Trump halts aid to Ukraine

President Donald Trump on Monday evening hit pause on all U.S. aid to Ukraine, a show of force following last week’s dressing down of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office aimed at pressuring him back to the negotiating table.

“President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace,” a White House official told POLITICO. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

That directive came just hours after Trump told reporters that he’d yet to even discuss such a pause — and three days after the president’s remarkable berating of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Trump and Vice President JD Vance took issue with what they said was a lack of gratitude by Ukraine’s president who, as Trump put it to his face, doesn’t “have the cards” to prevail over Russia without continued assistance from the U.S.

But Trump also made clear in public comments Monday that the economic agreement Zelenskyy had come to Washington to finalize remains on the table The carrot and stick approach is about forcing Zelenskyy into a bigger negotiation to end the war with Russia.

One administration official close to the process, granted anonymity to discuss internal matters, said that Trump and his senior team continue to believe that a relatively quick end to the war that Russia started three years ago remains possible and are eager to push Zelenskyy to tamp down his own rhetoric so they can draw both sides into negotiating.

“There’s a potential window with Russia,” the official said. “You won’t get Putin to the table if you call him names.”

But as much as Trump may want to broker a historic peace, his own ego remains a factor. On Monday, some aides continued to suggest that there would be no deal, no matter the high stakes, until Zelenskyy took ownership for Friday’s flap.

“What we need to hear from President Zelenskyy is that he has regret for what happened, he’s ready to sign this minerals deal and that he’s ready to engage in peace talks,” said Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz during an appearance on Fox News Channel on Monday.

Significant barriers remain to rescuing the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. They include demands that Zelenskyy, though viewed as a victim by allies in Europe and many in the U.S., apologize to Trump. And it is becoming increasingly clear that even if Zelenskyy swallows his pride and apologizes to Trump for perceived insults, the profit-sharing deal on rare earth minerals is unlikely to lead immediately to peace talks or to deter Trump from drawing closer to Russia.

Still, administration officials worked over the weekend to hold backchannel conversations to rescue the deal, while allies publicly urged Zelenskyy to make a public show of begging for forgiveness. And Trump, despite his strong anti-Zelenskyy rhetoric, left just enough daylight in his comments Monday to keep European and Ukrainian hopes alive.

Pro-Ukraine lawmakers, increasingly swimming against a tide of Republican opposition to Zelenskyy and the war, are working to repair the situation.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a pro-Ukraine moderate, expressed confidence following a conversation with Zelenskyy’s chief of staff that the minerals pact would be worked out “in short order” and lead to longer-term economic and security agreements.

“We are 100% getting this train back on the tracks,” Fitzpatrick wrote in a post on X.

In his own remarks Monday afternoon, the president also struck a much more conciliatory posture than he conveyed Friday and even earlier Monday, when he blasted Zelenskyy on social media. During a back-and-forth with reporters in the Roosevelt Room, Trump talked up the benefits of a deal to split profits with Ukraine for the country’s rare earth minerals and tempered his attacks on Zelenskyy.

“I just think he should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin,” Trump said.

Trump ducked a question about whether he’s discussed canceling additional defense aid for Ukraine, reiterated the security benefits for Kyiv of an American presence there and praised European leaders for expressing a willingness to increase defense spending. Just hours after attacking Zelenskyy over a comment suggesting the war’s end was “very, very far away,” Trump eased up, questioning whether the remark was accurate and not naming Zelenskyy as he urged him toward peace talks.

But Trump is hardly in Zelenskyy’s or Europe’s camp. And his eagerness to build a relationship with Moscow is putting pressure on Europe.

Asked whether talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin were in the offing, Trump said on Monday that “we’re going to do deals with everybody.”

The looming prospect of Trump’s reconciliation with Putin is giving greater urgency to European efforts to draft their own plan to take a bigger role in protecting Ukraine if and when it reaches a deal to end the war.

“Europe has a short amount of time to go all in and ensure a full rapprochement between the Americans and the Russians doesn’t happen,” said Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer in his Monday morning email to clients. “Otherwise, they are left without a realistic strategic option.”

Bremmer also said there was chatter that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, both of whom came to Washington last week, might return in hopes of repairing ties, resurrecting the minerals deal and promoting a European cease-fire plan.

But Trump’s interest in normalizing relations with Moscow could cloud these plans and prompt him to make more demands of Zelenskyy, whose country has been under attack from Russia for three years.

Earlier Monday, Trump blasted Zelenskyy on social media, attacking his comments about the prospect of a longer war as “the worst statement that could have been made.”

“This guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing,” Trump wrote.

They were among many comments that echoed the Kremlin, so much so that Dmitiri Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, crowed in an interview with state television Sunday that America’s foreign policy “largely aligns with our vision.” Like Trump, he blamed Ukraine for dragging out the war that Russia launched without provocation three years ago.

“The Kyiv regime and Zelenskyy do not want peace,” Peskov said.

Zelenskyy sought to smooth that tension with his own social media post — aimed at Trump — emphasizing his desire for peace “as soon as possible.”

Europe’s show of support for Zelenskyy this weekend and discussions of separate peace proposals made clear that he is not alone and may have sufficient backing to fend off Russian attacks for some time.

But Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s berating of Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on Friday has riled the president’s political base, which could complicate any rapprochement with Ukraine’s president. The president’s political allies have celebrated his humiliation of Zelenskyy as in keeping with his “America First” mantra. And some have leaned in even harder, urging the president to abandon Ukraine and European allies altogether.

Elon Musk, the tech billionaire Trump has empowered to slash the federal bureaucracy, called for the U.S. to withdraw completely from NATO, the alliance of 32 nations formed in the aftermath of World War II in a post on X, his social media company.

And MAGA-oriented members of Congress, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Ana Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), issued similar statements.

But continuing to play to his own base could cost Trump the historic peacemaking opportunity he says he seeks.

“Trump is driving Ukraine toward Europe. And it will take everything Europe’s got to keep them going,” said Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO under President Barack Obama. “But when you refuse to give them any security guarantees, when you insult them, you’re actually giving away your leverage. Because, like it or not, Ukraine is going to have a say in any peace deal.”

Nahal Toosi, Robbie Gramer and Dasha Burns contributed to this report.