President Volodymyr Zelensky left the White House early without signing a mineral deal with the United States following a heated exchange with President Donald Trump on Feb. 28.

Zelensky departed in his motorcade around 1:45 p.m. local time, without holding a joint news conference scheduled for later in the day, after the two leaders got into a heated argument while speaking with journalists in the Oval Office.

. . .

CNN reported that following the exchange, Zelensky and Trump left to separate rooms, with the Ukrainian delegation wanting to continue talks with the Trump administration.

Trump later ordered his officials to tell the Ukrainian officials to leave the White House, despite protest from the Ukrainian delegation.

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  • thisphuckinguy@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Europe, don’t count on America for shit. Do what needs to be done before Ukraine is wiped from the map. They will come for you too.

    • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
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      9 days ago

      We will hopefully do that, but it’s also up to the American citizens to finally put up a proper resistance. One of the most worrying things to me is how indifferent the majority of Americans seem to be to their country turning fascist and betraying its allies. There were some protests sure, but they’re ridiculously tiny compared to protests in even much smaller countries like Georgia. It’s time to wake the fuck up before power has fully been consolidated and there’s no way back. Europe may be able to stand alone against Russia, but against Russia and the US will be tough.

      • thisphuckinguy@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        I lost confidence in the American public. The egos that are displayed on TV and social media has brainwashed everyone. It’s infuriating to see it all.

      • stickly@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        About 35% of Georgia’s population lives in Tbilisi. The second largest population center is is Batumi at around 6%. There are 360km between them.

        The Los Angeles metro area is America’s largest population center at around 5% of the population. The DC metro area is the 7th largest at just under 2% of the population. There are 4300km between them.

        This is on top of the car centric sprawl of US cities with minimal public transportation. If (even generously) 30% of the population wanted a unified protest, how would they reach each other? Let alone converge to protest at somewhere that matters.

        • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
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          9 days ago

          Oh, come on. There are still cities with millions of people, where hundreds of thousands could easily get together to protest. Cities double the population size of the entire country of Georgia. There were much larger protests e.g. in DC under the first Trump administration but this time it’s too much of a bother?

          • stickly@lemmy.world
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            9 days ago

            That was after 4 years of unrest. “Could easily get together” sounds like its coming from someone who’s never had a daily 2 hour round-trip driving commute. Let alone the fact that half of America was sub 0°F (-17°C) for multiple days in the past month.

            Protest size will grow as the weather warms up and the crackdowns fully begin. But don’t expect to see much on the news. This time around the media and tech moguls have all preemptively bent the knee.

    • Jolly Platypus@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      The U.S. are no longer the leaders of the free world. It’s up to Europe now. The U.S. is a fucking shithole.

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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        9 days ago

        The U.S. are no longer the leaders of the free world.

        Frankly, most of the time that was said it was said by Americans and the rest of us just smiled and nodded politely.

        • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          EU governments were completely happy letting it be the case as well. Don’t act like they were doing much to try and reduce their reliance on US aid.

          • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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            9 days ago

            Yeah, so? They were willing to play along as long as America was reasonably well behaved about it. That was the unspoken bargain of America’s Cold War and post-Cold War international influence - they got to have plenty of soft power, and in exchange they got to play out their World Police fantasy.

            Now that’s going to be going away.

  • Absaroka@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Just when you thought you couldn’t get any more embarrassed being an American.

    This is a great window into how Trump, Vance and MAGA do business.

    Bully. Yell. Lie. Threaten.

    • imvii@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      Mark my words: Trump will now sign a minerals deal in Ukraine with Putin

    • LNRDrone@sopuli.xyz
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      9 days ago

      Putin’s arm is so far up the orange shitbag’s ass that you cam see the fingers waggle eveytime he opens his mouth

  • ORG2001@lemmy.radio
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    9 days ago

    I watched this and I found it disgusting. It seemed to me that this was pure blackmail. This American government can’t be trusted to keep its commitments and I won’t be surprised if he pulls such stunts with Taiwan as well.

