🚀 Trump Rejects Zelensky's Tomahawk Plea
President Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a "tough" Friday meeting that he does not intend to provide long-range Tomahawk missiles, "at least for now".
Zelensky left the White House without a U.S. agreement for the weapons.
Why it matters: Zelensky had hoped to leave Washington with "clear decisions" on new weapons systems.
Instead, he found Trump in a "totally different state of mind" just one day after the U.S. president held a lengthy call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump made it clear his priority now is diplomacy.
He believes providing Tomahawks could undermine that effort.
"Tomahawks are very dangerous weapons... It could mean escalation".
Behind the scenes: 🤫 The 2.5-hour meeting "was not easy," with one source briefed on it telling Axios, "it was bad".
The meeting ended abruptly when Trump said, "I think we're done. Let's see what happens next week," referring to planned U.S.-Russia talks.
Trump's push for a deal 🛑: Trump briefed Zelensky on his call with Putin and stressed the current U.S. proposal: end the war by freezing the front lines in place.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump told reporters he hoped to end the war "without thinking about Tomahawks".
"Nobody cancelled this dialogue, this topic. So we have to work on it more".
In a Truth Social post after the meeting, Trump described the meeting as "cordial" and wrote that he had urged both sides to stop the killing and make a deal, suggesting they "stop where they are".
In reality, sources said Zelensky "pushed hard" on Tomahawks, but Trump "pushed back and showed no flexibility".
Catch up quick: Zelensky had been "very optimistic" about the meeting. His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said Ukraine believes Tomahawks "can be [a] game changer" needed to hit factories deep inside Russia.
But just after Zelensky landed in Washington, his team was surprised by Trump's announcement that he had spoken to Putin and agreed to meet him in Hungary.
"I am realistic".
What's next:
🇪🇺 Zelensky immediately held a prescheduled call with European leaders after the Trump meeting.
They were reportedly "puzzled" by Trump's "change of heart".
🇺🇸 Trump intends to meet Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks.
The bottom line: Zelensky's number one priority for the visit was to get commitments from Trump on a variety of weapons systems. Trump offered no such commitments for now.