Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted President Trump for his “shameful display” during Friday’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin “must be overjoyed” with its outcome.
“It would’ve been a show of strength for the President of the United States to bring the elected leader of Ukraine to the Oval Office and engage with him in a dignified way,” Pelosi said in a Friday post on X. “But you would never know that after President Trump’s shameful display. Putin must be overjoyed with today’s theatrics.
“Following the U.S. vote in alignment with Russia at the United Nations this week, a disturbing pattern has emerged that is contrary to America’s longstanding support of democracy around the world,” Pelosi, a vocal Trump critic, said on Friday, referencing the U.S. vote against a U.N. resolution to condemn Russia as the aggressor in the conflict with Ukraine.
The Friday meeting between Trump and Zelensky was initially cordial, but it derailed quickly. The president and Vice President Vance accused the war-time leader of being ungrateful for the assistance the U.S. has provided to Ukraine and said that he lacked substantial leverage in negotiations for a peace agreement.
Zelensky questioned Vance’s claim that an agreement could be struck with Putin to end the three-year war in Eastern Europe.
Ukraine’s president then pointed to Putin’s refusal to exchange prisoners, continuous attack on Ukrainian territories and going back on previous ceasefires.
“I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance told Zelensky. “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 trying to bring an end to his conflict.”
Kyiv’s leader then warned that the U.S. did not feel the devastation of the conflict in Eastern Europe because of the distance but said that might change in the future, a response that ignited a strong rebuttal from the U.S. president.
“Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel because you’re in no position… to dictate what we’re going to feel,” Trump said on Friday. “We’re going to feel very good and very strong. You’re right now, not in a very good position.”
Trump then stated that Ukraine does not have “the cards right now. With us, you start having cards,” adding that the war-time president is “gambling with the lives of millions of people, you’re gambling with World War III… and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country, that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.”
Following the meeting, Trump said that Zelensky was not ready to strike a peace deal.
“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,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social after the meeting. “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.”
Zelensky, who departed the White House after the contentious huddle, thanked Trump for the meeting at the White House and reiterated that Ukraine “needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
