Trump Suspends All U.S. Military Aid To Ukraine After Fight With Zelensky In Oval Office

President Donald Trump moved to temporarily suspend all military aid to Ukraine on Monday, days after he clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Trump claimed on Monday that President Zelensky “doesn’t want to make a deal” to end the war with Russia and has ordered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to execute the pause.

The Trump administration ordered that all U.S. aid to Ukraine, including that agreed upon and paid for by the Biden administration, should be canceled following the Oval Office blowup. The order takes effect immediately and affects more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order.

“This is not permanent termination of aid; it’s a pause,” Fox News quoted a Trump administration official as saying. President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution,” the official said on Monday.

The directive also halts hundreds of millions of dollars in aid through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides funds that Kyiv can use only to buy new military hardware directly from U.S. defense companies. Another anonymous official told the New York Times the order would be in effect until Trump determined that Ukraine had demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations with Russia.

In a statement, Zelensky said the end of the war is “very, very far away.” Trump took to Truth Social in response in a post that read: “This is the worst statement that Zelenskyy could have made, and America will not put up with it for much longer!”

Trump and Zelensky were supposed to sign a Friday deal at the White House for Ukraine to turn over rare mineral rights to repay U.S. military aid from the past three years. Instead, Trump and Vice President JD Vance scolded Zelensky in front of the press for not being appreciative enough.

However, Trump also suggested on Monday that a deal to open Ukraine’s minerals to U.S. investment could still be agreed upon despite the two leaders’ hostility. He said that it is a “great deal for us,” but he wants to see more appreciation from the Ukrainian leader so that he can move forward with negotiations.

“Maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if someone doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long,” he said at the White House on Monday. “That person will not be listened to very long because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal, certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal.”

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Article by Angie Schlager