Another meeting between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky has reportedly ended with a fiery shouting match—this time behind closed doors.
Trump was pressuring his Ukrainian counterpart to accept Russia’s terms for a ceasefire during an explosive White House meeting on Friday, according to the Financial Times, reportedly telling Zelensky that Russia would “destroy” Ukraine if he didn’t agree.
Multiple sources told the outlet that the meeting—where Zelensky was hoping, but ultimately failed, to secure long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles—quickly descended into a “shouting match” with “cursing all the time.”
According to sources, the scene resembled that of Zelensky’s infamous Oval Office visit in February, where he was berated by Vice President JD Vance for not voicing enough thanks for U.S. help in the war against Russia, before a shouting match ensued.
Zelensky was also accused of being “disrespectful” to the U.S. for not wearing a suit and tie and was reportedly all but forced out of the White House.
This time, Trump demanded that Zelensky surrender the entire Donbas region to Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources said.
European officials told the Financial Times that Trump repeated many of Putin’s talking points “verbatim” during the meeting, telling Zelensky he was losing the war and that “If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you.”
The outlet reported that Zelensky “was very negative” after the meeting, according to one official, and that European leaders were “not optimistic but pragmatic with planning next steps.”
The president was asked about the meeting on Air Force One on Sunday, claiming he and Zelensky “never discussed” surrendering the Donbas region.
“We think that what they should do is just stop at the... battle lines,” Trump told reporters. “You have a battle line right now. The rest is very tough to negotiate.”
He added that the Donbas region should be “cut the way” it already is.
“I think 78 percent of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave the land as it is right now. They can negotiate something later on down the line. But I said, ‘Stop the battle, go home, stop fighting, stop killing people’.”
The tense encounter with Zelensky came after Trump reportedly spoke with Putin by phone and seemingly welcomed the Russian dictator back in his good graces.
On Truth Social, the dictator-curious Trump wrote Putin congratulated him on the “Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East,” and suggested that his “Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine.”
He added that “High Level Advisors” from the United States and Russia would meet next week at an as-yet-undisclosed location, and that he would then meet personally with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”
Ironically, the talks are set to take place in the same city where Russia once signed an agreement promising it would never invade Ukraine.
When asked who chose to hold the meeting in Budapest, a location with great historical significance to both Russia and Ukraine, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt simply told HuffPost, “Your mom did.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
