My Takeaways from the Trump-Zelensky Meeting
Plus: The Texas walkout is over.
There really isn’t much to say about yesterday’s meeting between President Trump, President Zelensky, and seven European leaders, other than that it was an extraordinary spectacle, with so many heads of state assembled at the White House, and it went a lot better than the last time Zelensky was in the Oval Office. A very broad outline of a Russia-Ukraine peace agreement is starting to emerge — Ukraine cedes some amount of land to Russia, while Russia allows the West to provide security guarantees to Ukraine — but, it should be noted, neither side has publicly agreed to those concessions, much less offered indication of which land or what type of security guarantees they would involve.
Trump, for his part, is remaining vague as well. The president said Monday that the U.S. will “be involved” in providing security to Ukraine as part of a peace deal, but offered no details on what that might look like. He also seemed to flip-flop on the question of whether Russia and Ukraine should try for a temporary ceasefire while they negotiate a broader peace deal, as Zelensky and the Europeans are pushing, or continue fighting as the agreement is hashed out. “All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace,” Trump acknowledged at one point; later, though, he seemed to scorn the idea. “In the six wars that I’ve settled, I haven’t had a ceasefire,” he said. “We just got into negotiations.”
The next step in Trump’s plan is for Zelensky and Putin to sit down together directly, followed by a meeting with the three of them. Trump wrote on Truth Social media that he spoke with Putin yesterday and “began the arrangements” for that meeting, although, the Kremlin has not publicly committed to such a summit. Here’s how Putin’s foreign policy adviser framed it after the Trump-Putin call: “The idea was discussed that it would be worthwhile to explore the possibility of raising the level of representatives from the Ukrainian and Russian sides.” Quite a bit of hemming and hawing.
One detail that stuck with me from yesterday: per USA Today, each European leader was given their own holding room before the multilateral meeting, which required the White House to stretch into using spaces that are normally reserved for ceremonial purposes, such as the Red Room and the Blue Room. I just like the image of some of Europe’s most powerful leaders, each spread out in a different White House room, all separately preparing with their aides for such a high-stakes summit. On that note, here’s a fascinating image of all eight visitors sitting down with Trump in the Oval Office: add it to the collection of memorable Trump imagery.
As an aside from yesterday: Throwing all his diplomatic energy into ending the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump seems to have forgotten there is also a war (which he also pledged to end) being fought in Gaza. “With all of the wars that I got involved in, we only have this one left,” he said Monday, referring to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Not quite. In dismissing the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine, by saying that none of the other wars he was involved in had required temporary truces, Trump also seems to have forgotten that his team played a role in brokering a ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year (although it was ultimately broken by Israel).
Still, though, even as Trump’s attention has wondered elsewhere, the Israel-Hamas continues. In fact, yesterday, Hamas announced that it had agreed to a new ceasefire proposal presented by mediators from Egypt and Qatar. The terms are reportedly similar to a proposal previously accepted by Israel, although it is unclear how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will respond.
Returning stateside, the biggest political news Monday was probably that former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) launched a bid to return to the Senate, challenging Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who was appointed to the fill the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. The 72-year-old Brown, who lost his re-election bid last year (but overperformed Kamala Harris by about seven percentage points), is thought to represent Democrats’ best chance at flipping the Republican-leaning seat.
The Texas Democrats have returned to Austin, ending their walkout and paving the way for Republicans to push through a new congressional district map that could net the GOP five new U.S. House seats in next year’s elections. The mid-decade redistricting in Texas is expected to trigger similar redrawings in California and other states.
Is Don Bongino getting layered at the FBI? Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has been named co-Deputy Director at the bureau, sharing his position with Bongino.
Gretchen Whitmer is gambling that taking a bipartisan approach to working with Donald Trump will provide her a boost in the 2028 presidential race.
My favorite thing I learned yesterday: Nick Offerman will be playing Chester Arthur in a new Netflix miniseries. (Perfect casting!) The show will be based on “Destiny of the Republic,” which is one of my all-time favorite books on presidential history. It’s an account of James Garfield’s assassination — I know, doesn’t sound like a page-turner, but it reads like a novel and paints a fascinating portrait of Garfield, Arthur (his vice president and successor), and other political characters of the day. I highly recommend reading it before the Netflix show comes out. Apparently, Matthew Macfadyen (Tom from “Succession”) will be playing Garfield’s assassin, while Bradley Whitford (Josh from “The West Wing”) will be playing Secretary of State James Blaine. I’m excited.
Who plays the Attorney General?
He was standing there when Garfield was shot.
He was also standing there, watching, when Abraham Lincoln died.
He was also standing there, watching, when McKinley was shot.
Because of this, the AG refused to run for president, believing he carried a curse: "There is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present," he said.
His name?
Robert Todd Lincoln. Abraham's son.
Fantastic column throughout. I have to get the DVD and watch the mini-series.
Trump says he has ended six wars. So wanted a member of the press to ask, so tell us which six. They didn’t. Do you know and can you separate fact from fiction on this?