Republicans Cheer on Trump as He Bullies Zelenskiy out of White House

Republicans in Congress are cheering on Donald Trump’s disastrous meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Friday, which ended with a hasty exit from Zelenskiy, a canceled press conference, and no mineral rights deal.

Zelenskiy was reportedly kicked out of the White House after discussions turned into a shouting match in full view of the press and visitors, including Ukraine’s U.S. ambassador and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It seems that most Republicans in Congress couldn’t be happier with how things went.

Representative Anna Paulina seems to think that Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s belligerence increased the likelihood of peace, posting a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post summing up the president’s view of the meeting as Zelenskiy not being ‘“ready for peace if America is involved.”

Senator Mike Lee praised the president’s reaction, posting, “Thank you for standing up for OUR COUNTRY and putting America first, President Trump and Vice President Vance!” Senator Josh Hawley seemed to praise Trump as well, calling Trump’s remark that Zelenskiy was gambling with his country’s future “accurate.”.

“Remember: the U.S. Senate has repeatedly and for years voted BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to Ukraine with no strings attached and with no true oversight. It’s time for some ACCOUNTABILITY,” Hawley wrote in a follow-up post.

Representative Nancy Mace praised the meeting as peace through strength,” while Representative Byron Donalds, who recently got Trump’s endorsement in the Florida governor’s race, thanked Trump and Vance.

“This is what putting the AMERICAN PEOPLE FIRST looks like,” Donalds posted.

Even Representative Victoria Spartz, who is from Ukraine, joined in bashing Zelenskiy and praising Trump.

Senator Lindsey Graham, at one time a staunch supporter of Ukraine, saw an opportunity to bash Zelenskiy and call for his replacement.

It seems that in one meeting, Trump and Vance may have blown up U.S. relations with Ukraine and sent a message to European allies that they will not be working together against Russia. And with Republicans in Congress behind him, aid to Ukraine may now be over for good.

Donald Trump and JD Vance had a disastrous meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. And while most Republicans are cheering on their fearless leader, at least two GOP members have found the courage to criticize the Trump administration.

Trump and Vance were incredibly condescending and verbally hostile toward Zelenskiy in their Friday meeting, likely destroying whatever allyship and goodwill the two countries shared. They both constantly interrupted and yelled over Zelenskiy, insisting that he had shown no gratitude for the previous aid he’d received, that he was being disrespectful for defending his country, and that he was “gambling with World War III.”

This moment is a point of climax in the GOP’s turn away from Ukraine and toward Russia. But the meeting left at least some Republicans shocked.

“Our White House leaders sound like the Democrats in the 1970s and 1980s in regard to Russia. Reagan was right then,” Representative Don Bacon told The Wall Street Journal’s Olivia Beavers. “A bad day for America’s foreign policy. Ukraine wants independence, free markets, and rule of law. It wants to be part of the West. Russia hates us and our Western values. We should be clear that we stand for freedom.” Bacon was notably one of 35 Republicans who voted with Democrats to establish the investigative January 6 commission in 2021.

Representative Mike Lawler, an otherwise staunch Trump supporter, felt similarly.

“Today’s meeting in the Oval Office was a missed opportunity for both the United States and Ukraine—an agreement that would undoubtedly result in stronger economic and security cooperation,” Lawler wrote on X. “Diplomacy is tough and often times there are serious differences of opinion and heated exchanges behind closed doors. Having this spill out into public view was a disaster—especially for Ukraine. As someone who fundamentally believes that Russia, China and Iran are not our friends or allies and continues to believe it is important to support Ukraine, it was extremely short-sighted to engage in that type of exchange in front of the US and international press as you work towards an agreement. Sadly, the only winner of today is Vladimir Putin.”

Trump and Vance have lambasted Zelenskiy for weeks, calling him a dictator, saying that Ukraine started the war, and making any aid to Ukraine conditional on the grounds that they hand over their “rare earths”—all moves sure to delight the Kremlin.

Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s joint press conference was canceled Friday, after a disastrous meeting between the world leaders.

The press conference was set to take place Friday afternoon, only to be unceremoniously canceled after a reportedly tense exchange between the two men.

The White House told reporters that Trump had kicked Zelenskiy out, but Zelenskiy has not commented yet on whether he was asked to leave or if he left on his own accord.

Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich reported that the White House claimed that Zelenskiy’s team was “begging to reset” after the meeting, but that the Ukrainian president had been dismissed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.

Clearly expecting to be showered with praise, Trump and Vance were triggered by Zelenskiy’s demeanor and rhetoric. The White House claimed that the world leader had been “shrugging and rolling his eyes” throughout their conversation, and that the president and U.S. officials felt disrespected.

