Trump and European leaders put on united front despite cracks over Ukraine war resolution

Published August 18, 2025 6:35pm ET



A cadre of European leaders put on happy faces at the White House on Monday, offering praise for President Donald Trump’s efforts to broker peace in Ukraine while also seeking to keep the United States in the fold ahead of negotiations with Russia.

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky early Monday afternoon in the Oval Office, a sitdown that couldn’t have gone more differently than Zelensky’s previous trip to Washington, D.C., to visit Trump. That meeting ended with a reporter, and eventually Vice President JD Vance, castigating Zelensky for not wearing a suit or properly thanking the United States for footing the bill for Ukraine’s defense of their territory.

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