House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stated on Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may need to resign following a high-profile public clash with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance during a meeting in Washington last week.
Zelenskyy met with Trump, Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others in the Oval Office on Friday where he engaged in a heated public exchange with them in front of reporters during discussions about a mineral rights deal and efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
“President Trump is trying to get these two parties to a point of peace,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What President Zelenskyy did in the White House was effectively signal to us that he’s not ready for that yet, and I think that’s a great disappointment.”
He went on to say that the Ukrainian leader “needs to come to his senses and return to the table with gratitude, or someone else needs to lead the country” for the United States to continue collaborating with Kyiv on a peace deal. He added that the Trump administration “has been very clear” that if Ukraine and Zelenskyy are ready for a deal, it can be negotiated.
The meeting between Zelenskyy, Trump, and Vance was intended to be followed by a rare earth minerals deal that would benefit the United States and continue providing aid to Ukraine. However, Zelenskyy’s trip was abruptly cut short, and Trump later posted on social media that the Ukrainian leader had “disrespected the United States in its cherished Oval Office,” adding that Zelenskyy could “come back when he is ready for Peace.”
Zelenskyy has firmly insisted that any deal involving Ukraine’s natural resources should include new U.S. security guarantees for the country. He brought up the issue during the meeting, stating that Russia cannot be trusted to uphold any peace agreement, a stance that U.S. leaders interpreted as an apparent refusal to negotiate with Russia.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Johnson disagreed with comments made on March 1 by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a long-time critic of Trump within the GOP, who stated that Trump is “walking away from our allies and embracing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
The Speaker countered by saying that Murkowski is “plainly wrong” and that “the person who walked away from the table yesterday was President Zelenskyy.”
Johnson’s comments to NBC about Zelenskyy stepping down mirrored those made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a leading Republican supporter of Ukraine throughout the three-year conflict, who stated on February 28 that Zelenskyy might need to step down, The Epoch Times noted.
“The question for me is, ‘Is he redeemable in the eyes of Americans?’ Most Americans witnessing what they saw today would not want Zelenskyy to be their business partner, including me, and I’ve been to Ukraine nine times since the war started,” Graham told Fox News last week.
The senator added that Zelenskyy needs to apologize to Trump. “If he can’t say that, then Ukraine—you need to either send us somebody new we can deal with or just accept the consequences,” Graham said.
Meanwhile, Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz told CNN’s “State of the Union” last week that the United States needs “a leader that can deal with us, eventually deal with the Russians and end this war.”
“If it becomes apparent that President Zelenskiy’s either personal motivations or political motivations are divergent from ending the fighting in his country, then I think we have a real issue on our hands,” Waltz said.
The United States has been Kyiv’s primary supporter since Russian forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, committing over $174 billion in Ukraine-related assistance, The Epoch Times added.