Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent said Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky had already refused to sign a mineral trade with the United States twice.
“This must be one of President Zelensky's biggest diplomatic disasters of all time,” Bescent said. I said in an interview on Friday With Laura Ingraham, host of Fox News' “The Ingraham Angle.”
Bescent explained that Zelensky told him at a meeting in Kiev that he would not sign a mineral trade. Zelensky also refused to close the deal between Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Bescent said.
On Friday, Trump and Vance rebuked Zelensky with the full field of vision of the reporter, with cameras rolling. The tense exchange led to a cancelled meeting between Zelensky and Trump.
“It should be a great day and this is one of the biggest goals in diplomatic history,” Bescent said in reference to football terminology about scoring with your own team.
“Today, I was shocked that he behaved this way on cameras in front of the world,” he added.
On social media site X, Senator Eric Schmidt, R-Mo. “Zelensky could have signed the contract five days ago, but he wanted to come to the White House. He had been tough for two weeks. But he wanted a White House meeting. Trump was bright about it, publicly and personally, even the day before. He could have reset everything, but Zelensky was hostile and on top.”
“He had one-legged putts, but was more interested (and publicly) in the case of matters to be discussed behind closed doors,” Schmidt said.
Trump posted to his social account of truth shortly after a meeting that Zelensky is “not ready for peace.”
“We held a very meaningful meeting at the White House today,” Trump wrote. “We learned a lot that we couldn't understand without a conversation under such fires and pressure.”
“Thank you to America, America, for your support, for this visit,” Zelensky posted on X on Friday afternoon. “Thanks to @potus, Congress and the Americans. Ukraine really needs peace and we work precisely for that.”
