White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt praised President Trump for scolding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their meeting last week, calling it an “incredibly refreshing” moment.
Leavitt joined Fox News’s “Hannity” on Monday, where she was asked about the altercation in the Oval Office between the two leaders, since she was in the room.
“President Trump wants to end this war. He campaigned on this. He talked about it at every single rally across the country, and unfortunately, President Zelensky is not in the mindset to negotiate peace,” Leavitt said. “And I think, frankly, it was incredibly refreshing to watch the president and the vice president stand up for America.”
Her remarks come just days after Zelensky and Trump’s White House meeting ended in a shouting match and a subsequent press conference with the Ukrainian leader was canceled. The two presidents were expected to sign a rare earth mineral deal during the exchange, considered a step toward ending the Eastern European nation’s three-year war with Russia.
Trump and Vice President Vance claimed Zelensky was being “disrespectful” and did not show enough gratitude for U.S. assistance after he questioned Trump’s conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and recent talks about a peace agreement that did not include Ukraine.
Days after the explosive meeting, Trump paused aid to Ukraine, a significant move for the state of the war.
Leavitt, who has made a name for herself as a fierce communicator of Trump and his agenda, argued that Zelensky appeared “ungrateful to the American taxpayer.”
“It was incredibly profound to watch our president actually stand up for us, for the taxpaying American, law-abiding citizen, who was sick and tired of seeing hundreds of billions of dollars go out the door every single year when we had real problems in our country here,” Leavitt said.
She previously said she was confident in Trump’s ability to strike a deal with Russia and end the war in Ukraine. She suggested an end to the conflict could have come as early as last week.
That plan, however, was derailed after Zelensky was asked to leave the White House, thrusting the international community into action by rallying behind Ukraine and looking for a new way forward without the U.S.
Still, the Ukrainian president over the weekend suggested it was imperative to have the Trump administration’s support. GOP lawmakers have leaned on Trump to restore the relationship in order to salvage negotiations with Ukraine for access to its critical minerals.
