President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky held a much more cordial Oval Office meeting in front of TV cameras Monday than the fiery eruption that took place in front of the room’s fireplace in February.
The Zelensky meeting came just days after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a potential end to the war in Ukraine.
Trump met with Zelensky in the Oval Office ahead of an expected wider meeting at the White House with seven top European leaders. Trump told reporters he would speak with Putin after those meetings in the hopes of setting up another meeting.
“I think if we have a trilat there’s a good chance of maybe ending it,” Trump said. “But he’s expecting my call when we’re finished with this meeting.”
Both Trump and Zelensky largely used careful language and avoided the kind of flare-up that defined their last White House meeting in February.
“We’re going to have a meeting. If everything works out well today we’ll have a trilat. And I think there’ll be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that,” Trump told reporters.
Vice President JD Vance was also in the room. Vance famously clashed with Zelensky in February but opted to not chime in during Monday’s meeting as he sat beside Trump.
The president did not bite on questions from Fox News about whether Ukraine or Russia had better “cards” in the conflict or whether it would be the end of U.S. support for Ukraine if there was no peace agreement reached after Monday’s meetings.
“I can never say that. It’s never the end of the road,” Trump said. “People are being killed and we want to stop that.”
Trump said a ceasefire may not be necessary before coming to a larger peace agreement, and he left open the possibility that U.S. forces could be involved in some type of peacekeeping force in Ukraine to prevent further aggression in the future.
“We’re not talking about a two-year peace and then we end up in this mess again. We’re going to make sure everything’s good,” Trump said. “We’ll work with Russia, we’re going to work with Ukraine and we’re going to make sure it works.”
Trump punted on a question about if the United States would provide security guarantees for Ukraine, telling reporters, “we’ll let you know that later today.”
When pressed on if security guarantees could include U.S. troops, he said Europe is the first line of defense but that the U.S. could help.
“When it comes to security, they’re going to be a lot of help… they’re going to be the first line of defense because they’re there. They’re Europe,” Trump said.
“We’ll be involved,” he added.
The high stakes meeting struck a far different tone than the last time Zelensky was at the White House in February, when Trump and Vice President Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of being ungrateful and having no leverage in his fight against invading Russian forces.
Trump greeted Zelensky outside the West Wing, giving him a hand shake and a pat on the back as reporters shouted questions.
Zelensky appeared to learn from the prior experience as well.
He opened the meeting by thanking Trump for his efforts to “stop killings and stop this war.” Zelensky told Trump he was thankful to first lady Melania Trump for the letter she penned to Putin in which she raised concerns about the plight of children throughout Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian leader also wore more formal attire, something that did not go unnoticed by pro-Trump reporter Brian Glenn, who in February needled Zelensky for his lack of a suit.
“You look fabulous in that suit,” said Glenn, who works for Real America’s Voice.
“I said the same thing,” Trump noted.
Zelensky pointed out that Glenn appeared to be wearing the same suit as in February, eliciting laughter from Trump.