Zelenskiy did not sign the rare minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine before his early departure.

The minerals deal was a key feature of ongoing negotiations between the U.S. and Ukraine to get paid back for the billions in aid that the U.S. has supplied to the war-torn country. While Trump claims the U.S. has provided $350 billion, the real number is closer to $174 billion. The deal would funnel half of the Eastern European nation’s rare earth minerals—hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of materials—into the American market.

For now, the deal seems dead in the water.

Trump posted on Truth Social shortly before canceling the press conference, attempting to downplay just how much of a catastrophe their shouting match—er, meeting had been. Clearly expecting to be showered with praise, Trump and JD Vance took turns flying off the handle as the Ukrainian president attempted to answer their questions.

“We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure,” Trump wrote.

Trump also indicated that Ukraine had been disinvited from negotiations to end Russia’s unlawful and deadly invasion into its territory.

“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. 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,” he wrote.

This story has been updated.

The Democratic Party is fighting back.

On Friday, the Democratic National Committee, as well as two other national party committees, filed a lawsuit against President Trump, stating that his executive order to seize control of the Federal Elections Commission breaks federal law.

Trump’s order also claims authority over a vast array of other federal agencies, like the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board. But the targeting of the FEC makes up the Democrats’ lawsuit, as it’s a clear bold-faced move that could place the future of free and fair elections in jeopardy.

“Executive Order 14215 grounds its unprecedented assertion of presidential power in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. But the constitutionality of FECA’s vesting of authority in the FEC is beyond question,” the DNC wrote in its suit.

“The assertion is incompatible with nearly a century’s worth of Supreme Court precedent blessing Congress’s authority to insulate certain agencies and officials from day-to-day control by the president,” the lawsuit states.

“Congress’s authority is especially true in this context, where the credibility of the entire regulatory enterprise would be fatally undermined if the party controlling the White House can unilaterally structure campaign rules and adjudicate disputes to disadvantage its electoral competitors.”

This is the Democratic Party’s first lawsuit against Trump during his second term.

The White House has yet to respond.

Donald Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday was magnitudes below presidential, as the United States leveraged the critical wartime meeting for measly political gain by defending Russian President Vladimir Putin while denigrating former American officials, including Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and California Senator Adam Schiff.

Before the American media, Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president, repeatedly cutting Zelenskiy off from speaking while claiming he wasn’t grateful enough for American assistance.

But one question from a Ukrainian reporter about the potential for Russia to break a ceasefire arrangement seemed to really set Trump off.

“What if anything? What if a bomb drops on your head right now?” Trump said in response.

“They broke it with Biden, because Biden, they didn’t respect him. They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me,” Trump continued. “Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.”

Trump then spoke at length about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, calling it a “phony witch hunt” and a “Democrat scam.” Fact check: The U.S. intelligence community determined that Russia did conduct a disinformation campaign to interfere in American democracy that year, and that the campaign was ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following a lengthy investigation, special counsel Robert Mueller determined that there was not enough evidence to bring collusion or conspiracy charges against Trump or his associates for benefiting from the foreign attack, though Mueller’s 448-page final report did not make a final determination on whether Trump had obstructed justice. In a letter following the report’s release, former Attorney General William Barr wrote that the report “does not exonerate” Trump.

The president then continued to rave about the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, which fell apart last year after Republicans’ star witness admitted that the story had been completely fabricated with help from top Russian officials.

Both points were made in defense of Putin, claiming that the Russian leader “had to put up with that.”

“He was being accused of all that stuff,” Trump continued. “All I can say is this, he might have broken deals with Obama and Bush, and he might have broken them with Biden. He did. Maybe, maybe he did. I don’t know what happened, but he didn’t break it with me.

“He wants to make a deal. I don’t know if you can make a deal,” he added, before turning to Zelenskiy.

“The problem is, I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States, and your people are very brave, but you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out.

“I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out, but you don’t have the cards, but once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position, but you’re not acting at all thankful. And that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest. That’s not a nice thing,” Trump said, before adding that the whole fiasco was going to “make great television.”

Moments after the meeting, a statement was posted to Trump’s Truth Social account that described the meeting as “very meaningful” while practically wiping Ukraine out of ongoing negotiations to end the war.

“Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure,” Trump wrote. “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.

“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,” Trump said.

Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, which Putin tried to justify by falsely claiming that he needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine.

The U.S. and Russia opened discussions at a meeting in Saudi Arabia earlier this month, seeking a conclusion to the three-year war, but the assembly conspicuously excluded Ukrainian leadership.

Donald Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy Friday went off the rails, as the grievance-addled U.S. president started arguing with the world leader.

