Zelenskyy is set to meet Trump at the White House. Here’s what to expect

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with President Trump in the White House on Friday, the mood is expected to be very different from their first Oval Office encounter.

In February, Trump berated the Ukrainian leader in front of TV cameras, saying, “You’re not acting at all thankful” for U.S. military and financial support, accusing Zelenskyy of “gambling with World War III,” and, as reporters watched spellbound, telling Zelenskyy to stay quiet: “No, you’ve done a lot of talking. … You’re not winning this.”

But the two had a more cordial White House meeting in August, and met again during the United Nations General Assembly last month — when Trump suggested that Ukraine could, in fact, win back all the land Russia had seized, and possibly parts of Russia itself. “Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” he said in a social media post.

So what has changed?

Daniel Fried, a former assistant secretary of state for Europe now with the Atlantic Council, sees a couple of things.

“President Trump was impressed by Ukrainian successes in deep strikes on Russia and realized that if he’s going to back [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, he’s not backing a winner, “he says. “He’s backing somebody who’s a potential loser. And deceitful.”

Trump has repeatedly said that he’s been disappointed by Putin, after rolling out the red carpet for the Russian leader at a summit in Alaska in August. He raised eyebrows at the Kremlin when he called Russia a “paper tiger” in September, and this week told reporters that Russia is not only taking big losses on the battlefield, but its economy is suffering too.

On Tuesday, at a lunch with Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Trump told reporters, “I had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin but he just doesn’t want to end that war. And I think it’s making him look very bad. He could end it, he could end it quickly.”

After a call with Putin on Thursday, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that he will meet with the Russian leader in Budapest. Trump said the two would meet “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.” He said the two also discussed trade between the U.S. and Russia “when the War with Ukraine is over.” 

He said “great progress” was made on the call and he would discuss it with Zelenskyy on Friday.

Ukraine’s supporters in the Washington foreign policy establishment say it is time for Trump to impose more sanctions on Russia and give Ukraine what it wants — everything from Tomahawk missiles to air defenses.

Mark Montgomery, a retired U.S. rear admiral who’s senior director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, says Trump has given Putin the chance to negotiate an end to this war, but is now in a position to change the course of the war himself.

“Sometimes pushing hard for peace means understanding who is the victim and who’s the aggressor,” Montgomery says. “Putin is the aggressor. Russia is the aggressor. Russia will not stop unless someone bigger and tougher than them punches him in the nose. That country is, for better or worse … the United States”.

In an attempt to keep up ties and maintain U.S. military assistance, Kyiv gave the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in a deal signed in April. But Fried says there is another possible partnership in the making, thanks to Ukraine’s innovations in drone technology.

“American capital and Ukrainian know-how combined would help arm the Americans for the new wars of the 21st century, including with China,” he says. “That’s something Zelenskyy can say that is a material interest and cooperation would benefit both sides.”