Zelensky “angered” Trump so much that he was on the verge of halting military aid – Axios

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly angered U.S. President Donald Trump so much during U.S.-Russia negotiations that Trump was on the verge of cutting off military aid.

This was reported by Axios, citing sources.

“Zelensky is an actor who made the typical mistake of performers: he started believing he is the character he plays on screen. Yes, he showed courage and stood up to Russia. But without the millions we’ve spent, he’d already be in a grave. It’s time for him to exit the stage, taking all that drama with him,” a White House official involved in the negotiations told the publication.

“We’ve created a monster in Zelensky. And these Europeans, obsessed with Trump (likely meaning those fixated on negative opinions about Trump), are giving him terrible advice, even though they refuse to send troops themselves,” added another official involved in the discussions.

According to sources, there were five incidents over the past nine days that infuriated Trump and his team. Zelensky “showed how not to do ‘the art of the deal'” when it came to securing Trump’s support.

• February 12: Trump claimed Zelensky was “rude” to the U.S. Treasury Secretary in Kyiv and postponed a meeting because he “overslept.”
• February 14: At the Munich Security Conference, Zelensky “surprised” U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio by stating he lacked the authority to approve a deal on mineral rights without parliamentary consent.
• February 15: Zelensky publicly rejected the U.S. proposal at the conference, and his remarks were far more negative than those made in private discussions.
• February 18: During U.S.-Russia negotiations in Riyadh, Zelensky criticized the meeting for excluding Ukraine. A “furious” Trump then lashed out at Zelensky during a press conference.
• February 19: Zelensky responded by saying Trump “lives in a disinformation bubble,” after which Trump posted about the “dictator without elections.”

A Trump administration official told Axios that the American-proposed agreement on Ukraine’s mineral rights was “a shit sandwich, but Ukraine will have to swallow it because Trump has made it clear this is no longer our problem.”

Critics of the deal likened Trump’s approach to “mafia-style extortion,” arguing that Ukraine would lose land and rights to its natural resources while gaining very little in return.