At the April 26 funeral Mass of Pope Francis, the 266th Pope of Catholicism, President Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine for the first time since a tense meeting at the White House on Feb 28.
As reported by the BBC, the White House described the 15-minute meeting in Rome as “very productive” with Trump posting on social media “maybe [Putin] doesn’t want to stop the war.”
About a week earlier, on April 15, the government of Ukraine published a memorandum of intent that outlines both Ukraine’s and the U.S.’ intent to establish a fund aimed toward restoration efforts of Ukraine. It is important to note that the memorandum itself made no mentions of minerals, nor the military support Zelenskyy has pushed for in recent months.
These recent developments come after weeks of concern about the future of the Ukraine-U.S. alliance following the White House meeting.
“It is shocking to see an American president publicly disrespect a key European ally. The United States should be embracing Ukraine in its war with Russia. This was a horrible abdication of global leadership that embarrassed President Zelenskyy and the United States,” said history Professor Jane Scimeca, discussing the February meeting among Zelenskyy, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.The White House meeting started off with all the formalities one would expect to see during an interaction with top world leaders, but the mood changed rapidly.
Trump began the conference expressing gratitude and excitement at the continuous negotiations for rare earth minerals and peace between Russia and Ukraine. “We’ve had very good discussions with Russia… We’re gonna try to bring this to a close,” Trump said.
Trump then addressed the “big thing” as being the number of lost soldiers on both sides and what preventative action could be taken. “We’re losing thousands of soldiers [on] both sides,” he said.
“If I were president, this war would’ve never happened,” Trump said, looking directly at Zelenskyy. “We would’ve had a deal negotiated for you without having to go through what you’ve gone through.” This moment seems to have set the tone throughout the conversation.
Zelenskyy then caught Trump off guard by requesting to show the photographs he brought. This moment was clearly improvised and was a means to actively show Trump the condition of Ukrainians captured and imprisoned in Russia.
“That’s tough stuff,” Trump responded. “We want to get that ended.”
Zelenskyy was also confronted on his choice of attire by a reporter who asked, “Do you own a suit? A lot of Americans have problems with you not respecting the attire of this office.”
“It is hard to imagine Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy going any worse,” said Dr. David Bassano, a history professor who has volunteered in war-torn Ukraine. “Trump made it clear that he is interested in neither the future of Ukraine, nor in European security, nor even in international law, which Putin has repeatedly violated. He seems interested only in benefitting Russia and enriching American businesses by negotiating access to Ukrainian mineral rights. And he wants that access in return for, essentially, nothing.”
