President Donald Trump had another temper tantrum after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Wednesday.
This time he whined that the foreign leader has “no cards to play” when Zelensky rejected his peace proposal.
Trump presented Ukraine with his “final offer” for peace last week, pressuring Zelensky to make territorial concessions to Russia and speed up the agreement process.
The deal included U.S. recognition of Crimea as a Russian territory, despite the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed the region in 2014. It also provided no possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine.
Zelensky turned the offer down.
“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” he told reporters Wednesday. “There is nothing to talk about. It is against our constitution.”
Trump then ranted on Truth Social, bashing Zelensky for his disagreement.
“This statement is very harmful to the Peace Negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago under the auspices of President Barack Hussein Obama, and is not even a point of discussion,” he posted.
He argued that Ukraine doesn’t have to recognize Crimea as Russian territory—just that the U.S. would.
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelensky’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War,“ Trump continued. ”He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire—He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country.”
Trump, who initially promised to end the war on day one of his presidency, claimed he has “nothing to do with Russia,” but has refused to apply similar pressure to Putin.
While he’s blasted Zelensky for his leadership—calling him a “dictator” and blaming him for the 2022 Russian invasion—he’s cozied up to the Kremlin and complimented him on multiple occasions. Once, when negotiations were stalling, he threatened Putin with tariffs on Russian oil. But he never followed through.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet Putin on Friday. Trump claimed Wednesday that a Russian-Ukraine ceasefire is “very close.”
There’s no sign that’s actually the case, however, especially now that Ukraine rebuked Trump’s offer and U.S. officials skipped negotiation talks in London Wednesday.
Trump previously suggested a 30-day ceasefire to Putin, which the Russian leader rejected. Instead, Putin promised a 30-hour ceasefire last weekend, but he violated the agreement only hours later when he launched attacks on Ukraine.
Trump suggested that his new proposal is the last opportunity Zelensky will have to end the war. But since Ukraine would have to make hefty sacrifices, Zelensky won’t budge.
“Russia continues to reject an unconditional ceasefire, dragging out the process and trying to manipulate negotiations,” said Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff.
The Trump administration has been frustrated at the stagnation for several weeks now.
“We are now reaching a point where we need to decide whether this is even possible or not,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week. “Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on.”
Trump also grew upset. “Now, if for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say you’re foolish. You are fools, you horrible people,” he said at the time. “And we’re going to just take a pass. But hopefully, we won’t have to do that.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
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