President Volodymyr Zelensky left the White House early without signing a mineral deal with the United States following a heated exchange with President Donald Trump on Feb. 28.
Zelensky departed in his motorcade around 1:45 p.m. local time, without holding a joint news conference scheduled for later in the day, after the two leaders got into a heated argument while speaking with journalists in the Oval Office.
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CNN reported that following the exchange, Zelensky and Trump left to separate rooms, with the Ukrainian delegation wanting to continue talks with the Trump administration.
Trump later ordered his officials to tell the Ukrainian officials to leave the White House, despite protest from the Ukrainian delegation.
EU governments were completely happy letting it be the case as well. Don’t act like they were doing much to try and reduce their reliance on US aid.
Yeah, so? They were willing to play along as long as America was reasonably well behaved about it. That was the unspoken bargain of America’s Cold War and post-Cold War international influence - they got to have plenty of soft power, and in exchange they got to play out their World Police fantasy.
Now that’s going to be going away.