European leaders agreed at a summit in London yesterday to step up defense spending and develop their own peace plan for the war in Ukraine to present to the United States, as they sought to show unity and support for Kyiv. The summit came just two days after U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House. (Financial Times)
Our Take
The disastrous White House meeting, as well as its immediate fallout, would appear to mark an inflection point for the war in Ukraine—including U.S. support for Kyiv and negotiations with Russia—as well as for trans-Atlantic relations more broadly. But as with many dramatic developments involving Trump, it is difficult to discern if the events of the past three days mark a true turning point or a mere bump in the road.
At the very least, Trump and Vance’s berating of Zelenskyy clarified the framework through which the current U.S. administration views the war in Ukraine and Zelenskyy’s role in it, as the sentiments that would normally be reserved for talks behind closed doors moved into public view. Evidently, the Trump administration views Zelenskyy as an obstacle to reaching a deal in negotiations with Moscow to end the war.
