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Trump tells Zelensky 'make a deal or we're out' in angry White House meeting
BBC ^ | 2/28/2025 | Tom Bateman

Posted on 02/28/2025 10:30:35 AM PST by simpson96

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To: Bruce Campbells Chin

Of course Ukraine can say no, but we won’t have any assets there to care to fight over with Russia, then.

Ukraine played this whole thing out as far as it could without bringing in people 26 and under, getting money and resources from around the world, and more.

Ukraine will lose the land Russia has, and have to be okay with it. The Ukrainian oligarchs already have their billions from us and others, and Little Z has multiple homes around the world, as I understand.

If Z and the oligarchs and other Ukrainian thieves cared about their country, that money would have gone to the war to win. It didn’t.


41 posted on 02/28/2025 10:59:10 AM PST by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: The Louiswu

Zelensky has gotten whatever he demands from Joe Biden because there were kickbacks involved. NOW he has met the BIG DOG, and Trump is going to stop the nonsense of giving away the bucks to a hoodlum like Zelenskky.


42 posted on 02/28/2025 11:00:10 AM PST by princess leah ( )
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To: simpson96

Not smart of Zelenski to try to threaten Trump, Vance, and all of the US, in our own White House!


43 posted on 02/28/2025 11:01:38 AM PST by Alainamac ("It may be a fire, but you gotta' get it into your heart.")
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To: Resolute Conservative
You're right.

And for Rove to come out and say Trump was wrong makes me ill

It's what he had to do. Trump is used to the media and RINO’s stabbing him in the back.

This thing was Trump saying, ‘Look at what we have to deal with!’ There is no way for anyone to conjecture on what went on

44 posted on 02/28/2025 11:03:07 AM PST by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: simpson96

Zelensky had his chance and he blew it. If nothing else, these events will probably embolden Putin. We’ll probably see an escalation and the total demise of the Ukrainian armed forces.


45 posted on 02/28/2025 11:09:34 AM PST by ducttape45 (Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?")
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To: SMARTY

“And for Rove to come out and say Trump was wrong makes me ill”

Me too. Rove has really turned into a big POS. He is epitome of a RINO.


46 posted on 02/28/2025 11:14:07 AM PST by Parley Baer
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To: simpson96

The opening paragraphs from our friends at the AP:

“President Donald Trump shouted at Ukraine’s leader on Friday during an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office, berating President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “gambling with millions of lives” and suggesting his actions could trigger World War III.

Zelenskyy then abruptly left the White House without signing a critical minerals deal with the U.S. that Trump had demanded and suggested was a condition for future support for Ukraine.

Untouched salad plates and other lunch items were being packed up outside the Cabinet room where the lunch between Trump and Zelenskyy and their delegations was supposed to have taken place.

The last 10 minutes of the nearly 45-minute engagement devolved into a tense back and forth between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Zelenskyy — who had urged skepticism about Russia’s commitment to diplomacy, citing Moscow’s years of broken commitments on the global stage.

It began with Vance telling Zelenskyy, “Mr. President, with respect. I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media.”

Zelenskyy tried to object, prompting Trump to raise his voice and say, “You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people.”

“You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have,” Trump said.”


47 posted on 02/28/2025 11:15:00 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: TexasFreeper2009
...Zelinski lost me today...

My theory is that the Rare Earth deal was merely a ruse to get Zelensky publicly humiliated in front of the whole world. Zelensky is the roadblock to peace right now so Trump needed to minimize him to get Midget Castro out of the way

48 posted on 02/28/2025 11:15:35 AM PST by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: 9YearLurker
If it's true that Zelensky's team begged President Trump to continue, I think Zelensky will not use the interview to take a final shot at Trump.

Zelensky will be told by his own team that he's in a "cooler heads will prevail" zone right now and he, as the leader of Ukraine, cannot afford to make this personal for himself. He has to swallow his pride and do what's best for his people.

People on Fox News are echoing what I suggested, that Zelensky try to mend fences in the interview and then reengage President Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the weekend to try to salvage his trip.

That will be the next turning point in this relationship. We should know more by the evening after Trump responds to the Baier interview.

