Torture photos or the heavyweight championship: Zelensky reveals gift choice that sparked Oval Office Trump clash
Lying on a side table just out of shot was a gift that the Ukraine leader had intended to present to the president before their clash
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed the gift choice that may have triggered his blockbuster showdown with Donald Trump.
What should have been a meeting between two allies at the White House in February soon descended into a heated argument in front of the world’s media.
Now, one month after the fiery clash damaged relations between the two countries, Zelensky has reflected on what may have set the US president off in an interview with Time magazine.
Zelensky had brought the world heavyweight championship belt of his friend, Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk, with him to present to Trump, who is a boxing fan.
But instead, the US president was first handed a series of gruesome photographs, showing “grotesquely emaciated” Ukrainian prisoners of war after their time in Russian captivity.
“That’s tough stuff,” Trump said as he took the photos from Zelensky and began flicking through them.
In the interview with Zelensky, Time reported US officials believe those pictures marked the point when the meeting took a “downward turn” as Trump thought the US was being blamed for the torture of Ukrainian prisoners.
However, Zelensky does not regret handing over the photos first as he tried to appeal to Trump’s humanity. He told Time: “He has family, loved ones, children. He has to feel the things that every person feels.
“What I wanted to show were my values. But then, well, the conversation went in another direction.”
Trump leaned over and wagged his finger as he told the leader of a nation under assault from Russia: “You’re playing cards, you’re gambling with the lives of millions of people.”
In the meeting, vice president JD Vance suggested Trump had been “engaging in diplomacy” with Russian president Vladimir Putin, a comment Zelensky took issue with, noting the years-long history of peace deals that Russia violated. He then pressed the vice president: “What kind of diplomacy, JD, are you talking about? What do you mean?”
Vance then accused the Ukrainian president of being “disrespectful” for coming to the Oval Office to “try to litigate this in front of the American media.”
That’s when Zelensky asked if the vice president had ever been to Ukraine, and insisted he visit.
Vance didn’t directly say he’s never set foot in the war-torn country, but instead replied: “I've actually watched and seen the stories and I know what happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour, Mr President.”
Trump, backed Vance, telling the wartime leader: “You're right now, not in a very good position. You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now with us.”
Zelensky has since extended an olive branch to Trump saying he “regrets” the showdown in the Oval Office.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way,” Zelensky said. “It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”
Zelensky added he was ready to work under Trump’s “strong leadership” to get a peace deal.
Asked what happened to the belt, Zelensky replied: “I don’t know. Maybe it’s still sitting there.”
He had left it behind on the table in the melee following the furious exchange.
According to Time, White House staff found the belt and took it to Trump's private dining room, where the “memento of failed diplomacy” sits with other souvenirs including Benjamin Netanyahu’s golden pager and Vladimir Putin’s oil portrait of Trump.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
0Comments