This time, he wore a sort-of suit.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky packed for the White House, he left his fatigues at home and sported instead a jacket, sans tie. The wartime leader had so ruffled President Trump last time they met in the Oval Office, with his military-style sweatshirt and indignation, that he was unceremoniously kicked off campus. From the start, Monday was different.
The American president put his arm around and pulled close his Ukrainian counterpart the moment Zelensky stepped out of his motorcade. The two smiled; there now seems to be more momentum for peace than at any other time since the European land war started.
Mercurial in methods, Trump has been consistent in his call to end the conflict.
He greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin, the aggressor, in Alaska last week, only to abandon the idea of an immediate ceasefire as a precondition for further negotiations. He had rejected for months a U.S. security guarantee for Ukraine, the defending nation – only for his administration to suddenly warm to the idea of preventing Russia from invading a second time.
Public details are scant as negotiations are ongoing, but Trump ended the day triumphant. Zelensky and Putin will arrange a meeting between themselves, he announced, followed by a trilateral summit with Russia, Ukraine, and the United States as arbiter.
Wrote Trump on social media, “This was a very good, early step for a war that has been going on for almost four years.” The Russians had not publicly agreed as of press time, though NATO leaders insisted they had accepted in private.
Eager to avoid another early exit, Zelensky thanked the United States no less than a dozen times when he sat down with Trump in the Oval Office. He also acknowledged his new uniform. “As you see,” he told a reporter who had pressed him on his sartorial choices last time, “I changed.” The crescendo of his charm offensive: a letter thanking first lady Melania Trump for her work to bring kidnapped Ukrainian children home from Russia.
“She sees the heartbreak,” the American president said of Melania Trumps efforts. “She would love to see it end. And she says it very openly, very proudly, and with great sorrow, because so many people have been killed.”
It was a softer moment in a day of marathon meetings about the fate of his nation, and this time, Zelensky did not come alone. A troupe of seven European leaders followed him to Washington. Their top line concern: security guarantees. Asked what he wants in that regard, the Ukrainian replied, “Everything.”
While Trump innately balks at putting boots on the ground anywhere, he seemed to warm to a new possibility, one where continental allies shoulder more of the burden. He described an arrangement where security would be provided “by the various European countries,” but only “with a coordination with the United States.”
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov voiced displeasure almost immediately, reiterating the Russian “categorical rejection” of troops from NATO countries in Ukraine. But Trump has stated repeatedly that neither side will receive everything they want, an obvious fact on display as European leaders gathered with him for a roundtable discussion in the afternoon.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz began by praising Trump like the rest of the delegation. “The path is open. You opened it last Friday,” he said, “but now the way is open for complicated negotiations.” Then he took a more critical tone, telling Trump that he could “not imagine that the next meeting would take place without a ceasefire.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was caught on camera rolling her eyes at the remarks while Trump shrugged. “In the six wars that Ive settled,” he replied, “I havent had a ceasefire.”
For the most part, though, the Europeans were effusive in their praise. “I think in the past two weeks weve probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three and a half years,” said Finnish President Alexander Stubb.
“Nobody has been able to bring it to this point,” added British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Not to be outdone, Meloni told Trump, “Something has changed thanks to you.”
Not mentioned but perhaps bubbling under the surface: the fact that European Union imports of Russian fossil fuels, €21.9 billion, exceeded European Union financial aid to Ukraine, €18.7 billion, last year. Those dollars are still flowing to the Russian war economy even as the EU presses the U.S. to give security guarantees and vows to end the imports by 2027.
Stateside, Democrats have been nearly universal in their criticism of Trumps overture to Russia. Said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who sits on the Foreign Relations Committee, “Donald Trump, once again, got played by Vladimir Putin.” Some on the right, meanwhile, remain less than pleased with Zelensky. “The all-black outfit is a costume,” said longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. “Who does he think he is – the Ukrainian Johnny Cash?”
“The U.S. taxpayers have given this guy billions of dollars,” Stone told RealClearPolitics, “but he cant afford a proper suit to meet the president or to address a joint session of Congress? Its disrespectful.”
But it is more than just the clothes. The distaste for Zelensky among the MAGA right was once much more pronounced. Nearly heralded as the second coming of Winston Churchill by the Biden administration, the Ukrainian leader earned standing ovations from Congress, posed for glossy photo shoots, and received regular envoys of politicians, celebrities, and press from the West. Some on the right perceived not just personal ingratitude but a dangerous leader eager to draw America into another foreign war. When Trump dressed down Zelensky in their first Oval Office meeting, literal cheers could be heard in the halls of the Eisenhower Office Building across the street from the White House as staff watched live.
“He doesnt recognize that Nov. 6 was a paradigm shift in American politics, including for our policy toward Ukraine,” a White House official told RCP at the time. Zelensky had failed to understand “the new political landscape,” the official said before adding that the Ukrainian leader had been “living in a pro-Ukrainian American bubble.”
Perhaps Zelensky has pierced that illusion. Once joined at the hip with President Biden, he has shown an ability to adjust his approach to a global landscape shaped by Trump. “I think that we had very good conversation with President Trump, very good,” he told reporters before the roundtable with European leaders. “And it really was the best one,” he said before pausing to add, in reference to a potential trilateral peace summit with Trump and Putin, “or sorry, maybe the best one will be in the future.”
The American president was already well pleased. With his arm around the Ukrainian leader earlier in the day, Trump signaled his approval. He said of the sort-of suit, “I love it.”
Philip Wegmann is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