On a tangent, I'm interested in your opinion about this thought:

People are speculating about "Putin this..." and "Xi that..." but I'm not so sure that they aren't fretting over a paper tiger here.

I was getting the sense that Russia was running out of war materiel and political capital at home, and that China was facing an economic slowdown and possible recession soon.

If that's the case, then Putin probably wants a diplomatic solution that ends the war that keeps some gains. Xi is probably backing away from ties with Putin now that President Trump is in office. They both are motivated to see an end to the war in Ukraine.

It seems that it's just Zelensky who's holding out because he won't accept anything less than full restoration of the borders that existed before Putin's invasion -- including Crimea. I don't think that's a reasonable expectation at this point. It's remarkable that he held Russia to the current stalemate, and it's probably in his best interest to accept a deal that cedes some central territory back to Ukraine while Russia keeps the port access to the Black Sea that it wants.

What's your take on Putin and Xi?

-PJ

49 posted on 02/28/2025 11:21:51 AM PST by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: Fledermaus

Nobody is as bad as Trey Gowdy.


50 posted on 02/28/2025 11:22:18 AM PST by Liz
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To: Alainamac
Not smart of Zelenski to try to threaten Trump, Vance, and all of the US, in our own White House!

What threat did Zelensky make?

51 posted on 02/28/2025 11:22:45 AM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: Political Junkie Too

I think a deal gets done this weekend. I think this is all a bunch of Kabuki Theater.


52 posted on 02/28/2025 11:23:01 AM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: mware

“Never come into someone else’s house and insult the owner.”

I’m laughing but it’s true. I’ve had to throw people out of my house for that exact reason! ;-)


53 posted on 02/28/2025 11:33:28 AM PST by spel_grammer_an_punct_polise (Learn three chords and you, too, can be a Rock Star!)
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To: The Louiswu
How about an end to the death and destruction is that enough?

Ukraine could end the death and destruction simply by giving Russia whatever it wants. No need to give up mineral rights and end up with the same deal anyway.

When this war is over the us interests will be a partner is rebuilding Ukraine isn’t that enough?

Who says that was part of the deal? That's my point. We don't know what the deal was. The closest thing that I've seen to a description of the deal was that Russia keeps all the territory it has, and the US gets 50% of the Ukrainian mineral rights. If I'm Ukraine, that's an absolutely crappy deal and I don't take it either. That being said, I don't know if that was the deal or not.

54 posted on 02/28/2025 11:35:03 AM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: DesertRhino

That beatdown was not a word salad.


55 posted on 02/28/2025 11:42:50 AM PST by bray (It's not racist to be racist against races the DNC hates.)
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To: Resolute Conservative

You are correct that Reagan and Thatcher would have stood their ground and not given an inch in the interest of world peace.


56 posted on 02/28/2025 11:52:47 AM PST by healy61
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To: Political Junkie Too

Sure, Russia has been running through their older and traditional equipment and, unfortunately, men. But they’ve got much greater war power that they haven’t been using. Of course they want the war to end, but not on unfavorable terms.

China? A slowdown, sure, after decades of incredible growth and war preparation. Their goal is to defeat us and lead the world without having to go kinetic.

I think Z may have to go home and regroup before getting back in the US’s good graces.


57 posted on 02/28/2025 12:06:01 PM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: DesertRhino

What Zelensky hasn’t figured out yet is that he’s not in the negotiations. Trump and Putin are going to cut a deal and Trump is going to negotiate a settlement for Zelensky. He was pretty much telling him that in the Oval office. “with us you have cards. Without us you don’t have cards”. That was Trump and Vance putting the Squeeze play on because he thinks he still has options. He doesn’t.


58 posted on 02/28/2025 12:10:07 PM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: Liz

According to Fox Z’s interview with Bret Baer is still on. If he want to salvage this he better have a damn good apology ready.


59 posted on 02/28/2025 1:22:53 PM PST by mware
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To: Bruce Campbells Chin

Your idiotic Ukie propaganda is getting really old.


60 posted on 02/28/2025 1:32:10 PM PST by ANKE69 ( 🇺🇲 Let's MAGA 🇺🇲)
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