US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky clashed in an extraordinary shouting match in the Oval Office Friday, leaving efforts to end the war with Russia hanging in the balance.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” a furious Trump told Zelensky, as a meeting that was meant to ease tensions over the sudden US outreach to Russia ended up inflaming them.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country,” Trump added.
Zelensky was at the White House to sign a deal on sharing Ukraine’s mineral riches and discuss a peace deal with Russia, despite the US president recently branding his Ukrainian counterpart a dictator.
The meeting came after a week-long diplomatic dance that has also seen the leaders of France and Britain come to the White House to persuade Trump not to abandon Kyiv.
But tempers frayed after Vice President JD Vance said that “diplomacy” was needed to end the war. Zelensky asked “what kind of diplomacy” and Vance then accused him of being “disrespectful” in the president’s office.
