Most Republicans praise Trump after Zelensky Showdown, but some express consternation

Most Republicans have backed the president of the United States, Donald Trump and vice president JD Vance, after his public row in the Oval office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Senator Lindsey Graham suggested that Zelensky renounce, adding that Friday’s altercation had prevented US military support for kyiv, but another Republican senator accused Trump of “embraceing Putin.”

Zelensky was asked to leave the White House without signing an agreement with the United States that would have jointly developed the valuable minerals of Ukraine.

On Saturday, Zelensky enjoyed a much warmer reception from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer in Downing Street, one day before a meeting with King Charles.

The Ukrainian leader also made a plea on Saturday to the United States to “be more firmly” with kyiv, and added that he was ready to sign the mineral agreement with Trump, but wanted defined security guarantees.

Trump has suggested that Ukraine should admit territory to Russia to end his invasion and have opened peace conversations between Washington and Moscow.

The US president also warned Russia that it will impose high tariffs and additional sanctions if President Vladimir Putin does not end the “ridiculous” war.

Before going to Florida after the crash of the Oval office with Zelensky, Trump told journalists that the Ukrainian leader had “exaggerated his hand.”

“Or we are going to finish it or let it fight, and if it fights, it will not be pretty,” Trump said. “Because without us, he doesn’t win.”

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who was at the Oval office during the meeting, told Breitbart News on Saturday that Zelensky was too focused on the verification of facts and compared the Ukrainian leader with a “ex -girlfriend.”

“It’s like an ex -girlfriend who wants to discuss everything you said nine years ago, instead of advancing the relationship,” Waltz said.

While the Democrats said they were horrified by the confrontation with an American ally, most Republicans in Washington backed Trump.

“What I saw in the Oval office was disrespectful, and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelensky again,” said Senator Graham, a defender for a long time of the help of Ukraine and a Falcon of foreign policy, when he left the White House on Friday.

“The question for me is: ‘Is it exchangeable in the eyes of Americans?’ The majority of Americans who witness what they saw today would not want Zelensky to be their commercial partner, including me, and I have been in Ukraine nine times since the war began. “

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville published in X on Saturday: “The best thing that President Trump has done so far is to kick that Ukrainian comadreja of Wh.”

Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty published in X: “The United States of America will no longer be taken for granted.”

But other Republican members of Congress were not so excited.

Alaska’s senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican who is a kind of political thorn on Trump’s side, published on Saturday: “I am sick of the stomach when the administration seems to be moving away from our allies and hugging Putin.”

Republican representative Mike Lawler of New York described the meeting “a lost opportunity for the United States and Ukraine.”

The fellow representative Don Bacon de Nebraska said it was “a bad day for the foreign policy of the United States.”

“Ukraine wants independence, free markets and the rule of law. He wants to be part of the West. Russia hates our western values. We should be clear that we defend freedom,” he said in a statement.

Neither the Republicans criticized Trump or Vance directly, who first fought with Zelensky during the meeting.

The Democrats, meanwhile, criticized the White House.

“Trump and Vance are doing Putin’s dirty work,” said Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer.

Senator Chris Coans said Zelensky deserved better.

“We owe our thanks for leading a nation that struggles in the first line of democracy, not the public he received in the White House,” he published in X.