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President Donald Trump is ratcheting up pressure on Ukraine following Friday’s Oval Office clash by pausing military aid — while also leaving open both the revival of a minerals deal with Kyiv and looser sanctions on Russia.
“We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” a White House official told Semafor.
Trump met with top Cabinet officials and advisers on Monday to discuss their next steps after Friday’s on-camera verbal skirmish ended with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy being asked to leave the White House; hours later, Bloomberg first reported the pause on military aid.
But during remarks earlier Monday, he stayed vague about the possibility that his administration would loosen sanctions on Russia as part of a peace deal, declaring: “We’re going to make deals with everybody” to end the war.
Trump’s handling of his next steps when it comes to Russia’s war in Ukraine is a major test of his approach to foreign policy, which turns more on domestic issues and less on foreign assistance and US influence abroad. Trump campaigned against new Ukraine aid and never warmed to Zelenskyy, so his antipathy toward Kyiv’s leader isn’t entirely unexpected, but blowing up the decades-old US legacy of Russian antagonism could become a domestic political liability for him.
“There are a lot of people who want to get to a good outcome. And I think the first among them is President Trump,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who said the minerals deal is still salvageable.
Still, he warned: “We cannot make a deal on Ukraine look like a win for Putin. That’d be a disaster.”
Trump’s advisers notably don’t see the war as their problem to fix. Administration officials, in part incensed over Zelenskyy’s discussion of security guarantees during Friday’s meeting, view the minerals deal that the two men were supposed to sign as an unofficial guarantee in its own right.
“Ukraine and America going into an official economic partnership in itself is a security guarantee,” a second administration official said. “By signing this mineral deal, [it] means that America has a vested economic interest in Ukraine. Will Russia strike if America has economic interests in that country? Probably not.”
But it’s unclear to most players involved what exactly Ukraine needs to do to get talks back on track. In the minds of some Trump advisers, Zelenskyy “just needs to sign” the minerals deal and “demonstrate that he actually wants lasting peace,” as that second official put it.
But other Trump allies signaled that they’re expecting a public apology from the Ukrainian leader before discussions about the deal can move forward.
“Zelenskyy screwed up. You don’t bite the hand that’s feeding you. He was trying to bite the hand that was feeding him,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told Semafor.
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Other Republicans who positioned themselves as friends of Ukraine are trying to put the proposed mineral deal back on course. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., even backchanneled with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff in a bid to keep the pact alive.
And rather than trash Zelenskyy, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called the mineral deal a “potentially historic agreement, and obviously last week was a missed opportunity.” He and other Republicans urged the US and Ukraine to try again.
“What President Zelenskyy should focus on is the minerals deal and getting that back on track,” Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., told Semafor. He declined to entertain potential concessions to Russia: “We should just start with getting back to the minerals deal.”
Meanwhile, Trump said Monday that Zelenskyy just “should be more appreciative” — and seemed to hint at the possibility that the Ukrainian president might need to resign for a deal to get done. Several congressional Republicans have more openly suggested that, too.
“It should not be that hard a deal to make,” Trump said. “It could be made very fast. Now, maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long.”
Still, Mullin and Tillis ruled out any effort to force Zelenskyy out. Mullin said “it’s not our place to get a new leader there. The people of Ukraine get to make that decision.”
Another pressing question facing Washington: Can the mineral deal even be revived? Trump’s Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said Sunday that Zelenskyy “has thrown off the sequencing” — and the White House seems prepared to pivot to other policy issues if talks don’t resume soon.
The second White House official said “the ball’s in their court” on next steps.
The View From Europe
European officials are still hoping that Zelenskyy will find a way to work things out with Trump, though they’re not entirely sure about what the White House needs.
“I hope the Ukrainians will really try hard,” one European official told Semafor.
Another European official suggested that Zelenskyy needs to make some kind of concession, either by apologizing publicly or offering up a scapegoat like top adviser Andriy Yermak, who had frustrated Trump’s team. Yermak spoke to Fitzpatrick on Monday and said “we are moving toward a decision for our leaders to make” on the mineral deal.
And European leaders aren’t necessarily waiting for a thaw. Over the weekend, they offered a public show of support for Zelenskyy and started laying plans for the unthinkable: supporting Ukraine’s defense without help from the US.
The US’ decision to pause assistance to Ukraine puts immediate pressure on European leaders to fill the void. Retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the former commanding general of US Army Europe, told Semafor that European nations would be forced to redirect military aid they had committed to other parts of the world to Ukraine.
“Obviously there would be a gap, and Europe would have to step forward and fill that gap,” Hodges said of a proposed US pullout. But he added: “I’m not prepared to say, ‘Oh my God, without the US, there is no way.’”
Notable
- Fifty-two percent of Americans support Ukraine in its fight against Russia, but 44% said they support neither country, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll.