White House chefs were at work in the West Wing on Friday laying out plates of rosemary chicken, celery root puree and collard greens when the sound of raised voices began floating over from the Oval Office.
Inside, a remarkable scene was unfolding. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance had begun berating their guest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a hitherto unseen public implosion of a key global relationship.
For supporters of Ukraine, the moment was disastrous: Everything that could have gone wrong in a meeting between two headstrong leaders did, in the span of 10 minutes.
Yet for all the shock, it was not an unforeseen outcome. Indeed, in the lead up to the talks — which were intended to culminate in the signing of a new agreement on rare earth minerals — many allies of both men quietly wondered whether their already combustible dynamic would end in triumph or catastrophe.
Efforts were taken to prepare Zelensky for a successful meeting with Trump, who is famously susceptible to flattery and highly attuned to how he’s being treated. The Ukrainian president was warned to focus squarely on the minerals deal — and to avoid getting drawn into a fight.
“I told him this morning, ‘Don’t take the bait. Don’t let the media or anyone else get you into an argument with President Trump. What he’s doing today is resetting the relationship,’” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was among a group of Republican and Democratic senators who met Zelensky before he came to the White House.
Other European leaders who’d come through the building this week offered Zelensky their own guidance, including French President Emmanuel Macron, who has found success in an approach to Trump that balances adulation with pushback.
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