Don’t Let the Trump-Zelenskyy White House Meeting Fade From Memory. It Changed the Global Perception of the U.S.

In the chaotic early months of the Trump administration there have been countless issues to grab our attention. So many that it is easy to forget the high and low points, because they tend to blend together. Some feel this is by design, others say the chaos is more accurately a reflection of the president’s personality. Whatever the case, looking back and reconsidering certain events in retrospect is useful.

As Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin maneuver around a possible cease fire and negotiated settlement of the war, it is worth going back to February of this year to reflect on what happened that Friday afternoon when Zelenskyy met with President Trump in the Oval Office and altered the perception of America around the world.

I was compelled to watch it again this week in an attempt to understand what I consider the moral failure of Vice President J.D. Vance with regard to the war. For most of the forty-nine minute long meeting Trump and Zelenskyy behaved as you would expect them to behave. Cordially complimenting each other and congratulating each other for the minerals deal they were about to sign. Toward the end however, Zelenskyy felt he needed to educate Vance about the reality of the Ukrainian situation. When the lesson began Vance lost control.

The tone of the exchange was shocking and, in the moment, political observers believed it was a set up, an ambush laid to embarrass Zelenskyy and pressure him into a deal with Moscow that he did not want. Two months later, I am not so sure that is the case. On second full viewing, the meeting does not look like a trap and it is surprising that Trump and Zelenskyy couldn’t have dusted themselves off, moved to another room away from the cameras, and completed the deal they had been prepared to sign as the day began. Instead, Zelenskyy was shown the door and sent home with a note to his parents.

What is troubling, all these weeks later, is the callous way Zelenskyy and by extension the Ukrainian people, were treated by Vance. The vice president showed no empathy for the plight of a country that has been under sustained Russian attack since February of 2022. His language was embarrassing and at odds with traditional values we say we believe in as Americans. Values that include fairness and justice.

• Vance accused Zelenskyy of taking foreign leaders on “propaganda tours” through Kyiv in order to win support for the war effort.
• He refused to accept the fact that the Ukrainians don’t trust Putin because he has gone back on his word nearly every time the two countries have come to terms on cease fire agreements.
• He showed no human decency when Zelenskyy reminded Vance that Russia has kidnapped nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children and is re-educating them to erase their Ukrainian identity and “make them Russians.”
• Vance made it sound as if Ukraine is demanding that the United States fund the war effort without making any sacrifice of its own.
• The vice president accused Zelenskyy of being rude by “litigating” his grievances in the Oval Office in front of the news media.
• He accused Zelenskyy of not being thankful. “Have you said ‘thank you’ once, during this meeting?”

The exchange between Vance and Zelenskyy set off the president who began schooling the Ukrainian president on negotiating tactics and diplomacy. Trump told Zelenskyy that he “had no cards” and suggested strongly that there was no way he could win and he should just give up. Zelenskyy tried to point out that he is “not playing cards.” He is a president whose country is under attack.

In that last ten minutes of the meeting Trump and Vance betrayed Ukraine, Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian people, and our European allies. Trump and Vance showed the world that the United States is a purely transactional country that only sides with the strong and only offers to help when there is something in it for us. In this case, it’s a promise to allow U.S. companies to engage in what Trump repeatedly called “raw earth” mineral mining. He meant “rare earth.” (This is another one of those small verbal gaffes members of the Trump administration continually make that demonstrate they have only a glib understanding of many important issues).

Keep in mind the callousness that was on display from the American side, because as the meeting was happening Russia was continuing to carry out its three year invasion of Ukraine. As Vance was making his charges, Ukrainians were dying on the battlefield. Trump would point out that Russians were dying too, but there is no equivalency between Ukrainian and Russian deaths in this case, because Russia attacked and is attacking Ukraine. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed in a war that was brought to them even though they posed no threat to Russia. Ukraine is defending itself under restrictive rules set mostly by the United States.

Taken point by point, most of the accusations Vance made during the February 28 meeting are false.

• Far from propaganda tours, when foreign leaders visit Ukraine they are shown the actual effects of the Russian war against their country. Real death. Real destruction.
• Putin has shown no willingness to end the war with a cease fire. In the past few weeks he has violated at least two cease fires announced with fanfare by the Trump administration. Now he demands peace talks while the fighting continues.
• Vance clearly doesn’t care, but as Americans, are we not outraged that 20,000 children have been taken from their families by Russian forces? Do we recognize the kidnappings as war crimes, or is that something we need to get over?
• The United States has been supplying weapons to Ukraine since the start of the full scale invasion. That decision is based on a basic international principle that big nations don’t get to conquer smaller nations.
• Those weapons supplies protect not only Ukraine, but the rest of the world by sending a clear message that if you use military force without justification, there will be consequences.
• Looking at the weapons issue from a Trumpian perspective; the money being spent to supply Ukraine is being spent in the United States and creating and sustaining American jobs at the American factories producing the weapons.
• The Ukrainians are fighting and dismantling the military of one of our biggest international adversaries without the cost of American lives.
• Zelenskyy was not litigating his case in front of the American news media, he was attempting to explain to Trump and Vance that their version of reality is wrong. He was also using the platform of the White House to educate the world. He did not invite the news media into the room, Trump did.
• Vance was upset that he didn’t hear the words “thank you.” He wasn’t listening, because Zelenskyy thanked Trump and the American people three times very early in the meeting before Vance took things off the rails.
• The thank you no one heard was a thank you from either Trump or Vance to Zelenskyy and his country for fighting Russian aggression with their hands partially tied in the continuing effort to avoid provoking Russia into a wider war in Europe.

A few weeks later, Ukraine and the United States signed a deal to allow the U.S. and U.S. companies access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. At this point it is not clear the the agreement will ever provide any benefit to the United States. Vance and Trump have argued the deal provides a sense of security to Ukraine, because Russia will never attack Americans working in Ukraine. American miners with shovels will keep the Russian military at bay.

This logic seems flawed, because Russia shows no sign it intends to withdraw from the Ukrainian territory it occupies, the United States shows no sign it intends to push Russia back, and it is not clear which American company is going to send its employees into a war zone to mine for minerals.

The same logic is more disturbing on the level of basic right and wrong. President Trump is saying to the world Russia has a right to hold on to territory it has taken from a neighboring country, because “they fought hard for it.” Trump’s concern is not justice. It’s not the return of territory, or children, or re-building of Ukrainian towns that have been reduced to rubble. Trump’s concern is; What’s in it for the U.S.? Now that Russia has done the dirty work of the invasion, what usable parts of this ravaged country can we take for ourselves.

As Americans, we like to think we always stand on the right side of history. That’s what we tell ourselves. That’s what we tell the world. We have never been perfect. We have been dead wrong on many issues and in many conflicts, but the world has always believed we at least tried to do the right thing. That is no longer the case.

Inflection Point
May 13, 2025

For more writing on politics, public relations, public affairs, and journalism from Dean Pagani visit Media Attaché on Substack.