Disastrous White House meeting sees Ukraine's future plunged into further doubt

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. AFP

President Donald Trump's supporters have been quick to cheer his and Vice President JD Vance's castigation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. Finally, they say, America's leaders are standing up to the ungrateful Ukrainian President, putting US interests first and pursuing peace in a pragmatic way.

Viewed differently, what unfolded at the tail end of an otherwise cordial meeting was an unmitigated disaster. Not just for Ukraine, but potentially for Europe and America, too.

On Friday, the world watched in real time as Mr Trump and Mr Vance took turns scolding Mr Zelenskyy, once a broadly sympathetic figure in the US who has become the bête noire of the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement. It sees the Ukrainian leader as an upstart tyrant who has siphoned off American treasure to pay for a war he can't possibly win. They even blame Mr Zelenskyy for starting the conflict, a line straight out of Moscow, which launched the invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

The video of what transpired in the Oval Office during 10 jaw-dropping minutes will be studied for decades to come.

Mr Trump had just asked for “one more question” from the press when Mr Vance decided to insert himself into the meeting. He chastised Mr Zelenskyy for not “thanking the President” enough for US support and went on to accuse the Ukrainian leader of being disrespectful for sticking up for himself in a televised meeting – that Mr Trump had insisted on televising.

“It's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media,” Mr Vance said. “You guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems, you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.”

From there, things went downhill fast.

Instead of taking a deep breath and putting on his best diplomatic face, Mr Zelenskyy suggested Mr Vance didn't know what he was talking about because he had never visited Ukraine. The Vice President shot back that such any trip would be a mere “propaganda tour”.

Donald Trump berates Ukrainian President at White House

01:16

Mr Trump then waded in after Mr Zelenskyy, defending himself in a second language, clumsily said America shouldn't feel insulated from global affairs just because an ocean stands between it and Europe.

“Don't tell us what we're going to feel, because you're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel,” Mr Trump said. “You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War Three and what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country.”

Some observers claimed Mr Vance and Mr Trump had only invited Mr Zelenskyy to the White House to ambush him. I doubt this was the case, as Mr Trump has opened up the Oval Office every time a world leader has visited, including French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who this week conducted a charm offensive on Mr Trump to nudge him into Ukraine's corner.

But any goodwill from all that diplomacy evaporated before our eyes on Friday. A rare earth minerals deal that would have allowed the US to recoup some of the money it has spent in Ukraine was left unsigned and Mr Trump reportedly ordered Mr Zelenskyy to leave the White House, saying he could come back “when he is ready for peace”.

Europe and Ukraine are only beginning to digest the seismic implications of what just happened. As of this writing, Mr Trump's position going forward is unclear and shocked European countries were coming to Mr Zelenskyy's defence. After three years of brutal conflict in Ukraine, Mr Trump's attempts to forge a peace deal with Russia appeared to be gaining ground, but now nothing is certain.

It is not unusual for global leaders to have major disagreements, but these are usually fleshed out behind closed doors. The spectacle of the sharply dressed Mr Trump and Mr Vance berating the diminutive Mr Zelenskyy, who was wearing black combat fatigues, will be remembered as a defining moment for our times.

Here were America's two most powerful men ganging up on a wartime leader whose country is being bombed daily by Russia. It will send chills down the spines of every US ally.

The spectacle was met with predictable delight by the Kremlin, with former president Dmitry Medvedev gloating over the admonishment of "insolent pig" Mr Zelenskyy.

At every moment since the Second World War, US presidents have resisted Russian or Soviet aggression. It was always a given, a defining characteristic of the postwar global order that America itself had forged and benefitted from.

Today we saw proof that era is over.