What happened after Trump kicked Zelensky out of the Oval Office
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
On Friday, Zelensky and Trump met for what was expected to be a tense but uneventful meeting before signing a natural resources agreement that was seen as the first step to a peace deal with Russia. Instead, cameras captured a blow-up – Trump and Vice President JD Vance accused Zelensky of being ungrateful and said he was “gambling with the lives of millions of people.”
Since then, European leaders have redoubled support for Ukraine – while the Kremlin proclaimed that the Trump administration is “largely aligned” with Moscow’s vision.
Martine Powers speaks with White House reporter Michael Birnbaum about how the meeting fell apart and where Zelensky might go from here.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff with help from Bishop Sand. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and mixed by Sam Bair.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It has been three days since the shocking Oval Office meltdown between President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. |
| 0:13.0 | The two countries were supposed to finalize a deal granting the U.S. limited access to Ukraine's natural resources. |
| 0:20.0 | Ukraine had hoped that that would bolster support from the U.S. in its war against Russia. |
| 0:24.9 | But that deal did not happen. |
| 0:27.6 | You're right now not in a very good position. |
| 0:30.2 | You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position, and he happens to be right about it. |
| 0:34.1 | From the very beginning of the war, Mr. Reyesha. |
| 0:37.2 | You're not in a good position. |
| 0:37.2 | You don't have the cards right now. |
| 0:42.7 | In the aftermath, there have been questions about what this confrontation means for the future of the deadly war that is still raging. |
| 0:53.4 | In Europe, Zelensky's allies have rallied behind him. |
| 0:57.6 | They are doubling down on their support for Ukraine. |
| 1:01.2 | Meanwhile, in the U.S., many Republicans have been standing by Trump's apparent animosity |
| 1:06.1 | towards Zelensky, making the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine uncertain. |
| 1:13.0 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:17.5 | I'm Martine Powers. It's Monday, March 3rd. |
| 1:21.1 | Today, I talk with White House reporter Michael Bernbaum about the international fallout |
| 1:26.2 | from that Oval Office meeting. |
| 1:28.2 | Why Russia is happy about how things unfolded and what Zelensky might do next. |
| 1:37.7 | So Michael, at this point, I know many people have seen or heard at least parts of this back and forth between Trump and J.D. Vance |
| 1:47.5 | and Zelensky on Friday. We also talked through that on post reports on Friday, a little bit of what |
| 1:53.3 | transpired in that meeting. But I'm curious just for you, briefly, what was your reaction to this |
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