The liberal media didn’t report the full truth about the Zelenskyy White House meeting gone wrong

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WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 28: U.S. President Donald Trump (C) and Vice President JD Vance (R) meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) in the Oval Office at the White House on February 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump and Zelensky are meeting today to negotiate a preliminary agreement on sharing Ukraine’s mineral resources that Trump says will allow America to recoup aid provided to Kyiv while supporting Ukraine’s economy. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Liberal media flooded the internet with a short clip of a heated moment between Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. What the media chose to leave out of its reports was the very cordial 40 minutes that occurred before Zelenskyy began to blame the United States for not stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin in previous years.

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Administration officials told the Daily Caller that they fully expected to reach a deal with Zelenskyy and to sign the long-awaited minerals deal during his visit on Friday, but the Ukrainian president’s inability to know how to work with Trump and Vance got in the way.

Forty minutes after sitting in the Oval, exchanging pleasantries, and taking questions from the press, an argument ensued. The Ukrainian president openly criticized the U.S. for not stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin. Vance shot back. Trump started to raise his voice. Zelenskyy repeatedly interrupted his hosts.

From administration officials, the Daily Caller reports:

The White House believed the pair would give opening remarks, take questions, and continue negotiations behind closed doors, an administration official told the Caller. After the breakdown, some social media users and media members claimed that Trump and Vance had “ambushed” Zelenskyy. But the official stressed that what happened today was not according to the White House’s plan. 

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Yet it seemed that from the moment the Ukrainian president entered the Oval Office, things weren’t going to go smoothly.

An administration official noted to the Caller that Zelenskyy was carrying himself in a “disrespectful manner” and had rolled his eyes and interrupted the president and his vice president multiple times.

“There was a braggadocious hubris about him,” a senior White House aide told the Caller.

The contentious conversation went as follows:

“During 2015, nobody stopped [Putin]. He just occupied them too. He killed people,” Zelenskyy said. “[Throughout] 2014 and 2022, the situation [was] the same. People have been dying on the contact line, nobody stopped him … He broke this ceasefire. He killed our people and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners. But he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy, J.D., are you speaking about? What do you mean?” “I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance said. “Mr. President, Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

Vance chastised the Ukrainian president for not extending gratitude toward the U.S. for its security assistance. Trump pointedly told Zelenskyy, “You’re gambling with World War III.”

After eight minutes of arguing, Trump decided to end negotiations, signaled for the press to be moved out of the room, and Zelenskyy’s motorcade pulled up to the White House. An administration official confirmed to the Daily Caller that Trump had kicked the Ukrainian president out. “Nothing will be signed,” the White House official said of the impending minerals deal.

Trump took to TruthSocial to publicly state his assessment of the meeting:

“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 said in his post.

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