Trump Plays Nice With Zelenskyy After Turning On Him Earlier

On Wednesday, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of saying “nasty” things about him and criticized him for not reaching a deal with Russia’s Vladimir Putin to end the invasion of Zelenskyy’s country.

But Friday, both men were, if not all smiles, at least only somewhat visibly awkward as they tried to paper over a central difference in their stances: Trump has declined to say which side he favors in Russia’s war on Ukraine, and Zelenskyy has insisted on a “just” end to the war that would preserve his country’s pre-conflict boundaries.

The Friday morning meeting in New York City between Trump and Zelenskyy capped off a roller-coaster week for the Ukrainian president, whose bid to keep fighting hinges heavily on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election, given the U.S. supply of weapons is allowing the much-smaller Ukraine to remain in the fight.

“We need [a] just peace, we need [a] just peace. It’s so important to have [a] just peace for the people, especially for the families who lost their children. It’s [a] big tragedy,” Zelenskyy told Fox News after the pair met.

Trump said his stance hasn’t changed, but he appeared to be softening it slightly.

“We both want to see this end, and we both want to see a fair deal made. It’s got to be fair,” Trump said as he stood next to Zelenskyy. “And I think that’ll happen at the right time.”

Trump’s tone was a marked change from just Wednesday, when he and several high-profile GOP members of Congress attacked Zelenskyy publicly.

“It’s something we have to have a quick discussion about because the president of Ukraine is in our country and he’s making little nasty aspersions toward your favorite president, me,” Trump said at a campaign appearance in North Carolina, referring to Zelenskyy’s description of Trump running mate JD Vance’s position as “too radical” in an interview with The New Yorker.

Vance infamously once declared he did not care what happened to Ukraine and has been one of the Senate’s most prominent critics of aiding Ukraine. The Ohio Republican has defended Trump, saying the former president would resolve the war before he took office if he won in November, a stance Ukraine supporters have seen as a veiled threat to cut off aid to force Ukraine to accept Russian sovereignty over territory it invaded.

“Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said Wednesday. “Ukraine is gone.”

He went on to paint Ukraine as a post-apocalyptic wasteland even as outside of its contested eastern and southern regions, life has gone on much as before the war. Ukraine’s economic ministry said economic growth was up 3.5% in August compared with the same month a year ago.

Earlier in the week, the presence of three Democratic politicians while Zelenskyy toured a Pennsylvania factory that makes munitions for Ukraine’s war effort sent Capitol Hill Republicans into a conniption.

“I have heard that 400 people work here, but I wanted very much to come here and to thank you,” Zelenskyy said. “Four hundred people have saved millions of Ukrainians.”

Zelenskyy’s visit to the historic Scranton, Pennsylvania, facility included Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. With control of the House and Senate up for grabs in November’s election and Shapiro once a leading contender as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Republicans said they smelled politics in the swing state event.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent a public letter to Zelenskyy demanding that he fire his nation’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova. Johnson accused Markarova of setting up a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats and is clearly election interference.”

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) also asked the Defense Department to provide details of why Zelenskyy was taken to the event aboard an Air Force plane.

Polling shows that support for helping Ukraine fend off Russia’s brutal invasion remains steady in the U.S. and that support for Zelenskyy in particular is high.

A Sept. 21-24 Economist/YouGov poll found 53% of respondents want to continue or increase military aid to Ukraine, compared with 28% who want to decrease it. The issue is polarizing, though, as 44% of Republicans wanted to cut aid. And by a margin of 51% to 25%, those polled approved of allowing Ukraine to hit strategic targets deep inside Russia, a move U.S. officials have been hesitant to allow for fear it will anger the Kremlin.

Zelenskyy’s favorability rating continued to be well above any major domestic politician’s, at +17 percentage points. Biden’s was at -16 in the poll, Vice President Kamala Harris was even and Trump was at -14.

Zelenskyy got a much warmer reception during the week from Democrats, including appearances with President Joe Biden and Harris on Thursday and the announcement of about $8 billion in military aid.

The administration pledged additional air defense supplies, including U.S.-made “glide bombs” that will allow for longer-range strikes, and to support the training of 18 more F-16 fighter pilots.

Harris signaled she was firmly in Zelenskyy’s corner.

“Putin started this war, and he could end it tomorrow if he simply withdrew his troops from Ukraine’s sovereign territory,” she said.

Zelenskyy said Friday that he met with both presidential candidates to show Ukraine could work with either after the election. But the gnawing concern among Ukrainians and their advocates, that Trump will in the end favor Putin in any attempt to broker peace should he be elected, appeared to still hang in the air as Trump and Zelenskyy met with reporters before their meeting.

Trump again touted his “very good relationship” with Putin, leading Zelenskyy, a former comedic actor before he became president, to point between the two of them and interject, “I hope we have more good relations.”

“Oh, I see,” Trump said, with a small laugh.