Where Zelenskyy is headed following tense White House exchange with Trump, Vance
Ukraine President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy departed the White House ahead of schedule on Friday, following a heated exchange with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance that culminated in the U.S. leader showing Zelenskyy the door.
Zelenskyy was seen hopping into his SUV outside the White House on Friday afternoon after he got into a heated exchange with the president and vice president in a meeting that was intended to bring Ukraine closer to ending a yearslong war with Russia.
The Ukraine president traveled to the U.S. on Friday to meet with Trump at the White House, just hours after Trump celebrated that a peace negotiation to end the war between Ukraine and Russia was in its final stages.
The Trump administration, as part of the peace deal, was working to ink an agreement with Ukraine that would allow the U.S. access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for support the U.S. has offered the nation since war broke out in 2022. Instead, the deal was not signed and a planned press conference was canceled after Trump asked Zelenskyy to leave the White House, a White House official told Fox News.
Zelenskyy was scheduled to speak before the Hudson Institute, a D.C.-based think tank, late Friday afternoon, but event coordinators reportedly announced the speech was canceled.
He is still slated to join Fox News’ Bret Baier for an exclusive interview on ‘Special Report’ at 6 p.m. ET.
The White House meeting grew tense in its final approximate 10 minutes, after Vance said that peace would be reached between Russia and Ukraine through U.S. diplomacy efforts.
‘Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,’ Vance told Zelenskyy. ‘Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for bringing it, to bring it into this country.’
‘Have you’ve ever been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have?’ Zelenskyy shot back.
‘I’ve actually watched and seen the stories and I know that what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour,’ Vance continued. ‘Mr. President, do you disagree that you’ve had problems bringing people into your military? And 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, trying to prevent the destruction of your country?’
Zelenskyy continued that under war, ‘everybody has problems, even you,’ and that the U.S. would feel the war ‘in the future.’
‘Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel,’ Trump shot back at Zelenskyy.
‘You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people,’ Trump added at another point during the exchange. ‘You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country.’
Vance interjected, asking Zelenskyy if he had ‘said thank you once this entire meeting.’
‘You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October — offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country,’ Vance said.
‘The problem is I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States,’ Trump said before the meeting concluded. ‘And your people are very brave. But 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, but you’ll fight it out. But 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.’
Trump posted to his Truth Social account shortly after the meeting that Zelenskyy was ‘not ready for Peace.’
‘We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today,’ Trump wrote. ‘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,’ he wrote. ‘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.’
Zelenskyy posted his own social media post Friday afternoon, profusely thanking U.S. officials for their support.
‘Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit,’ he posted to X. ‘Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.’
Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report.