The United States’ relationship with Ukraine erupted in a storm of acrimony on Friday as President Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in an explosive televised Oval Office showdown and abruptly cut short a visit meant to coordinate a plan for peace.
In a fiery public confrontation unlike any seen between an American president and foreign leader in modern times, Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance castigated Mr. Zelensky for not being grateful enough for U.S. support in Ukraine’s war with Russia, and sought to strong-arm him into making a peace deal on whatever terms the Americans dictated.
With his voice raised and temper flaring, Mr. Trump threatened to abandon Ukraine altogether if Mr. Zelensky did not go along. After journalists left the Oval Office, Mr. Trump canceled the rest of the visit, including a planned joint news conference and signing ceremony for a deal on rare minerals, and U.S. officials told the Ukrainians to leave. A grim-faced Mr. Zelensky strode out, climbed into a waiting black sport utility vehicle and departed the White House grounds.
“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,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “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.”
The White House later sent out Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and a close Trump ally, to tell reporters that Mr. Zelensky should consider stepping down. “He either needs to resign and send somebody over that we can do business with or he needs to change,” Mr. Graham said on the White House driveway.
The president’s verbal assault on Mr. Zelensky was a stunning display of anger and resentment toward the leader of a country that has been invaded by a larger power intent on eliminating it as an independent state. No other president in memory has lashed out at a visiting foreign leader in the Oval Office on camera in such a vituperative way, not even at an adversary of the United States, much less a putative ally.
Talking over the Ukrainian leader, Mr. Vance called Mr. Zelensky “disrespectful” for coming into the Oval Office and making his case in front of the American news media and demanded that he thank Mr. Trump for his efforts to broker a peace deal with Russia. Mr. Trump jumped in and told the Ukrainian leader that “you’re not really in a good position right now” and that “you’re gambling with World War III.”
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Mr. Trump added. “And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
The spectacle underlined how radically Mr. Trump has reoriented American foreign policy in less than six weeks back in office, all but switching sides in the war in Europe as he expresses sympathy for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and antipathy for Mr. Zelensky.
Even as he shouted at the Ukrainian leader in the Oval Office, the president spoke of Mr. Putin as if they were friends, saying that the Russian leader has “been through a lot with me” in enduring the “Russia hoax,” referring to the investigation of Mr. Putin’s clandestine efforts to help Mr. Trump win the 2016 election.
The confrontation provided a major boost to Mr. Putin, who has long sought to drive a wedge between Ukraine and its most important patron, the United States. Russian officials seemed overjoyed on social media. “The insolent pig finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office,” Dmitri A. Medvedev, a top Putin lieutenant, wrote online.
America’s traditional European allies, on the other hand, were deeply alarmed and rallied behind Mr. Zelensky, with the leaders of France, Germany, Poland and others issuing statements of support for Ukraine and its beleaguered leader. The show of solidarity came just days after the United States sided with Russia over Europe in opposing a U.N. resolution condemning Russian aggression on the third anniversary of its full-fledged invasion of Ukraine.
After leaving the White House, Mr. Zelensky tried to smooth over the rupture with a social media post aimed at Mr. Vance’s complaints about ingratitude. “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people,” he wrote, using the acronym for president of the United States.
In a later interview with Fox News, Mr. Zelensky refused to apologize to Mr. Trump, but expressed regret about the exchange and appreciation to the United States for its support. “We are thankful and sorry for this,” he said.
Mr. Trump seemed less interested in making up. Speaking with reporters on the South Lawn before heading to Florida for the weekend, the president said that Mr. Zelensky opposes peace. “He’s looking to go on and fight, fight, fight,” Mr. Trump said. Asked if he wanted Mr. Zelensky to step down, he said, “I want somebody that’s going to make peace.”
Mr. Vance’s eagerness to assail Mr. Zelensky raised the question of whether it was a planned or impromptu ambush. Mr. Vance has never been a supporter of Ukraine and said in 2022 that “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine.”
After Mr. Vance began chastising Mr. Zelensky, it seemed to prompt Mr. Trump to join in. The result, though, was the blowup of an economic deal that Mr. Trump had prioritized in recent days, a commitment by Ukraine to turn over rare mineral rights to repay U.S. military aid over the past three years. The future of that deal remained unclear. A Trump administration official said later on Friday that all U.S. aid to Ukraine could be canceled imminently.