    I wonder if any other world leader would like to visit the White House and be insulted by this administration !!

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    9 days ago

    Elbow, Leaders of the Free World

    But the leaders of the free world

    Are just little boys throwing stones

    And it’s easy to ignore

    Till they’re knocking on the door of your homes, yeah

    My thinking isn’t driven, oh

    But the music always gives me a lift

    I’m so easy to please, yeah

    But I think we dropped the baton like the 60’s didn’t happen, oh no

  • pogt@lemmy.wtf
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    9 days ago

    Zelensky blew it up too soon honestly. The whole asking JD Vance was not disciplined and let his emotions take over. Granted he’s got a lot on his plate, but that was a strategic negotiation mistake on his part.

    • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Seeing all of Europe line up behind Z. I think things worked out far better than he hope for. Heck, just for driving a wedge between the US and Europe putin might shake Z’s hand. Talk about mission accomplished.

      • pogt@lemmy.wtf
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        9 days ago

        True, he did gain a lot of respect despite messing up the negotiation.

        • Lit@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          There was never going to be a negotiation, so best is to make Krasnov Trump and Vanker look like fools for messing up the meeting and failing to get a deal.

        • doodledup@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Trump doesn’t even know how to spell “negotiation”. Blame it on your sub-par education system. Are you also from the US? I bet you are. We can tell.

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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    9 days ago

    Watching that inteview and remembering the first Zelensky’s adresses to his and even my russian people early in the war, I was pretty occupied with an idea of how these two numbheads would be good punching bags once I put a trash bag on them and use a duct tape to ensure their breath doesn’t leave it, and hitting them repatedly with a fist or some blunt and heavy object. I don’t usually accept or encourage violence, but I felt lost watching this shit piece of negotiations and also very, morbidly angry. I couldn’t avoid thinking of going physical with them and it probably took a year and a half from Zelensky’s tired neurons to keep himself contained until the meeting ended. I’m pretty sure he kicked something after leaving it. I’m sure I would’ve if I has been him.

  • Xanza@lemm.ee
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    9 days ago

    The wording is so insane to me. Like he was just begging to sign that deal. lol

    There’s no way he was going to sign it. He didn’t come to the US to sign it. He came here to negotiate into a reasonable deal for both countries. This headline makes it sound like he lost out, and he really didn’t. Like, sure, we could have swooped in and helped Ukraine a little more, but in return we would get billions, maybe even trillions in return… It’s literally war profiteering out in the open.

    That kind of shit used to be illegal and now we have Presidents televising his profiteering… This timeline is fucking nuts.

    • robbinhood@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      Ukraine’s mineral resources really aren’t even that considerable on a global scale. They’re not insignificant but their economic value at the moment, even setting aside the war, doesn’t have American companies salivating.

      This minerals for protection thing apparently was floated by Ukraine first to the Biden administration and Trump campaign. The Biden administration didn’t do much with it because, among other things, the actual economic and practical value was questionable.

      Trump, on the other hand, just wants to be seen making deals. Zelenskyy and Ukraine first floated the general idea because they knew Trump is highly transactional and it’d give Trump an easy “win.”

      I highly doubt trillions in profits are anywhere in the mix.

      And you don’t want to negotiate anything with Trump directly. If Zelenskyy did that intentionally, he dropped the ball. Trump is far too mercurial and often only grasps issues in the most basic of senses. Trying to get into a nuts and bolts negotiation with him is pointless. Hammer that out first, get something signable without too onerous of long term commitments, compliment him, sign, move on.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        So there’s a huge deposit between Mariupol and Donetsk, which is in Russian controlled territory. It’s probably the easiest to mine and most economically viable… I think that was the original plan Zelensky was thinking. Get some American mining infrastructure there and then thr US has skin in the game.

        Trump seems to have a survey of the entire countries rare earth resources and is just taking the entire estimated value and splitting in half. Which as you pointed out is stupid, because a lot of the deposits are smaller or would be much more expensive to mine.

