Trump Cuts Short Talks with Zelenskyy after Oval Office Blow Up

President Donald Trump shouted at Ukraine's leader on Friday during an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office, berating President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “gambling with millions of lives” and suggesting his actions could trigger World War III.
Zelenskyy then abruptly left the White House without signing a critical minerals deal with the US that Trump had demanded and suggested was a condition for future support for Ukraine.
Untouched salad plates and other lunch items were being packed up outside the Cabinet room where the lunch between Trump and Zelenskyy and their delegations was supposed to have taken place, The Associated Press reported
The last 10 minutes of the nearly 45-minute engagement devolved into a tense back and forth between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelenskyy — who had urged skepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, citing Moscow’s years of broken commitments on the global stage.
It began with Vance telling Zelenskyy, “Mr. President, with respect. I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”
Zelenskyy tried to object, prompting Trump to raise his voice and say, “You’re 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 say they should have,” Trump said.
It was an astonishing display of open antagonism in the Oval Office, a setting better known for somber diplomacy. Trump laid bare his efforts to coerce Zelenskyy to agree to giving the US an interest in his country’s valuable minerals and to push him toward a diplomatic resolution to the war on the American leader’s terms.
Earlier in the meeting Trump said the US would continue to provide military assistance to Ukraine, but said he hoped that not too much aid would be forthcoming. “We’re not looking forward to sending a lot of arms,” Trump said. “We’re looking forward to getting the war finished so we can do other things.”
Trump suggested that Zelenskyy wasn't in a position to be demanding concessions.
"You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now,” Trump said pointing his finger toward Zelenskyy. “With us you start having cards.”
He also accused Zelenskyy of being “disrespectful” to the US.
“It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this,” Trump told Zelenskyy at one point, as the two leaders talked over each other about past international support for Ukraine.
“Again, just say thank you,” Vance interjected to Zelenskyy, blasting him for litigating “disagreements” in front of the press. Trump, though, suggested he was fine with the drama. “I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on,” he added.
“You're not acting at all thankful,” Trump said, before adding, “This is going to be great television.”
The harsh words came at a pivotal and precarious moment for Ukraine. Zelenskyy had planned to try to convince the White House to provide some form of US backing for Ukraine's security against any future Russian aggression.
Zelenskyy had been expected to sign a landmark economic agreement with the US aimed at financing the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, a deal that would closely tie the two countries together for years to come.
The deal, which is seen as a step toward ending the three-year war, referenced the importance of Ukraine’s security. Earlier in the meeting, before tempers flared, Trump said the agreement would be signed soon in the East Room of the White House.
“We have something that is a very fair deal,” Trump said, adding, “It is a big commitment from the United States.”
He said the US wants to see the killing in the war stopped, adding that US money for Ukraine should be "put to different kinds of use like rebuilding.”
Earlier, Zelenskyy called Russian President Vladimir Putin a terrorist and told Trump that Ukraine and the world need “no compromises with a killer.”
“Even during the war there are rules,” he said.
As Ukrainian forces hold out against slow but steady advances by Russia’s larger and better-equipped army, leaders in Kyiv have pushed to ensure a potential US-brokered peace plan would include guarantees for the country’s future security.
Many Ukrainians fear that a hastily negotiated peace — especially one that makes too many concessions to Russian demands — would allow Moscow to rearm and consolidate its forces for a future invasion after current hostilities cease.
According to the preliminary economic agreement, seen by The Associated Press, the US and Ukraine will establish a co-owned, jointly managed investment fund to which Ukraine will contribute 50% of future revenues from natural resources, including minerals, hydrocarbons and other extractable materials.

Judges at the International Criminal Court want Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest earlier this month.

In a filing released late Wednesday, The Hague-based court initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary after the country gave Netanyahu a red carpet welcome despite an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

During the visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his country would quit the court, claiming on state radio that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said at the time, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

Judges at the ICC have previously dismissed similar arguments.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary’s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before his arrival, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on the non-compliance proceedings.

Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the sole non-signatory within the 27-member European Union. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

Hungary has until May 23 to submit evidence in its defense.

Trump Cuts Short Talks with Zelenskyy after Oval Office Blow Up