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How Zelensky’s Oval Office Meeting Turned into a Showdown With Trump
The New York Times ^ | March 1, 2025, 11:54 a.m. ET | Tyler Pager and Maggie Haberman

Posted on 03/01/2025 10:56:54 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum

Just hours before President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine sat down with President Trump in the Oval Office on Friday, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina dispensed some advice to the Ukrainian leader.

“Don’t take the bait,” he said, encouraging him not to get into a spat with Mr. Trump.

“I said, don’t get into arguments about security agreements,” Mr. Graham recalled on Friday evening in a brief telephone interview with The New York Times, as he sat aboard Air Force One preparing to fly to Florida with the president.

Mr. Zelensky did not silence his concerns during his meeting with Mr. Trump, who has come to expect a level of capitulation from almost everyone who has met with him since Election Day, from foreign leaders to billionaire business executives. The result was an extraordinary dressing down by a U.S. president of a foreign ally in the middle of the Oval Office, while the media’s cameras recorded it all.

The question hovering over Washington on Friday evening was whether the confrontation was a spontaneous outburst or a planned verbal smack down by Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance, neither of whom respect Mr. Zelensky.

But three people with knowledge of what took place beforehand said neither Mr. Trump nor Mr. Vance had been looking to blow up a deal for Ukraine’s mineral rights, which Mr. Zelensky had been expected to sign in Washington. Instead, they said, Mr. Zelensky seemingly triggered the two American leaders by not sufficiently thanking the United States for trying to end the war (which Mr. Trump wanted to hear) and by pressing for commitments to protect Ukraine from Russian aggression going forward (which Mr. Trump did not want to hear).

In the end, Mr. Zelensky left the White House without a signed deal over...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Editorial; European Union; Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections; Russia; Ukraine
KEYWORDS: littlezimplodes; maggiehaberman; tylerpager
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1 posted on 03/01/2025 10:56:54 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
The result was an extraordinary dressing down by a U.S. president of a foreign ally...

The Ukraine is NOT a an ally of the USA.

2 posted on 03/01/2025 10:58:39 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement What shtthoof fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It’s to be expected when dealing with a coked up gay prostitute.


3 posted on 03/01/2025 10:59:09 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is █████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █ ███████ ████. FJB.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“...U.S. president of a foreign ally...”


I was unaware that Ukraine is an ‘ally’ of the U.S. When did this happen?


4 posted on 03/01/2025 10:59:24 AM PST by hanamizu ( )
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To: BenLurkin

Expect to be lied to when you read the NYT.


5 posted on 03/01/2025 11:00:45 AM PST by Dalberg-Acton
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Oh, I see. PDJT and VP Vance plotted to make tiny dancer become insulting.


6 posted on 03/01/2025 11:01:43 AM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within ? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this💩? 🚫💉! 🇮🇱👍!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

So interesting how the same people who protested in the streets against the Vietnam War take the opposite stance regarding Ukraine: “Let’s foster the killing of more people, or else the U.S. is threatened!”


7 posted on 03/01/2025 11:03:27 AM PST by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Way to go, Shirley.


8 posted on 03/01/2025 11:03:56 AM PST by Texas Eagle ("Throw me to the wolves and I'll return leading the pack"- Donald J. Trump)
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To: hanamizu

When 💰 exchanged hands.


9 posted on 03/01/2025 11:04:13 AM PST by mrmeyer (You can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him. Robert Heinlein)
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To: BlueStateRightist

They are not against Russia, they are against Trump.


10 posted on 03/01/2025 11:05:21 AM PST by Williams (Thank God for the election of President Trump!)
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To: mrmeyer

When 💰 exchanged hands.


So Iran is an ally as well?


11 posted on 03/01/2025 11:09:58 AM PST by hanamizu ( )
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To: BenLurkin

Trump needs to end the payment of salaries and paychecks for all Ukrainians immediately.

End the payments of Zelinski’s workers. Let the EU pay for it.


12 posted on 03/01/2025 11:11:13 AM PST by Jumper
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

As the retarded Bo Bo Bobby Garcia (Retard-CA) might say, it was “The Barfight at the D.C. Swamp. Everybody should have brought a gun. That’s what Peruvian refugee cowboys like him would do.


13 posted on 03/01/2025 11:11:58 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer (Schmucky Schumer says that Government "hard workers" are working anonymously.)
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To: BenLurkin
The Ukraine is NOT a an ally of the USA.

