This is an adapted excerpt from the Feb. 28 episode of “Chris Jansing Reports.”
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump met at the Oval Office to finalize the details of a minerals deal both parties agreed to earlier this week. This deal would grant the United States access to some of Ukraine’s critical minerals. Both sides entered the meeting feeling confident it was a good deal for both countries. But, instead of discussing that deal, the conversation quickly devolved into a shouting match, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance repeatedly accusing the Ukrainian leader of not being grateful enough to the United States.
That meeting was horrific. It was a tragedy for American national security interests, and it did neither side any good. Trump and Vance’s confrontation with Zelenskyy doesn’t make the American people any better off tomorrow than they were today. The only winner of this spat was Vladimir Putin. Russian officials and commentators close to the Kremlin are downright likely giddy about the outcome.
Trump and Vance’s confrontation with Zelenskyy doesn’t make the American people any better off tomorrow than they were today.
Vance pleaded for the leader of another country to pledge his fealty to Trump and say thank you. But Zelenskyy didn’t need that reminder. Time and time again, he has thanked the U.S. and the American people for their contributions in helping Ukraine fight against unprovoked Russian aggression. It is also worth noting the vice president voted against aid to Ukraine during his time in Congress, so I’m not quite sure why he believes he should be thanked. Trump’s Republican Party also delayed approving the last package of assistance for six months, a delay that resulted in many Ukrainian soldiers dying on the battlefield.
Instead of focusing on the present — what is good for American national interests today — Trump also felt compelled to relitigate his past.
Trump and Vance’s performance was a distraction from the intended goal of Friday’s meeting. The deal Zelenskyy and Trump were supposed to sign was good for the United States and good for Ukraine. But instead of signing that deal, Trump ranted on about the past and criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of the war and stretched back to his past grievances about other American politicians to 2016, complaining again about what he called the Russia hoax. (In 2016, Putin’s intelligence services stole emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and then published them with the aim of trying to influence the outcome of that election. The Justice Department later published a report on Russia’s interference.)
The president should prioritize the country’s interests and stop reliving the past. What we saw in the Oval Office on Friday was not in America’s best interest.
Moving forward, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team should attempt to get U.S.-Ukraine relations back on track with their Ukrainian diplomatic counterparts, including signing the minerals deal and working to negotiate an enduring and just end to this horrific war. And they should do so behind closed doors, not in the Oval Office with cameras rolling.