Amid tough negotiations to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has killed more than 43,000 soldiers and destroyed cities, Trump and JD Vance took Zelenskiy’s visit as an opportunity to scold him for not acting more grateful to them for American financial support.* (It seems worth noting that they weren’t in the White House when that aid was actually approved.)

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. has sent $350 billion, but the actual figure appropriated by Congress is closer to $174 billion. He has also begun to falsely claim that other countries are getting their money back. Trump has been increasingly desperate to recuperate the money, and he and his sniveling sidekick Vance lost their tempers during the meeting.

Zelenskiy’s unforgivable faux pas seems to have been explaining to Vance and Trump about Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014—that’s when the scolding started, anyway.

“Mr. President, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Vance scolded. “Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front line because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for—”

“Have you ever been to Ukraine, that you see what problems we have?” Zelenskiy said, leaving the vice president buffering. “Come once.”

“I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, and I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour Mr. President,” Vance said. “Do you disagree that you’ve had problems bringing people into your military?”

“We have problems—” Zelenskiy tried to answer, but Vance wouldn’t relent.

“And do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?” the vice president plowed on.

“I will answer, I will answer,” Zelenskiy said. “A lot of questions, let’s start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems. Even you, but you have nice ocean, and don’t feel now. But you will feel it in the future. God bless—”

“You don’t know that, you don’t know that—” Trump interjected, visibly agitated.

“God bless, you will not have a war—” Zelenskiy assured him, but Trump continued speaking over his guest.

“Don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel. We’re trying to solve a problem, don’t tell us what we’re gonna feel,” Trump said.

“I’m not telling you, I’m answering—” Zelenskiy said.

“Because you’re in no position to dictate that, remember this,” Trump warned, still speaking over Zelenskiy. “You’re in no position to dictate what we’re gonna feel. We’re gonna feel very good.”

“You will feel influence. I’m telling you, you will feel influence,” Zelenskiy warned.

“We’re gonna feel very good and very strong. You’re right now, not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position, which he happens to be right about. You’re not [in] a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us you start having cards,” Trump insisted.

“I’m not playing cards, I’m very serious, Mr. President. I’m very serious. I’m the president in a war—” Zelenskiy tried to respond.

“But right now—yeah you’re playing cards. You’re playing cards,” Trump ranted. “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country! This country!”

“Have you said thank you once?” Vance fumed, suddenly deciding to rejoin the fight.

“A lot of times, even today,” Zelenskiy said.

“You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country!” Vance said.

In September, Zelenskiy met with Kamala Harris at the White House, where she affirmed her support for him. Zelenskiy also visited a munitions factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania—Joe Biden’s hometown located in a critical swing state—to shore up support for Ukrainian resistance, giving a boost to Harris’s campaign.

During that visit, Trump had refused to meet with him, and then complained that the Ukrainian president wanted Harris to win.

To Trump and Vance, it seems that they were expecting a supplicant president, but were instead greeted with Zelenskiy’s well-founded doubts about their approach to the ongoing negotiations, which could lead to Russian President Vladimir Putin getting everything he wants, and no assurances for the future security and stability of a war-torn Ukraine.

This story has been updated.

* This story originally misidentified the type of casualties killed.

Republicans are already worried that their aggressive policy agenda could bite them come midterms.

The House GOP passed a budget resolution Tuesday that will gut major social services, including Medicaid, which provides health insurance to more than 72 million Americans. The $880 billion cut is a trade-off for conservatives who were tasked by Donald Trump to extend his 2017 tax plan, which will overwhelmingly benefit corporations and is projected to add as much as $15 trillion to the national deficit.

But now that the budget resolution is in the rearview, conservative lawmakers are afraid that the forthcoming fiscal package could damn their chances at reelection.

“It could be trouble.… We saw what happened in 2018,” one moderate Republican told Axios, referring to the last Trump administration’s midterm year when anger over the GOP agenda flipped 40 House seats in favor of the Democrats.

Conservatives were quick to distance themselves from the budget framework following a 217–215 vote, which passed with no Democratic support and only one Republican defection (Representative Thomas Massie).

“Last night’s vote was just a procedural step to start federal budget negotiations and does NOT change any current laws,” Republican Representative Rob Bresnahan said in a statement Wednesday.

Others practically lied about the contents of the resolution, misdirecting Americans into believing that the bill did not task the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find, at minimum, $880 billion in savings from programs that fall under its jurisdiction, a seismic order that leaves the committee with practically no other option than to cut away at Medicaid.

Speaking with CNN, Montana Representative Ryan Zinke insisted that there was “zero mention of cutting Medicaid,” which, while technically true, misrepresented the scope of the resolution.

