Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the US-Ukraine economic deal was no longer on the table after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky chose to “blow it up” during the contentious meeting at the White House on Friday.
President Trump was ready to sign the deal with Zelensky on Friday and said the US would continue providing military aid to Ukraine before the Oval Office meeting turned hostile due to Zelensky pressing Vice President JD Vance about the idea of diplomacy with Russia.
“All President Zelensky had to do was come in and sign this economic agreement, and again show no daylight — no daylight — between Ukrainian people and the American people, and he chose to blow that up,” Bessent told CBS News host Margaret Brennan.
The potential deal would give the US access to a fund where Ukraine would place proceeds from its rare earth minerals, natural gas, oil, and other natural resources. While the deal didn’t give Ukraine explicit security guarantees, both Trump and Bessent made clear it would make the US more committed to Ukraine.
Bessent said the purpose of the deal was “to further intertwine the American people and Ukrainian people and show no daylight. To show the Russian leadership that there was no daylight, and President Zelensky came into the Oval Office and tried to relitigate in front of the world the deal.”
After the blow-up in the Oval Office, Zelensky was kicked out of the White House, and reports say President Trump is now considering cutting off all US weapons shipments to Ukraine. For his part, Zelensky says he still wants to sign the deal, although he’s asking for stronger security guarantees.
“We are ready to sign the minerals agreement, and it will be the first step toward security guarantees. But it’s not enough, and we need more than just that. A ceasefire without security guarantees is dangerous for Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on X on Saturday.
On Sunday, Zelensky insisted that he believes he can repair relations with the US, although Republicans are rallying behind Trump after the contentious meeting and suggesting Ukraine may need a new leader, even those who have been staunch supporters of Zelensky and the proxy war.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who credits himself with coming up with the idea for the minerals deal, said he was “devastated” by the meeting. “The question for me is, ‘Is he redeemable in the eyes of Americans?’ Most Americans witnessing what they saw today would not want Zelensky to be their business partner, including me, and I’ve been to Ukraine nine times since the war started,” Graham said.
