Alliance between the U.S. and Ukraine shaken after Trump-Zelenskyy clash
A most dangerous war took a perilous turn on Friday. In what was planned to be a brief, cordial, greeting, President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy squared off in the Oval Office and left an alliance shaken. For three years, the west has stood against Russia’s unprovoked invasion of an innocent country. Ukraine is a vanity war for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who covets an empire. And for that alone, more than one million people have been killed or wounded on both sides. President Trump has boasted only he can end it quickly. But, in the last two weeks, his chaotic attempt alarmed allies and encouraged enemies. By Friday, he was scolding the man who stands between Russia and the rest of Europe.
President Trump: You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good. We’re going to feel very good and very strong.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: We’re going to feel your influence.
President Trump: You’re right now not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: That is from the very beginning of the war….
President Trump: You’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: We’re not playing cards.
President Trump: You’re playing cards! You’re playing cards! You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III!
The meeting itself was a gamble, and the public had never seen anything like it. The president, dressing down Zelenskyy, whose people had done all of the dying to stop Putin short of the border of NATO.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images
Scott Pelley: Vladimir Putin watches the video from the Oval Office and what does he see?
H.R. McMaster: Vladimir Putin couldn’t be happier, Scott. Because what he sees is all of the pressure on Zelenskyy, all of the pressure on Ukraine and no pressure on him.
H.R. McMaster knows, he was national security adviser in Trump’s first term. He’s a retired Army general, senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution, and a CBS News contributor.
Scott Pelley: The allies look at the video from the Oval Office and see what?
H.R. McMaster: What they see is something that’s just confounding, a discussion that doesn’t reflect the reality of the war in Ukraine, the degree to which this war has — is a crime against humanity. And they think, you know, “How can President Trump be berating the leader of Ukraine while he says kind things about Vladimir Putin?”
We have seen those ‘crimes against humanity’ in mass graves of Ukrainian civilians and in their obliterated cities. Behind a murderous frontline, Russia occupies 20% of Ukraine and bombs all the rest. American-led sanctions isolated Putin. But, last month, President Trump flipped U.S. policy on its head. He opened peace talks with Russia and did not invite Ukraine. At the same time, he spread a deceitful history of the war.
President Trump (2/18/2025): But today, I heard, “Oh, well, we weren’t invited.” Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years, you should have never started it. You could have made a deal….
Ukraine did not start the war. Next, the president said this…
President Trump (2/18/2025): We gave them, I believe, $350 billion, but let’s say it’s something less than that. But it’s a — it’s a lot.
It’s 122 billion, not 350. The next day, Trump went after Zelenskyy…
President Trump (2/19/2025): A dictator without elections, Zelenskyy better move fast, or he is not going to have a country left. Gotta move, gotta move fast because that war is going in the wrong direction.
Zelenskyy is not a dictator. He was elected in 2019. There hasn’t been a vote since because of the war. On Feb. 24 Trump’s tilt toward Russia reached the U.N., where America voted against its allies and sided with Russia and North Korea, opposing Ukraine. Alarmed, the leaders of France and Britain hurried to the White House.
Scott Pelley: In these last two weeks we’ve heard him call Zelenskyy a dictator, we’ve heard him say it was Ukraine that started the war. What is going on?
H.R. McMaster: Well, President Trump, as we all know, has a tendency to say outlandish things. Sometimes that’s to shake the situation up and create some sense of change. But often times what he doesn’t consider is how his words could impede his own agenda, or how his words actually can cut against U.S. interests or be received abroad in a way that’s– much different from the way his political supporters will receive those words in the United States. And so those words were damaging, damaging to the psyche of the Ukrainians. You know, war really is a contest of wills, and I think what you’re seeing is Donald Trump delivering a series of body blows to the Ukrainians in a way that could affect, you know, their will to continue to fight.
Zelenskyy’s will to fight led him to push for the meeting Friday. Trump had demanded Ukraine sign over the rights to billions of dollars in mineral wealth to pay America back. Zelenskyy came to sign the deal.
President Trump: Well, thank you very much it’s an honor to have President Zelenskyy of Ukraine…
President Trump began, generously.
President Trump: I give tremendous credit to your generals and your soldiers and yourself in the sense that it’s been very hard fighting very tough fighting, great fighters. And you have to be very proud of them from that standpoint but now we want to get it over with.
These public, Oval Office meetings are planned for weeks with issues settled in advance. But this was hasty. Neither side was prepared. Trump spoke of loss in the war both the victim and the aggressor.
President Trump: They’re not American soldiers, but they’re Russian soldiers and they’re Ukrainian soldiers. And we want to be able to stop it.
Zelenskyy seemed irritated when his people were equated to the invading Russians.
President Trump:Whether they’re in Russia or Ukraine, think of the parents of all these people being killed needlessly.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: They came to our territory.
President Trump: Should have never started.
Trump helped arm Zelenskyy in Trump’s first term. But now, he has all but cut off aid. Trump is pushing a quick ceasefire without an international guarantee of Ukraine’s security—which is Russia’s position, too.
