Lawmakers on Friday were quick to react after President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance argued publicly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, accusing him of disrespecting the U.S. before abruptly canceling a joint press conference with the leaders.
Zelenskyy was in Washington to sign a rare-earth minerals pact pushed by the American president to help recoup the billions in wartime aid sent by the Biden administration — a deal that as of Friday afternoon was off.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has historically been one of the most vocally pro-Ukraine members of Congress, questioned whether the U.S. could ever deal with Zelenskyy again.
“He either needs to resign and send someone over that we can do business with, or he needs to change,” Graham said.
Response to the heated exchange in the Oval Office tended to fall along party lines, with Republicans praising Trump for standing up to Zelenskyy. Democrats, on the other hand, largely criticized Trump for berating a world leader who was in the midst of defending his country during a yearslong war.
Earlier, Congress had extended a bipartisan welcome to Zelenskyy.
Before his trip to the White House, Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group of senators, including Graham, Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Judiciary Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa. Democrats in attendance were Christopher S. Murphy and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Peter Welch of Vermont, Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Chris Coons of Delaware.
After that meeting, Wicker said in a post on the social media platform X that the minerals deal was “a huge step forward in securing mutual prosperity and peace for Americans and Ukrainians.” As of Friday afternoon, that post had been deleted.
Wicker’s counterpart on the Armed Services Committee, ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in a statement that the exchange in the Oval Office was a “political ambush,” and a “shameful failure of American leadership.”
“To my Republican colleagues, where is your voice? We are watching America’s leaders surrender to Russia, forfeit our leadership in the world, and do strategic harm to our country — and for what? This is not who we are, and silence is complicity,” Reed said.
Following the Oval Office exchange, Rosen said in a post on X that Zelenskyy was “fighting for freedom & democracy against a brutal dictator.”
In another post on X, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said that Trump and Vance were “doing Putin’s dirty work.”
And Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, said the exchange with Zelenskyy was “one of the most embarrassing moments in American history.”
But most Republicans reviled Zelenskyy for his comportment at the White House meeting.
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., posted on X that Zelenskyy had “no respect for the Oval Office” or for American taxpayers who had helped fund Ukraine’s war efforts. In another post, he thanked the president for standing up for Americans.
“Zelensky ungratefully expects us to bankroll and escalate another forever war — all while disrespecting the President,” Banks wrote in a third post. “The entitlement is insulting to working Americans.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said in a post on X that she was “glad there will be NO funding for Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s disrespect and sense of entitlement is astounding.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that it was “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.”
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