Last Updated on March 1, 2025
President Donald Trump slammed Ukraine dictator Volodymyr Zelensky’s unwillingness to make peace after Trump kicked Zelensky out of their White House meeting on Friday. Zelensky was rude and disrespectful in the meeting, prompting his expulsion from President Trump’s residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Speaking to reporters before he took off for a MAGA event in Florida, President Trump said that Friday’s Oval Office meeting with Zelensky “didn’t work out exactly great.”
“From his standpoint, I think he very much overplayed his hand. We’re looking for peace. We’re not looking for somebody that’s going to sign up a strong power and then not make peace because they feel emboldened, and that’s what I saw happening. I’m looking for peace. We’re not looking to go into a ten-year war and play games. We want peace. And it was just my impression that if we do that, we sign up, he’s looking for something that I’m not looking for. He’s looking to go on and fight, fight, fight. We’re looking to end the death. Two thousand people died this week. Soldiers. More than that. But, two thousand approximately people died this week. Young Ukrainians and Russians. And somebody would say, why do you care about Ukraine and Russian soldiers? I care about them. I care about everybody. And we’re not doing that,” President Trump said.
“Now, if we don’t do anything, he’s going to have to make peace, but he’s dealing with a very weak set of cards. If we sign, he’s dealing with a very strong set of cards and then he doesn’t want to make peace. So that’s where we are. It’s very simple. I’m not looking to get into anything protracted. I want immediate peace,” President Trump said.
Trump said that Russian president Vladimir Putin “wants to end it,” referring to the war.
“And you saw what I saw today. This is the man that wants to get us signed up and keep fighting, and we’re not doing that. Not for this country,” President Trump said.
“He’s gotta say, ‘I want to make peace.’ He doesn’t have to stand there and say about Putin this, Putin that. All negative things. He’s got to say, ‘I want to make peace. I don’t want to fight a war any longer.’ His people are dying. He doesn’t have the cards, just so you understand it, okay?,” President Trump said.
“Look, I don’t trust or distrust anybody. I just want to get a deal done, and if a deal happens, good. But you can’t embolden somebody that does not have the cards, and all of a sudden that person says, ‘Oh well now I can keep fighting.’ We’re not going to keep fighting. You’re going to get the war done or let them go and see what happens. Let them fight it out,” President Trump said.
“I want anybody that’s going to make peace. If he’s capable of making peace, which he may or may not be, but I want somebody that’s going to make peace. Again, he doesn’t have the cards. When we sign up, he’s got all of the cards. That doesn’t mean he can fight. He’s got to stop the fighting, stop the death. He’s losing hundreds of thousands of soldiers. It’s time to stop the death,” President Trump declared.
“I can’t do that,” President Trump said, referring to having Zelensky back to the White House immediately.
“They should have an immediate ceasefire. That was the other thing. He didn’t want to do about ceasefire. A ceasefire could take place immediately. A contract, if you want to end the war, you sign up an agreement. That’s going to take a period of time. It takes time. I want it to end immediately. And I think if you had a ceasefire it would be a ceasefire, a real one, that would end it. But he doesn’t want to do that? That’s fine. Do a better deal,” President Trump taunted.
“I want it to end immediately. I want a ceasefire now. He says, ‘Oh, I don’t want a ceasefire.’ Well, all of a sudden he’s a big shot because he has the U.S. on his side. Either we’re going to end it or let him fight it out. And if he fights it out it’s not going to be pretty. Because without us, he doesn’t win,” President Trump stated.
“You saw what I saw today. That was not a man that wanted to make peace. And I’m only interested if he wants to end the bloodshed. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you,” President Trump concluded as he walked away from the reporters.
On X, Volodymyr Zelensky’s account thanked America, President Trump, Congress, and the American people. But then Zelensky’s account engaged in a bizarre meltdown of sorts, frantically quote-tweeting various pro-Ukraine messages from various world leaders.
Zelensky’s account tweeted “Thank you for your support” more than 30 times in the hours after Zelensky’s disastrous performance at the White House.
Earlier, on Friday:
President Donald J. Trump threw Volodymyr Zelensky out of the White House on Friday after Zelensky caused a scene in the Oval Office by seemingly threatening the United States of America. (READ NATIONAL FILE’S “ZELENSKY LEAKS” SERIES HERE).
Trump started out by dressing down Zelensky over his appearance. As usual, the dictator of Ukraine was dressed slovenly, in a John Fetterman-esque style. Trump, who is considerably taller than Zelensky, made sure to proclaim, “He’s all dressed up today!” after he shook Zelensky’s hand.
Zelensky’s punk attitude continued in the Oval Office, which forced President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance to lecture the rogue Ukrainian tyrant about his disrespect for the American people. Zelensky was escorted out of the White House.
Trump is trying to make a deal with Ukraine to get rare minerals from the country, which is part of a potential peace deal that Trump is determined to negotiate. Suddenly, Zelensky might be realizing just how weak he is, now that he does not have crooked Joe Biden giving him a blank check from the U.S. Treasury.
President Trump said that Zelensky can return to the White House only if he is willing to embrace Peace.
