Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s details on the lead up to Friday’s Oval Office “own goal” revealed the extent of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s petulant behavior.
The viral exchange between President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and their visiting dignitary ahead of a scheduled mineral agreement signing had proven enough to shift DOGE and DEI to the back burner for a bit. While some weakly attempted to fault the administration, Bessent explained the disrespect from Zelenskyy was the third refusal to sign a done deal.
Appearing on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” hours after the comedian turned politician had been booted from the White House, the secretary reminded host Laura Ingraham that he had traveled to Ukraine weeks earlier.
“President Trump sent me there to, again — we were supposed to bring the Ukrainian people closer to the U.S. people, send a strong signal to Russian leadership that we had not only shared values but now shared economic interest, and also had a strong signal for the American people that their tax dollars were actually going to work,” he explained. “Instead, President Zelenskyy and I had a very tough, 45-minute meeting, at a very loud decibel level, and I kept telling him, ‘Mr. President, the purpose of this is to show the Russians there is no daylight between us.’ And, at the end of the meeting, he said, ‘Well, I’m not signing this.'”
UKRAINE: Secretary Bessent confirms this was the third time Zelensky has agreed to the terms of the mineral deal only to back out. This time it was staged for the media.
— @amuse (@amuse) March 1, 2025
“And, at the end of the meeting, I said to him, ‘What do you want to go out and tell the press?’ I said, ‘Cause I don’t want to go out and show the Russians that there’s daylight in between us.’ And he said, ‘I’m gonna go out and say I’ll sign it in Munich,'” recounted Bessent.
“Then he got to Munich, and he ran into Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio — very different than Vice President Harris and Secretary Blinken — but he didn’t sign the agreement,” continued the Treasury head. “So finally, we were supposed to have the signing today. It was supposed to be a great day and this is one of the biggest own goals in diplomatic history.”
Prior to the White House meeting, Bessent had told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow that Ukraine’s council and economics minister had agreed to the deal.
“President Zelenskyy is coming here to sign the deal tomorrow. So there is no more negotiation. There is nothing else,” he said of what was meant to be a done deal.
“I’m sure President Zelenskyy and President Trump will have a wide-ranging discussion. But as far as the deal, it is complete, it is on paper and the Ukrainian government has approved it. It is just awaiting the signature of the two heads of state tomorrow,” the secretary made clear. “And it is a deal on strategic minerals, oil and gas and infrastructure assets.”
Bessent had called it a “win-win because it brings the Ukrainian people and the American business community closer together.”
However, Zelenskyy continued to bristle at the agreement because it failed to include security guarantees for his nation on top of the billions in American taxpayer money that had already been forked over to his country under the previous administration.
Ingraham went on to suggest that a pattern had materialized around Zelenskyy and, “he seems to be the obstacle toward peace, to getting to peace, and with you, reports were he was late to the meeting. Was he?”
Offering a diplomatic answer unconcerned about a potential slight, Bessent focused on the most recent display from the Ukrainian official and said, “I was shocked that he would behave like this, on camera, in front of the world.”
“If he had issues he wanted to bring up with President Trump, the proper venue for that would have been 15 minutes later. We were going to walk into the White House dining room and have lunch — just 16 of us — and he could have voiced his concerns privately,” argued the secretary. “The Democratic side of the ledger is saying this was a setup…I actually think he was always gonna do this and I think he was surprised with the forceful reaction he got back.”
He also explained that, after Zelenskyy was put in his place in the Oval Office, the Ukrainian delegation was “texting everyone begging to come back out and sign the economic partnership. And I tell you, it’s impossible to have an economic partnership with someone who doesn’t want to be your partners in peace.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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