Officially, we never were, but Ukraine did send troops to Afghanistan to fight beside us after 9/11, despite having no obligation to do so.

Now, with our clear tilt in favor of Russia, I think the days of positive relations with them is likely over.

14 posted on 03/01/2025 11:17:04 AM PST by Bruce Campbells Chin ( )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
'Security agreements' are not specific enough to describe what Zelensky is obsessing about. It does Zelensky no good to get security agreements with the EU nations, because Hegseth has already told the EU that Ukraine is their responsibility, and the United States will not support article 5 of NATO (come to mutual defense) if the EU and Russia do not get along.

Security agreements from NATO nations are worthless to Zelensky because the US will not be involved. The EU has said it will provide for 'peace keepers' - but Zelensky continues to pressure Trump as if he has no security without the US.

I believe Zelensky's side is counting on getting the WWIII they want since 2014 or so started by 1) Having US 'boots on the ground' in Ukraine as 'peace keepers'.

2) False flagging a conflict (fake a Russian attack) and shoving the US into conflict with Russia.

By way of example, UN 'Peacekeepers' are military troops by any other consideration - calling them peace keepers gets them into areas where they can do the most damage.

The UN has long used 'peace keepers' as coup forces. The UN installs what they call 'peace keepers' during tension as a coup begins, and those armed troops protect the insurgents and kill the patriots, while the UN broadcasts to the world that peace keepers are successfully protecting the citizens from dangerous insurgents. With martial law in place, only UN voices can claim to witness the fighting, falsely claiming the UN 'peace keepers' are 'helping ensure freedom.'

Zelensky's 'need' for 'peacekeepers' from America is 'boots on the ground' by any means possible, and is not going away - it's a feature, not a bug. He's not that insecure about having EURO 'peace keepers'; it just doesn't help his objectives.

Trump/Hegseth have said 'no' to his requests for US troops several ways and Zelensky still wouldn't let it drop at the infamous conflict meeting in the Oval Office. It's all he wants and has wanted for quite some time now. He went around the EU last year with his 'victory plan' to defeat Russia until the heads of state simply ignored him; the core of Zelensky's Victory Plan was 'get the United States into Ukraine.

Zelensky continues to 'want to fight' and it doesn't matter that he's conscripting MIG maintenance crews and pilots to fight on the front lines due to manpower shortages- he'll keep up the pretense of war while demanding 'assurances' that the US will provide a 'backstop' (enter the conflict directly) in the Ukraine.

The Deep State's plan for the Ukraine proxy war was to force regime change in Russia. They're running out of cannon fodder, still trying to get WWIII started between the US and Russia. ALso, they are running gambits to increase political friction, and discourage Putin from seeking peace agreements, permanently if possible.


15 posted on 03/01/2025 11:20:17 AM PST by ransomnote (IN GOD WE TRUST)
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To: ransomnote

The Ukraine Special Operation by Russia has essentially defeated the American Democrat Party, and it has taken a toll on “fredom and democracy” in the EU, forcing a political realignment that is wiping out the Globalist elites and their merry band of homosexuals (Macron, Zelinski, Starmer, Turd-do, etc.). As the EU clamps down on religion, free speech and is arresting or meddeling in elections... the mask has come off as they struggle to retain their power.

Trump will destroy the EU in Brussels by dealing directly with individaul EUropean nation diplomatically, and sideline the EU facists who are unelected trouble makers.


16 posted on 03/01/2025 11:24:21 AM PST by Jumper
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It’s always good to get Maggie’s take on things.


17 posted on 03/01/2025 11:25:51 AM PST by ComputerGuy ( )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

It was a setup gone wrong. The leftist Dem met with the Z earlier telling him to pump the brakes. They never learn.


18 posted on 03/01/2025 11:26:13 AM PST by blackberry1
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Dressing like a cast member from “The Sopranos” to visit the CinC doesn’t help your cause.


19 posted on 03/01/2025 11:32:28 AM PST by kaktuskid
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To: ransomnote

” but Zelensky continues to pressure Trump as if he has no security without the US”

There are only two entities that can guarantee the security of Ukraine.

The US (at risk of worldwide incineration, if not certainty)

Russia.

They’ll have to settle for Russia.


20 posted on 03/01/2025 11:34:00 AM PST by Mariner (War Criminal #18)
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