attempted to assist Clinton in 2016, Trump tried to extort the then-newly elected Zelenskyy into saying an investigation into Biden, whom he maximum feared as an election opponent in 2020. Trump was once impeached however now not got rid of from place of job for that motion.
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet within the Oval Administrative center on the White Area on Feb. 28, 2025.
Andrew Harnik by means of Getty Pictures
Trump’s animosity towards Zelenskyy has obviously continued within the years since.
On Friday, Trump ranted in regards to the investigations into Russia’s 2016 election interference based on a query about how he may just agree with Putin to honor any peace settlement. Trump informed newshounds that Putin was once in a similar way wronged through the investigations after which inexplicably dragged Biden’s son Hunter and California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff into his resolution:
“Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him in ‘Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.’ You ever hear that deal that was a phony, that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam, Hillary Clinton, shifty, Adam Schiff, it was a Democrat scam, and he had to go through that. And he did go through it.”
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Trump persisted, “We didn’t end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it. Came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting. And then they said, oh, oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia, the 51 agents. The whole thing was a scam, and he had to put up with that. He was being accused of all that stuff.”
It was once unclear precisely what Trump supposed.
Trump claimed all the way through his marketing campaign to win again the presidency in 2024 that he would finish the battle in Ukraine previous to taking place of job. For years, he has claimed with out proof that Russia would by no means have invaded Ukraine had he remained in place of job in 2021 ― despite the fact that Russia was once actively combating to take Ukrainian territory within the japanese a part of the rustic all the way through Trump’s complete first time period.
