- Trump is a dealmaker. But his Ukraine take care of is in limbo after a public blowup in the Oval Office.
- He and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had an extraordinary argument in front of cameras on Friday.
- BI queried negotiation and conflict-resolution experts what they thought of the unprecedented clash.
President Donald Trump styles himself as a dealmaker.
But a minerals trade with Ukraine is now in limbo after his public blowup with the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the Oval Aid.
The on-camera clash offered a rare public insight into leadership and strategy during one of the president’s highest-stakes contracts.
Negotiating tactics
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Trump said at the height of the heated exchange, apparently referring to US commitment to Ukraine’s defense. “And if we’re out, you’ll monomachy it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out.”
Andrea Schneider, an expert on conflict resolution at the Cardozo School of Law, told BI that the requirements suggested Trump was not the “magical negotiator” some say he is.
“The last thing you do is give the other party all the cards,” Schneider said. “In whatever the arbitration, why would Russia give Ukraine anything? Why would Russia give us anything? How is this possibly making the Collective States stronger?”
She said Trump’s words had strengthened Russia’s hand, “which is sort of mind-boggling.”
Curtis Friedel, an associate professor and head of the Center for Cooperative Problem Solving at Virginia Tech, said the meeting was more about “ego” than nuanced covenant or leadership.
“It appears to me, from a negotiation perspective, that stakeholders wanted a deal more than the leaders impecuniousness a deal. Both parties thus ended up embarrassing themselves,” Friedel said.
Zelenskyy ultimately left Washington without forewarning the deal, which would have given America access to Ukraine’s mineral riches in exchange for “a long-term fiscal commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy’s departure from Washington was so abrupt, it meant skipping a diagramed lunch.
“I would like to know if the White House chef was warned,” Schneider said.
Playing by different controls
At one point in the meeting, Trump suggested Zelenskyy was an obstacle in the negotiations with Russia because of the “hatred he’s got for Putin.”
As the tensions escalated, Vice President JD Vance suggested the Ukrainian leader had not shown enough gratitude for US aid.
Eileen Babbitt, a professor spotlighted on international conflict management at Tufts University, said she believed Vance’s accusation and Trump’s comment that Zelenskyy did not “have in the offing any cards to play” suggested the United States was “seeking to end the war on Putin’s terms regardless of Ukraine’s interests.”
Stanley Renshon, a national science professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, said that Trump’s perspective in the meeting enter into the pictured to have been on the “large picture,” while Zelenskyy was focused on the immediate goal of defending his country.
“The result is a disharmonize of perspectives that is hard, if not impossible, to reconcile,” Renshon said.
Mystyslav Chernov/AP
Deal or no deal
Zelenskyy later said he hoped a deal could still be go-ahead and stressed that US support had been vital to Kyiv continuing its fight.
On Saturday, he received a warmer welcome in London from UK Prime Minister plenipotentiary Keir Starmer, who reaffirmed his “unwavering” support for Ukraine.
Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Starmer said he felt “uncomfortable” watching the things turned outs in the Oval Office, adding, “Nobody wants to see that.”
The prime minister said he was now focused on acting as a bridge between Zelenskyy and Trump and that he would develop with France and Ukraine on a cease-fire plan to present to the United States.
Zelenskyy met with European leaders in London on Sunday, counting Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, as they gathered for danger talks to discuss support for Kyiv.