Donald Trump hosted back-to-back White House meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, as Ukraine seeks extra firepower for its air defenses and the Israeli prime minister tries to restore his strained relationship with the US president.
Trump described each meetings in optimistic phrases on social media Tuesday night, remaining obscure about what was mentioned.
“Had a very good meeting!” Trump stated of his sit-down with Netanyahu. “Obviously, many important subjects were discussed.” He posted the same assertion about his time with Zelenskyy, writing the “meeting went very well!”
It was Netanyahu’s first go to to the Oval Office since he and Trump launched their joint army marketing campaign in opposition to Iran on 28 February.
Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump has been difficult in latest weeks by his push to maintain combating Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon, at the same time as Trump pursued a diplomatic opening with Tehran.
Tensions between the pair have risen because the battle has drifted inconclusively, with Trump calling the Israeli premier “crazy” and declaring: “Without me, there would be no Israel.”
The two males are every going through stress at residence, with Netanyahu in a troublesome re-election combat, and Trump beneath stress to finish an unpopular battle that has pushed up costs earlier than November’s midterms.
Trump signaled a few of that friction beforehand. Asked on Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning about experiences that Netanyahu deliberate to transient him on intelligence about Iranian exercise at Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected nuclear website Trump has threatened to bomb, he stated he knew “exactly what’s going on at Pickaxe”, including that Netanyahu raises it as a result of “he wants me to stay involved”.
Far exterior the White House, behind the fences, protesters chanted: “Netanyahu, you’re a tyrant” and “Bibi, you’re not welcome here” on Tuesday.
The closed-door assembly, which lasted about an hour, was anticipated to cowl Iran, a framework deal the US and Israel signed with Lebanon, and a doable enlargement of the Abraham accords, based on a White House official.
Netanyahu additionally faces the duty of reassuring Trump he won’t hinder US-led diplomacy in Gaza and Lebanon, as help for Israel among the many US public has slipped, with a brand new AP-Norc ballot displaying a pointy decline amid accusations, denied by Israel, that its conduct in Gaza quantities to genocide.
In an announcement, Zelenskyy stated he had mentioned licensing preparations to let Ukraine manufacture its personal interceptors for Patriot missile techniques.
“We also spoke about diplomacy – it’s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated,” stated Zelenskyy. “Our teams will arrange the details of their further communication. I am grateful to the United States for its firm support.”
He opened by providing condolences over the demise of the US senator Lindsey Graham, calling the late international coverage hawk “a true friend of Ukraine”. Graham died suddenly earlier this month, aged 71, shortly after returning to Washington from a visit to Kyiv.
Later on Tuesday, with Zelenskyy watching from the Senate gallery, the chamber superior a sweeping Russia sanctions invoice in tribute to Graham. The invoice, renamed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, simply cleared a procedural hurdle, 86 to 12, hours after Graham’s funeral in Washington, the place the late senator was hailed as a “fierce defender of Ukraine”.