        • robbinhood@lemmy.world
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          9 days ago

          I think this is why Putin also was quick to mention cooperating with the USA on minerals in Russia (which from his POV includes those regions). I’m sure Zelenskyy/Ukraine would want to try to use that as leverage but I don’t think Trump bites.

          There are some substantial reserves of various minerals elsewhere but not sure how viable and valuable they really are.

          • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            8 days ago

            You mean in Ukraine? There are tons of other stuff to mine and even some rare earth outside of controlled area… It just is probably less profitable to mine. Here is a map

      • Xanza@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        Ukraine’s mineral resources really aren’t even that considerable on a global scale.

        Give me $10,000, because you know, on a global scale it’s not a lot of money, so you shouldn’t worry about handing it over to me. /s

        For some people, $10,000 is a lot. A metric like “global scale” is so… Fuck, I can’t even think of a word. Assholic. You’re an asshole for using a word like that to describe this situation like it’s no big deal.

        • robbinhood@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          “Give me $10,000, because you know, on a global scale it’s not a lot of money, so you shouldn’t worry about handing it over to me.”

          Hello strawman, someone put this ridiculous statement in a logic 101 course textbook. I mean, dafuq are you on about?

          • Xanza@lemm.ee
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            8 days ago

            You see, it is a ridiculous statement. Which is why I’m bewildered that you were dumb enough to say it in the first place and you don’t see the sheer irony of calling what I said a strawman argument but not your own.

            It’s like you don’t live in reality.

            • robbinhood@lemmy.world
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              8 days ago

              By god. I mean. Wow. Oof.

              I am in no way (edit: nor have I ever even implied) devaluing Ukraine to mean that their only value is mineral resources. Why you concluded that is beyond me and baffling. Literally.

              Ukrainians are certainly worth much, much than those resources in my view. Let’s say Ukraine’s natural resources literally magically disappeared overnight. So what? They still deserve justice and then some and we should protect democracies when and where possible.

              Regardless, spinning minerals into some conspiracy theory with the USA extracting phantom trillions doesn’t advance Ukraine’s cause.

              Dude I try to be polite here for its own sake but go touch some grass.

              • Xanza@lemm.ee
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                8 days ago

                I am in no way (edit: nor have I ever even implied) devaluing Ukraine to mean that their only value is mineral resources.

                That’s interesting, because that’s not what I implied at all. Keep digging though. I have faith you’ll catch it eventually. I’ll give you a hint;

                Ukraine’s mineral resources really aren’t even that considerable on a global scale. They’re not insignificant but their economic value at the moment, even setting aside the war, doesn’t have American companies salivating.

                See it yet? The strawman that you yourself used, I used back at you in a different context that you were able to correctly identify as a strawman but called mine bad but still think yours is good? lol

                • robbinhood@lemmy.world
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                  8 days ago

                  lmao you’re just smashing dunning kruger my dude. If you have an actual point just come out and say it. You’re trying to bend logical fallacies in a way that doesn’t work and starts to veer towards narcissism.

                  TBH, I think you know you started out on a foundation of absurd bullshit and now painted in a corner you’re just lashing out, hoping that you can intimidate people by blatantly misusing arguements.

                  You’re welcome to try to prove me wrong

    • stardust@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      US assurance means as much as Russian assurance anyways, and US is known to go back on deals they themselves proposed and signed like what they are doing to Canada. So if the US isn’t even making a good faith attempt at a deal they likely wouldn’t stick to in order to protect Ukraine it just shows how corrupt negotions were from the start.

      • Lit@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        that is why it is important for smaller countries to join up to form something like EU and etc. so as to function like a big country.

  • Zink@programming.dev
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    8 days ago

    What is even worse than how embarrassing this is, is that it’s impossible for me to tell if this was Putin’s idea or just a fortunate side effect of his stooge’s lead-addled and dying brain.