President Trump: I’m not aligned with Putin. I’m not aligned with anybody. I’m aligned with the United States of America and for the good of the world. I’m aligned with the world, and I want to get this thing over with. You see the hatred he’s got for Putin, it’s very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of hate, he’s got tremendous hatred.
Protocol prevailed for 40 minutes until Vice President JD Vance said diplomacy could have ended the war long ago.
Vice President JD Vance: The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy…
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Can I ask you?
Vice President JD Vance: Sure.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Yeah?
Vice President JD Vance: Yeah.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: OK.
Vance had struck a nerve with a man who has buried tens of thousands of his countrymen. It got worse when Vance told Zelenskyy he’d seen Ukraine – on TV. Zelenskyy explained that Putin, a mass-murderer indicted for war crimes, could not be trusted. A ceasefire without a security guarantee would be naive.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy: What kind of diplomacy, JD, you are speaking about, what do you mean?
Vice President JD Vance: I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s gonna end the destruction of your country. Mr. President. Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.
It was the White House that called in the media. Ukraine’s ambassador couldn’t bear to watch.
President Trump: The problem is, I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy. And I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States. Your people are very brave, but you are either going to make a deal or we’re out. And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s gonna be pretty, but you’ll fight it out. But you don’t have the cards, but once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position. But you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest. That’s not a nice thing.
Immediately after the meltdown, many Republicans rallied around the president—saying Zelenskyy was at fault. But Republican Congressman Don Bacon has worried about Trump’s approach to Ukraine since last month.
60 Minutes
Rep. Don Bacon: I hope it’s not as bad as it sounds.
Congressman Bacon represents Omaha. He’s a retired Air Force general who knows what America means to NATO.
Rep. Don Bacon: America’s the leader of the free world. We’re the indispensable power. Nobody can stand up to Russia and China if we’re not a part of that. And Ukraine’s the victim. And I think Putin has made clear that he wants to reestablish his old borders and that’s not in our national security interest. So, to me, this is a national security issue, but also a moral issue.
Scott Pelley: Would you say that Donald Trump is appeasing Vladimir Putin?
Rep. Don Bacon: Appears that way, though I can’t get into his motives. I don’t know his motives. Some people think he’s doin’ this for– negotiating and maybe– he’ll get a better deal. I don’t know. All I know is what he says, and when he says that Russia is not the invader, that it’s Ukraine’s fault, that’s just wrong.
Scott Pelley: Is there danger in this?
Rep. Don Bacon: Yup, there is, I fear what this means — we’ve had — we came out of World War II, you know, the dominant power, the indispensable country for freedom. We’ve had NATO. And I worry that this framework, is gonna collapse.
Scott Pelley: When the United States sided with Russia and North Korea at the United Nations, what message did that send?
Sen. Angus King: Well, the first message it sent to me was shame.
Sen. Angus King is an Independent from Maine serving on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees.
Sen. Angus King: I always try to think of, you know, what’s the argument on both sides? I cannot think of a rational argument for pulling our support from Ukraine.
Sen. King likes to point out that Europe has given more than the U.S. and Ukraine has given the most.
60 Minutes
Sen. Angus King: They’ve done the dying. All they’ve asked for us is to send them the means to defend themselves.
Scott Pelley: In this moment, what should Congress be doing about Ukraine?
Sen. Angus King: I think they have to start speaking up. Because if we persist in walking away from Ukraine, it will be the greatest geopolitical mistake that this country’s made since World War II.
Back in the Oval Office, President Trump revealed something of a common cause with the Russian president. Trump complained he and Putin had been slandered for years by allegations that Russia helped Trump’s campaigns—allegations Trump ties to his Democratic opponents.
President Trump: Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia. Russia, Russia, Russia. You ever hear of that deal? That was a phony, that was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam, Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff, who was a Democrat scam, and he had to go through that. And he did go through it. We didn’t end up in a war. And he went through it. He was accused of all that stuff — he had nothing to do with. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting.
That rant was familiar to Trump’s first term national security adviser, H.r. McMaster. McMaster left the white house after 13 months in a falling out with the president. But even back then, he was warning Trump about Vladimir Putin.
H.R. McMaster: He appeals to President Trump’s sense of aggrievement, right? That, you know, “Donald, you know, like me, you know, you’ve been treated so unfairly.” And he’s been very successful at it because he’s a master manipulator and one of the best liars in the world.
Scott Pelley: You seem to be saying that President Trump is being played.
H.R. McMaster: He is being played. And he’s being played like other presidents have been played, like other leaders have been played, through that same playbook of Putin’s.
Today, the allies stood with Zelenskyy. In London, a flash summit was arranged with leaders including those of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the head of NATO, and the British prime minister—who announced new negotiations by Britain and France– potentially taking the lead for peace out of the hands of President Trump.
President Trump: Alright. I think we’ve seen enough. What do you think?
Produced by Henry Schuster and Sarah Turcotte. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Peter M. Berman and Robert Zimet. Assistant editor: Aisha Crespo.
