More details are emerging about the aftermath of the Oval Office blowup that saw Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky unceremoniously booted out of the White House and his lunch served to White House staffers. The big question on everyone’s mind is whether or not President Trump is open to immediately reopening talks with Zelensky after a cooling-off period.
The answer, reportedly, is hell no.
As Susie Moore reported earlier on Friday evening, the president answered some media questions as he made his way to Marine One on the first leg of his trip back to Mar-a-Lago. The basic gist of Trump’s remarks was this: The U.S. wants to broker peace, but Zelensky wants to keep fighting with assistance from the U.S.
High-ranking White House officials confirmed to CBS News that President Trump is unwilling to talk to Zelensky at this point because of Zelensky’s disinterest in peace.
High-level Trump sources tell me the White House is now uncertain if they can get the Russians and Ukrainians to stop fighting because this episode with @ZelenskyyUa raised questions about whether he can move forward toward a peace deal. It also raises questions about whether US will pause aid to Ukraine. But Trump is NOT seeking regime change in Ukraine. No discussions about who in Ukraine might be a better leader than Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian officials have reached out this afternoon to senior White House officials desperate to get the deal back on track. But that will not happen today, I’m told. Trump is unwilling to talk to Zelenskyy further today.
When Rubio and Waltz went into the Roosevelt Room to ask Zelenskyy to leave, Rubio made it clear that any further engagements today would be counterproductive. Waltz told Zelenskyy he had made a tremendous mistake, and it was a grave disservice to Ukraine and to Americans, both.
No phone calls between Trump and Putin have been scheduled. But multiple European officials have called top Trump officials since Zelenskyy left asking how the minerals deal can be salvaged.
Trump fully intended to sign the minerals deal today. Two official binders were prepared — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Ukrainian counterpart and the two presidents were going to sit at a conference table in the East Room and then trumpet their success at podiums.
But there were suspicions before Zelenskyy arrived today that it might fall apart. Because the Trump admin had been pushing for weeks for a minerals deal signing at the ministerial level, and Ukraine had refused. Zelenskyy wanted security guarantees.
US officials thought negotiations would be much harder with **Putin** so today have been been in disbelief that it has been Zelenskyy who has been more difficult, making maximalist demands, sources told me.