The United States' economic deal with Ukraine is off the table for now after the contentious Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
"All President Zelenskyy had to do was come in and sign this economic agreement and again show no daylight between the Ukrainian people and the American people, and he chose to blow that up," Bessent told CBS News' "Face the Nation" Sunday.
A multibillion-dollar minerals deal went unsigned after Zelenskyy argued with Trump and Vice President JD Vance about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would honor a peace agreement and whether to include security agreements in any deal that would be reached. The Ukrainian president was asked to leave the White House.
Zelenskyy said on social media Saturday that his country is ready to sign the minerals agreement and called it the "first step toward security guarantees."
Still, he said that a ceasefire without guarantees that America remains on Ukraine's side is dangerous for his country.
Bessent said Sunday that it is "impossible to have an economic deal without a peace deal" and that the economic deal had been intended to be a step toward peace.
"President Zelenskyy has thrown off the sequencing," Bessent said.
He also said it was "tragic" that the meeting fell apart, because Trump wanted to show there was "no daylight" between the United States and Ukraine.
"President Zelenskyy came into the Oval Office and tried to relitigate in front of the world the deal," when he should have presented his arguments behind closed doors, the secretary added.
Bessent, meanwhile, said an economic deal will be "rendered moot" if the Ukrainian president wants the fighting with Russia to continue.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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