“A billion dollars is our goal over 10 years,” Zinke relented after being repeatedly pressed by CNN’s John Berman on how much Republicans would be willing to cut from the program.

In the days since the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson has reportedly “ruled out” the largest cuts to the health insurance program, though he’s failed to offer any specifics as to how the party will do so without affecting Americans’ benefits.

Meanwhile, Republicans at home have faced fiery town halls led by their irate constituents, furious to discover that their elected representatives are sailing them down the river in order to advance Trump’s agenda.

Kash Patel’s appointment as FBI director seems to be coming with conditions: He wants to live part-time in Las Vegas and work remotely, far away from FBI headquarters in Washington.

Why Las Vegas? Patel has long called the city home, but what’s most intriguing is his actual place of residence. The FBI director lives at a home owned by Michael Muldoon, a Republican Party megadonor who runs shady time-share companies, reported the Nevada Independent earlier this month. Muldoon has been sued over allegations of running a “bait and switch” scheme in his time-shares, where “owners” didn’t actually own their properties and were gouged for fees at the same time.

Muldoon appears to have a history of cozying up to law enforcement officials. He has donated a lot of money to the political campaigns of former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, whose office received multiple complaints about Muldoon’s businesses but never pursued them. And apart from sharing an address with Patel, Muldoon also has intricate business dealings with him, utilizing the same incorporation and legal services.

Patel and Muldoon even took a golf trip together to Scotland back when the FBI director was a federal employee on the National Security Council, which could be an ethics violation. Patel at the time was barred from accepting gifts, and the NSC at the time wasn’t approving any trips. He also would have had to report the trip, and records aren’t available from that time to confirm whether he did or did not.

All of this raises questions as to how Patel is going to run not one, but two, prominent federal law enforcement agencies (he is also head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) with such extensive ties to someone with questionable practices, living in Las Vegas part-time. It seems that the appearance of corruption is not a barrier to working in the Trump administration, even if you’re in charge of enforcing the law.

Elon Musk is planning to once again prompt federal workers to tell him what they accomplished with their week, and is apparently hoping to make it a regular part of government work, The Washington Post reported Friday.

Last week, federal employees received a message from a human resources email at the Office of Personnel Management asking them, “What did you do last week?” and prompting them for a bulleted list of five activities. Failure to respond would be tantamount to a resignation, Musk warned separately on his social media site that federal workers probably don’t use to the same degree he does. His authoritarian threat summoned a flurry of outrage and trolling, and an all too predictable lawsuit.

Several agency heads warned not to respond to the email, and eventually, OPM stepped in saying that replying to the email was voluntary. This week, they’re planning to bring it back, but this time, with a twist.

Federal workers are expected to receive another email in their inboxes Saturday, from addresses that are associated with the chiefs of agency human resources departments, rather than from the OPM, two people familiar with the plan told the Post.

This would give a stronger mechanism for gathering information, as those individuals would have more authority than the OPM within their own agencies. While Musk has tried to use the OPM as his chainsaw, on Thursday, a federal judge ruled that the office did not have the authority to demand mass firings across other agencies. This change to the email plan reflects the limits of the OPM’s power.

But Musk and the OPM apparently have even bigger plans for their strange bid to get federal employees to tell on themselves: a Microsoft form.

Documents reviewed by the Post showed that department heads planned to elicit the crucial five bullets of information from government employees by developing Microsoft forms that would make the responses mandatory. The information collected would be shared with department heads, and would not be released externally.

One person briefed on the government’s plans confirmed all of this, and said that the responses would become a weekly requirement.

Donald Trump claimed that the email was somehow intended to catch out nonexistent government employees—but the true purpose has emerged: to see how closely federal agencies are following the president’s agenda and sweeping executive orders, even as they face an onslaught of legal challenges.

Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos had a sit-down with Trump the same day of his right-wing crackdown on the opinion desk, according to The Spectator’s interview with the president.

“A lot of the people who played a significant role in that election, and particularly on the tech side of things, have come around to support you,” The Spectator’s Ben Domench said to Trump.

“Unbelievable. I had dinner with Jeff Bezos last night,” Trump replied, before going on to describe Bezos and the rest of the MAGA billionaires as “smart guys.”

The Spectator conducted the interview on Thursday, meaning Bezos met with the president just hours after he announced a MAGA makeover of The Washington Post.

Bezos announced Wednesday that the opinion editor David Shipley would be resigning and that the Post’s opinion desk would only be focusing on “writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” The pivot was a culmination of multiple ideological steps toward MAGA that the paper has taken over the last few months. This isn’t really about personal liberties as much as it’s about being on the winning team.