If the presence of the Prime Minister and his fellow European leaders at the White House on Monday was intended to stop President Donald Trump from enacting another Oval Office mugging of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, it appeared to work.
As Zelensky walked into the Oval Office for the first time since Trump and Vice President JD Vance orchestrated his made-for-TV ambush in February, questions abounded about what kind of reception he would receive.
In the event, Trump was on his best behaviour. He still put the Ukrainian leader through a 28-minute impromptu press conference, leaving Kyiv’s delegation waiting patiently for a chance actually to begin closed-door conversations that are vitally important to the future of their country. But at least this time round, it did not descend into a school playground brawl.
Trump – who in February accused Zelensky of lacking “the cards” to win the war – was eager to avoid taking the bait when a Fox News reporter asked him “which side has better cards” now. “I don’t want to say that”, the normally talkative president responded, avoiding an answer that could have put events in the Oval Office on a February-style trajectory.
He also intimated that he has no current plans to pull the rug out from under Zelensky. He was asked whether the US might abandon support for Kyiv if Monday’s talks fail to produce an agreement. “I can never say that,” Trump responded. “People are being killed and we want to stop that…the war is going to end. This gentleman wants it to end. Vladimir Putin wants it to end, and the whole world is tired of it”.
On the thorny issue of security guarantees for Ukraine, Trump also sounded in a conciliatory mood. Hinting at a possible announcement later on Monday regarding a commitment of US military force to help provide post-war Ukraine with security, Trump said Europe’s leaders “waiting in another room” near the Oval Office would provide “the first line of defence” for Ukraine. “But we’re going to help them out”, he said, promising “a lot of help when it comes to security”.
That suggests that Sir Keir Starmer and his colleagues may be pushing at a White House door that is more open to some of their proposals than it has been up until now. “We’re going to work with everybody”, pledged Trump, who carefully avoided both praise and criticism of Putin.
Asked whether any aspect of his Alaska summit meeting with Putin last Friday had disappointed him, Trump revealed that he has not given up hope of brokering a trilateral meeting that would bring the Russian dictator face-to-face with Zelensky.
Putin, said Trump, is “expecting my call…after these meetings today” about the possibility of a three-way meeting at some point soon. Trump portrayed a trilateral meeting as crucial if peace is to be secured. “We may or may not have a trilat,” he said, before predicting that, “if we don’t, the fighting continues.”
At least one other area of contention remains between Trump and his guests at the White House: the President’s newfound hostility towards a ceasefire before any long-term peace talks can begin. Having failed to secure Putin’s support for a truce on Friday, Trump now wants to abandon the idea altogether. “I don’t think you need a ceasefire”, he told reporters in the Oval Office. “If you look at the six conflicts I resolved…I didn’t do any ceasefires”, he insisted. That claim will come as a surprise to the Indian and Pakistani governments, who agreed a ceasefire that the President claimed to have brokered only in May.
With talks continuing at the White House, European leaders clearly had significant work ahead as they seek to rebuild trust in Trump and his capacity to resolve the Ukraine conflict. But at least on this particular day in Washington, Zelensky was not thrown out of the White House and nobody shouted at him…at least, not on camera.
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