Trump Pauses U.S. Aid to Ukraine Following Oval Office Clash
President Donald Trump reportedly paused all aid to Ukraine on Monday, just days after an Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky devolved into a clash during talks about ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
An unnamed senior Defense Department official told Bloomberg News that the U.S. government would be “pausing all current military aid to Ukraine until Trump determines the country’s leaders demonstrate a good-faith commitment to peace.”
The unnamed source told Bloomberg that the pause would include “all US military equipment not currently in Ukraine,” including “weapons in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland.”
A senior Trump administration official assured Fox News on Monday, however, that the move was “not a permanent termination of aid,” but merely “a pause,” and that orders for the pause were “going out right now.”
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance clashed with Zelensky during an Oval Office meeting on Friday, with Trump reportedly demanding an “explicit public apology” following their encounter.
On Monday, Trump laid into Zelensky for saying that peace with Russia would be “very far away” and warned the Ukrainian president that America would “not put up with it for much longer.”
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelensky, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump protested. “It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelensky, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”
Trump also hinted at the removal of Zelensky as president of Ukraine.
“I think everybody has to get into a room, so to speak, and we have to make a deal, and the deal can be made very fast,” he said. “If somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long.”
Watch above via Fox News.
