Some Senate Democrats want Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to proceed extra cautiously on a White House-proposed minerals deal, with one comparing President Donald Trump’s actions toward Kyiv to a New York City-style real estate shakedown.
Trump, during a Tuesday night address to a joint session of Congress, told lawmakers that Zelenskyy had sent him a letter attempting to mend fences after a public spat last Friday in the Oval Office. But the next day, his administration suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv, prompting several Senate Democrats on national security panels to raise new concerns.
“The president made the decision long ago to ally with Russia and destroy Ukraine,” Senate Foreign Relations member Christopher S. Murphy said Wednesday. “None of this is on the level.”
“This isn’t normal-course diplomacy, the decision has been made,” the Connecticut Democrat added. “The policy is set. He’s aligned the United States with Moscow, and it doesn’t feel like any Republicans are going to stand up to him in a meaningful way, which is heartbreaking.”
Trump on Friday used a social media post to threaten to slap new sanctions on Moscow over its conduct of the war with Ukraine. “Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia,” he wrote. “To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late.”
Part of that push for negotiations reportedly is a “bigger, better deal” on rare-earth minerals following last week’s Oval Office argument.
Asked if Trump was using a two-pronged strategy of trying to pressure Zelenskyy by taking away coveted U.S. intelligence while pushing for rare-earth terms more favorable to Washington, Senate Armed Services ranking member Jack Reed said he assessed the president’s approach as a “combination” of “appeasing Putin and trying to pressure Zelenskyy.”
“They’ve been pivoting to Russia long before this past week, doing so many things to appease Putin without asking anything in return,” Reed said, adding that he sees “similarities” to how several biographers and former business associates have said Trump operated as a real estate executive.
“It’s absolutely the same thing,” the Rhode Island Democrat said Wednesday. “This whole minerals deal is like, ‘Hey, you know, you haven’t paid your rent. So give me your minerals.’”
Reed hesitated when asked if he would advise Zelenskyy to sign the minerals agreement, saying his White House visit “should teach him a lot.”
The details of the administration’s latest rare-earth terms have been briefed to some lawmakers but have not been disclosed publicly.
Trump on Friday told reporters in the Oval Office that “I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine — and they don’t have the cards.”
“It may be easier dealing with Russia, which is surprising, because they have all the cards. I mean, and they’re bombing the hell out of [Ukraine] right now,” he added. “And I put a statement, a very strong statement, [Russia] can’t do that. … And Ukraine has to get on the ball and get a job done.”
Standing beside Trump in the Oval Office, national security adviser Mike Waltz said administration officials intend to “engage in the shuttle diplomacy, and we will continue to use [Trump’s] leadership and what leverage we have to get both sides to the peace table.” But the former Florida GOP congressman warned: “It’s not going to be easy.”
Several Senate Democrats who have been closely following all things related to Ukraine said this week they believe the Oval Office kerfuffle was a deliberate attempt by Trump and Vice President JD Vance to alter the terms of a potential minerals agreement and to continue moving the United States away from Ukraine and toward Moscow.
But not all Democrats who sit on national security and international affairs committees want Zelenskyy to think twice about signing the minerals deal.
Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees, agreed with his colleagues that “the president wants to blame Ukraine, and he wants to pull away.”
But on the minerals agreement, Kaine said he would advise Zelenskyy to take a long view. “Let’s pray that this war ends, and then Ukraine maintains its sovereignty and, you know, gets its independence.
“Then they’re going to need reconstruction help, and they’re going to ask us to help. We should help them. We could write a check out of the general fund, or we could amass a set of resources from this mineral deal that could then be converted into Ukrainian reconstruction assistance,” Kaine said. “So it’s not really like we’re taking something from them. … We’re putting together resources that can be used for something that we know they’ll want and need.”
‘Nobel Peace Prize’
One global security analyst suggested Ukraine’s European allies could offer intelligence data to fill the Trump-created void. Still, “there are concerns that UK-supplied weapon systems, such as Storm Shadow missiles, will be less effective without U.S. intelligence,” according to Richard Connolly of Oxford Analytica, which is owned by Roll Call’s parent company, FiscalNote.
Zelenskyy, notably, last week in the Oval Office suggested he would not agree to a temporary ceasefire and that only a permanent peace pact would do. In a recent social media post, the Ukrainian leader called for a “truce in the sky” and a “truce in the sea immediately.”
“Then we want to move very fast,” he added, “through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.”
Polling conducted last month by the Pew Research Center showed those Americans surveyed split on the amount of American aid that has been sent to Kyiv. Trump’s recent moves came as that poll showed “Republicans remain more likely than Democrats to say the U.S. is giving too much support (47 percent vs. 14 percent) and to say helping Ukraine hurts U.S. national security (40 percent vs. 21 percent),” according to a Pew summary of the data.
As Democrats questioned Trump’s actions, one senior Senate Republican on Thursday said, if successful, the U.S. president should be honored for his efforts.
“What President Trump is doing to secure peace in this dangerous world is an act of moral leadership and, I believe, divinely inspired. Jesus said in the Beatitudes, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God,’” John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Senate Intelligence and Foreign Relations committees, said in a statement. “If President Trump is successful in securing a lasting peace, I for one think he will have earned the Nobel Peace Prize.”
The post ‘Haven’t paid your rent’: Zelenskyy shouldn’t rush to sign Trump’s minerals plan, Dems say appeared first on Roll Call.