Mr. Zelensky’s hurriedly arranged visit to Washington to sign the minerals deal was meant to smooth over tensions with Mr. Trump, who just last week parroted Russian talking points by falsely claiming that Ukraine “started” the war and calling Mr. Zelensky a “dictator without elections.”
With Mr. Zelensky agreeing to the minerals deal, Mr. Trump seemed ready to make nice by telling reporters on Thursday that he did not even remember the dictator comment and expressing respect for the Ukrainian leader. He welcomed Mr. Zelensky at the door of the West Wing on Friday morning with an honor guard, and they shook hands politely but without evident warmth.
The encounter, though, quickly turned hostile shortly after they sat down in the Oval Office with journalists present. Mr. Zelensky, dressed in his usual dark long-sleeved shirt, sought to explain the history of the war with Russia, noting that it went back to 2014 when Moscow first seized Crimea and occupied territory in eastern Ukraine and continued through Mr. Trump’s first term.
He also expressed skepticism of peace efforts mentioned by Mr. Vance. “What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about?” he asked. “What do you mean?”
Bristling, Mr. Vance replied: “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.”
He then began assailing Mr. Zelensky. “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Mr. Vance lectured. “You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”
He accused Mr. Zelensky of mounting a “propaganda tour” in the United States. “Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?”
Mr. Zelensky tried to respond to Mr. Vance’s assertions and said that the United States could feel threatened by Russia some day. “You have a nice ocean and don’t feel now, but you will feel it in the future,” he said.
That set off Mr. Trump, who cut off Mr. Zelensky. “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel,” he said, raising his voice. “You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now.”
“I’m not playing cards,” Mr. Zelensky replied. “I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m the president in a war.”
“You’re gambling with World War III,” Mr. Trump retorted. “And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”
Mr. Vance jumped back in. “Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting? No.”
“A lot of times,” Mr. Zelensky said. “Even today.”
Mr. Vance then accused him of campaigning for “the opposition” by visiting an ammunition plant in Scranton, Pa., last fall when the Ukrainian leader thanked workers for the arms they were making.
“Please,” Mr. Zelensky said. “You think that if you will speak very loudly about the war —”
Mr. Trump interrupted. “He’s not speaking loudly. He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble.”
“I know,” Mr. Zelensky said, adding that he was “thankful” for U.S. support.
Mr. Vance was unsatisfied. “Just say thank you,” he demanded.
“I said a lot of times,” Mr. Zelensky repeated. “Thank you to the American people.”
After the meeting blew up, Trump administration officials regrouped and ultimately decided to tell Mr. Zelensky to leave, according to a person with knowledge of the events. Two officials were dispatched to inform the Ukrainians, who were waiting in the Roosevelt Room. One Ukrainian official proposed a meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky to calm things down, the person said, but the Americans said no.
Mr. Graham later called the meeting a “complete, utter disaster” but blamed it on Mr. Zelensky, saying that he had advised the Ukrainian leader in a meeting earlier in the day: “Don’t take the bait. Don’t let the media or anyone else get you into an argument with President Trump.”
It was a measure of how much Republicans have fallen behind Mr. Trump that Mr. Graham and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, both onetime hawks and strong supporters of Ukraine against Russia, backed the president and vice president.
“Somebody asked me, am I embarrassed about Trump?” Mr. Graham said. “I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of JD Vance standing up for our country.”
Mr. Rubio also praised the president: “Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before,” he wrote online. (He said later on Friday that Mr. Zelensky “should apologize for wasting our time.”) The White House seemed happy to highlight the clash, releasing a list of supportive statements by the president’s own cabinet officials and Republican allies echoing Mr. Rubio’s argument that he was defending American interests.
The Oval Office blowup drew criticism from supporters of Ukraine. Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, gave an “answer to Vance” on social media: Mr. Zelensky, she said, “has thanked our country over and over again both privately and publicly.” She was one of several lawmakers who met with Mr. Zelensky before his visit to the White House.
“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 wrote. “Shame on you.”
Adding their support were presidents and prime ministers of France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Moldova, Portugal, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg and others.
“We stand with Ukraine in good and in testing times,” wrote Friedrich Merz, set to be Germany’s next chancellor after elections this week. “We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war.”
Maggie Haberman and John Ismay contributed reporting.
