European leaders to join Ukraine’s Zelenskyy for White House meeting with Trump
KYIV — European and NATO leaders announced Sunday that they’ll be joining President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Washington for crucial talks with President Donald Trump, rallying around the Ukrainian leader after his exclusion from Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The remarkable move — with one European leader after another announcing that they’ll be at Zelenskyy’s side when he travels to the White House on Monday — was an apparent effort to ensure that the meeting goes better than the last one in February, when Trump berated the Ukrainian president in a heated Oval Office encounter.
“The Europeans are very afraid of the Oval Office scene being repeated and so they want to support Mr. Zelenskyy to the hilt,” said retired French Gen. Dominique Trinquand, a former head of France’s military mission at the United Nations.
“It’s a power struggle and a position of strength that might work with Trump,” he said in a phone interview.
The European leaders’ presence at Zelenskyy’s side, demonstrating Europe’s support for Ukraine, could potentially help ease concerns in Kyiv and in other European capitals that Ukraine risks being railroaded into a peace deal that Trump says he wants to broker with Russia.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether all or just some of them would be taking part in the actual meeting with Trump.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on X that she will take part in the talks, “at the request of President Zelenskyy.”
The secretary-general of the NATO military alliance, Mark Rutte, will also take part in the meeting, his press service said.
The office of President Emmanuel Macron announced that the French leader will travel on Monday to Washington “at the side of President Zelenskyy” although it didn’t immediately specify that he’ll be in the meeting.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will also be part of the European group, but the statement from his office likewise didn’t specify that he will be in the talks with Trump.
The grouped trip underscored European leaders’ determination to ensure that Europe has a voice in Trump’s attempted peace-making, after the U.S. president’s summit on Friday with Putin — to which Zelenskyy wasn’t invited.
U.S. military troops on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota
The move comes after President Trump again threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to control ongoing protests over the immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream … about health care
A doctor from Nigeria tells what Martin Luther King Jr. taught him about health, Justice and inequality.
Sunday Puzzle: It takes two
Ilyse Levine-Kanji of Westborough, Massachusetts plays the puzzle with Weekend Edition Puzzlemaster Will Shortz and host Ayesha Rascoe.
Venezuela: Maduro’s enforcer Cabello still central to power
The ousting of Venezuela's president raised hopes of change — but the politician now controlling the streets shows how little has really shifted.
Amid ICE clashes, New Hampshire bishop urges clergy to prepare their wills
The Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire told priests protesting ICE to get their wills and affairs in order. Some praise the bishop, while other priests say they never signed up to be martyrs.
New York Giants hire John Harbaugh as coach after identifying him as their top choice
Harbaugh joins the Giants 11 days after he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens. The Super Bowl champion is now tasked with turning around a beleaguered franchise.
