President Trump Shuts Down Deal

After fireworks went off in the Oval Office last week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the U.S. minerals deal with Ukraine is off. This occurred after Ukraine President Zelenskyy announced on X that he would sign the deal and implored President Donald Trump and America to “stand more firmly” against Vladimir Putin and Russia.

I can’t remember when we’ve seen such a heated argument between world leaders caught on camera. But let’s be honest. These kinds of arguments happen frequently in the workplace or business settings. This one just happened to be in front of the press.

But right now the deal is off. Bessent, author of the U.S. minerals deal, told Margaret Brennan: “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.” If Zelenskyy had signed the deal, he would have signaled a close relationship with America. But all that was torpedoed by his public antics.

Bessent also argued that Zelenskyy messed up the “sequencing” of the deal. You can’t have a peace deal without an economic deal. Remember that Trump’s first priority is to end the war.

Of course, the media is having a field day saying that Trump is pro-Russia and “ambushed” Zelenskyy. Yet this isn’t the first time that Zelenskyy has angered American leadership.

According to a 2022 NBC report about a phone call between Biden and Zelenskyy:

Biden had barely finished telling Zelenskyy he’d just greenlighted another $1 billion in U.S. military assistance for Ukraine when Zelenskyy started listing all the additional help he needed and wasn’t getting. Biden lost his temper, the people familiar with the call said. The American people were being quite generous, and his administration and the U.S. military were working hard to help Ukraine, he said, raising his voice, and Zelenskyy could show a little more gratitude.

Oh, so President Biden almost had the same conversation with Zelenskyy, but the media didn’t bemoan a global crisis. It didn’t voice outrage over Biden’s call yet hypocritically condemned Trump for publicly standing up for American interests. Trump can do zero right in the eyes of the media.

ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy Ric Grenell weighed in on the blowup between Zelenskyy and Trump:

This is literally about life and death. . . . I don’t think that you can make a more important decision right now in the political world. This is about bringing peace. This is about ending a war. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and are maimed, and we need a President of the United States who is totally focused on peace. Now, look, when you want to focus on peace, and you want to reject the status quo of war in Washington, D.C., you’re going to take on a whole bunch of people who don’t want that. You’ve got the media who like the idea that this issue is just black and white. They want to create a king with Zelenskyy, and they will not even look at anything about the problems in Ukraine, the problems with recruitment – the fact that they are losing. It is very apparent to anyone who is looking at this independently that the Ukrainians are in a terrible position. They need to be able to get this war over with. Donald Trump should be celebrated. We should be talking about the fact that he is on the cusp of a Nobel Peace Prize because this war that started under Joe Biden has escalated.

The ACLJ is excited to announce the launch of a $500,000 media counter-campaign to fight a taxpayer-funded campaign against pro-life Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRCs) in Massachusetts. Other states will follow suit if we allow a state to attack lifesaving PRCs.

The ACLJ is airing pro-life ads throughout the state. We also filed a lawsuit to stop the mass deception being propagated. Check out our website dedicated to this fight for PRCs.

If you want to join us in fighting the evil smear campaign against PRCs, donate to our Life & Liberty Drive – gifts are doubled. Also, sign our petition to raise your voice for PRCs.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included a full analysis of the Trump Administration taking the U.S. minerals deal off the table.

Watch the full broadcast below: