Ukrainians react to Trump-Zelenskyy meeting
European allies were quick to stand up for Ukraine after President Trump and Vice President JD Vance openly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a sharply contentious Oval Office meeting Friday.
Zelenskyy and his Ukrainian team were told to leave the White House earlier than planned Friday and an important minerals agreement went unsigned, a White House official said, after a heated exchange in which Mr. Trump and Vance accused Zelenskyy of being insufficiently grateful for U.S. support. The president told Zelenskyy he’s “gambling with World War III” and did not acknowledge Russia’s role in its assault on Ukraine.
Russia immediately praised the president and vice president’s admonishments of Zelenskyy. After the televised showdown, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s security council, backed Mr. Trump on X: “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office,” the Russian official said of Zelenskyy. “And @realDonaldTrump is right: The Kiev regime is ‘gambling with WWIII.'”
European allies leapt to defend Ukraine, and Zelenskyy reshared on X over 20 of their social media posts and thanked them.
“Your dignity honors the bravery of the Ukrainian people,” wrote António Costa, president of the European Council. “Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You will never be alone, dear President @ZelenskyyUa.”
“There is an aggressor: Russia,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, in a translated post. “There is a people under attack: Ukraine. We were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago and to continue to do so.”
“Luxembourg stands with Ukraine,” wrote Luc Frieden, prime minister of Luxembourg.
Thank you for your support. https://t.co/8miNebF718
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 28, 2025
Congressional Republicans have mostly fallen in line behind Mr. Trump, denouncing Zelenskyy’s demeanor in the Oval Office meeting, while others have remained silent.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who has been supportive of Ukraine, condemned Zelenskyy. Graham said he spoke with the Ukrainian leader Friday morning and warned him “don’t take the bait.”
“I don’t know if we could ever do business with Zelenskyy again,” Graham told reporters outside the White on Friday. “He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with, or he needs to change.”
GOP Rep. Michael Baumgartner of Washington, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, echoed the call for Zelenskyy to resign “for the good of his country.”
“Whatever your view on what happened in today’s bizarre televised WH diplomatic meeting, the West needs US and Ukrainian leadership trust on confronting Russia. After today, that likely requires a new Ukrainian leader,” he wrote on social media.
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, however, defended Ukraine.
“A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West,” he told CBS News. “Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.”
GOP Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a staunch Ukraine ally who serves as co-chair of the House Ukraine Caucus, said the meeting was “heartbreaking” to watch.
“It is time to put understandable emotions aside and come back to the negotiation table. This can and will be fixed,” he said in a statement. “I am confident that the parties will reconvene in pursuit of a mutually agreeable solution that best serves the interests of the United States of America and Ukraine. This is the only acceptable outcome.”
Republican senators who have been supportive of Ukraine and not shy against disagreeing with Mr. Trump have yet to share their opinions, including Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
The House or Senate were not in session Friday, making it more likely that lawmakers will be asked about the meeting in their districts or states over the weekend or when they return to the Capitol on Monday.
Democrats in Congress widely criticized Mr. Trump, calling him “a useful idiot for Putin” and “an embarrassment.”
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar was among the bipartisan group of senators who talked with Zelenskyy just before his White House visit and posted a hopeful picture before the fateful White House meeting.
Really good bipartisan meeting before President Zelensky heads to the White House. We stand with Ukraine.🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/s5NJx0BcKZ
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) February 28, 2025
Afterward, Klobuchar responded to Vance on X that “Zelenskyy has thanked our country over and over again both privately and publicly.”
“And our country thanks HIM and the Ukrainian patriots who have stood up to a dictator, buried their own & stopped Putin from marching right into the rest of Europe,” she added. “Shame on you.”
Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement that Mr. Trump had thrown “a temper tantrum in the Oval Office.”
“This is just the latest in a string of alarming gestures made by Donald Trump to Vladimir Putin — excluding Ukraine and our allies from negotiations, refusing to hold Russia accountable for its invasion, parroting Kremlin propaganda, attempting to extort Ukraine at gunpoint, and siding with Russia at the UN. It’s a dangerous pattern of deference to a dictator who seeks to undermine democracy worldwide,” Meeks said.
“It is not President Zelensky who disrespected the United States in the Oval Office,” he continued. “It was Donald Trump-behaving exactly like the two-bit mob boss we’ve known him to be.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, characterized Mr. Trump’s conduct as “downright un-American.”
Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.
