Hours after a heated disagreement in the Oval Office between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, America’s sudden retreat from a democracy-forward foreign policy took dramatic form a bit further down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Between 14th and 12th Street, a small group of protestors—children and dogs in tow—held signs in support of fired USAID workers leaving the former headquarters of the largely-dismantled agency. Across the street, diplomats, reporters, and young Hudson Institute employees excitedly awaited the arrival of Zelenskyy. But the Ukrainian president did not show. Reportedly, he was calling other European leaders.
Perhaps the big takeaway from the day’s events: If Ukraine is to find a lasting peace, it will need far more support from Europe, and quickly.
The two presidents had been expected to use the meeting to sign a deal exchanging Ukrainian mineral rights for some sort of unspecified U.S. support.
But the meeting turned acrimonious. Vice President JD Vance turned to reporters and sold the occasion as a testament to the strength of Trump’s resolve.
“What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing,” Vance said.
Zelenskyy interjected, pointing out that the United States and Ukraine had already tried to find a diplomatic solution. In 2014, they negotiated a ceasefire shortly after Russia’s takeover of parts of Eastern Ukraine and the Donbas. Putin subsequently violated the deal, thousands of times.
“He killed our people and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn’t do it,” Zelensky said. “What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you speaking about?”
His point was simple: without continued—and clear—U.S. support, any ceasefire agreement would only be temporary.
Things went quickly downhill from there. One White House official told Defense One: “Zelenskyy torpedoed this by trying to make more demands with a disrespectful tone as we’re making serious headway with a peace deal. Not the [Vice President.]”
Europe reacts
Across the Atlantic, European leaders rallied to Ukraine’s side after Trump accused Zelenskyy of disrespect and abruptly ended talks.
“There’s an aggressor, which is Russia, and a people attacked, which is Ukraine. We must thank all those who helped and respect those who have been fighting since the beginning,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters, after reportedly talking to Zelenskyy, post-meeting.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reaffirmed Germany’s stance, declaring, “We must never confuse aggressor and victim in this terrible war,” The Times reported.
Finnish foreign minister Elina Valtonen took to X to say, “Finland stands with the people and the people’s right to choose. In Ukraine, people have chosen freedom.”
“We will continue to work with you for a just and lasting peace,” said António Costa, the head of the European Commission. Other leaders added their own outpourings of support.
Friday’s contretemps was just the latest move by the weeks-old Trump administration to dismay Ukraine’s other allies. First there was the abrupt dismantling of USAID, which provides critical assistance to Ukraine and other democratic partners. And earlier this week, the U.S. voted with Russia and Belarus to oppose a United Nations resolution condemning Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, was at Hudson just a day earlier and described allies’ shock at what she described as a sudden reversal at the United Nations.
“We were together with the United States. We were co-sponsoring a resolution on Ukraine. And then suddenly, not only did the United States fail to give its signature, but started to actively lobby against this, and then, in the end, we saw with whom the United States voted,” Kallas said.
Kallas has emerged as a prominent voice in an effort to rally more European support for Ukraine. In January, she said the European Union was “ready to take over this leadership if the United States is not willing to do so.”
Europe already contributes more aid to Ukraine than the United States, and, if Friday’s rise in European defense stocks is any indication, could be poised to boost defense spending—at least some of which will go to Ukraine.
But Europe will also need to make additional hard choices to better support Ukraine. In a series of pointed critiques, economist Robin Brooks and Lithuanian politician Gabrielius Landsbergis have admonished European nations for imposing insufficient economic sanctions on Russia.
“Europe’s leaders are busy feigning moral outrage over the US. Please just stop. For 3 years, the EU actively undercut Russia sanctions and looked the other way as its firms made millions selling goods to Russia via 3rd countries. No more moral outrage from Europe please,” Brooks tweeted in January. He later added, “The EU can implode Russia’s economy by sanctioning Putin’s shadow fleet in the Baltic. But Greece’s shipping oligarchs like selling oil tankers (blue) to Putin (gray) for top Dollar. EU sanctions would stop this. So sanctions don’t happen and the shadow fleet continues to grow.”
Landsbergis, who served as his country’s foreign minister from 2020 to 2024, has been a vocal advocate for a robust European response to Russian aggression. On Friday, he again called upon European leaders to unfreeze Russian accounts that hold about 190 million Euros in European banks—and give it to Ukraine.
“While we discuss this unreality show, Ukrainians are in trenches defending our continent, Russia’s 190 billion euros are sitting in our banks untouched, our best weapons are in storage far from the front line and our pilots aren’t closing any skies. This is not a drill, people,” Landsbergis said.
One Ukrainian official described a feeling of abandonment by the United States and Donald Trump.
“Your country sold us,” they told Defense One in despair.
Polls suggest wide support for Ukraine persists across the United States, but also that there is a widening divide between political parties.
Down on Pennsylvania Avenue, after Zelenskyy’s no-show at Hudson, a few attendees gathered for a sad lunch across the street—at the Waldorf Astoria, the hotel that today occupies the historic Old Post Office building. In the celebrated, multi-story covered atrium, wealthy patrons sipped white wine beneath cherry-blossom arrangements. It was the building’s striking quality that attracted its previous owner, who in 2013, described it as a painting.
“Friends of mine, they spend these ridiculous amounts of money on a painting. I’d rather do jobs like this,” he said, seeming to promise a renewal that would inspire for decades to come, something that “everybody in DC can truly be proud of. The thing I do best is build, believe it or not.” But the hotel failed to bring in the revenue he expected, and was sold in 2022.
Today, under new name and ownership, the building bears no mark of its former life as Trump International Hotel.
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