The Ukrainian president ‘needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country,’ the speaker said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may have to resign in the wake of a high-profile public spat between himself, President Donald Trump, and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office last week.
On Feb. 28, Zelenskyy met with Trump, Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others in the Oval Office and sparred publicly with them in front of reporters amid negotiations over a mineral rights deal and ending the Russia–Ukraine war.
“President Trump is trying to get these two parties to a point of peace,” Johnson told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday morning. “What President Zelenskyy did in the White House was effectively signal to us that he’s not ready for that yet, and I think that’s a great disappointment.”
He also said that Zelenskyy “needs to come to his senses and come back to the table in gratitude or someone else needs to lead the country” in order for the United States to continue working with Kyiv on a peace deal, adding that the Trump administration “has been very clear” that if Ukraine and Zelenskyy are ready for a deal, then “we can negotiate a deal.”
The meeting between Zelenskyy, Trump, and Vance was supposed to be followed up by a minerals deal benefiting the United States in order to continue to provide security guarantees for Ukraine. But Zelenskyy’s trip was cut short and Trump later wrote on social media that the Ukrainian leader “disrespected the United States in its cherished Oval Office” and that he can “come back when he is ready for Peace.”
During an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” Johnson disagreed with Saturday comments made by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a longtime critic of Trump from the GOP side, that Trump is “walking away from our allies and embracing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”
Johnson said that Murkowski is “plainly wrong” and that “the person who walked away from the table yesterday was President Zelenskyy.”
Johnson’s remarks to NBC about Zelenskyy stepping down echoed remarks made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a prominent Republican backer of Ukraine during the three-year conflict, who said on Feb. 28 that Zelenskyy may have to go.
“The question for me is, ‘Is he redeemable in the eyes of Americans?’ Most Americans witnessing what they saw today would not want Zelenskyy to be their business partner, including me, and I’ve been to Ukraine nine times since the war started,” Graham told Fox News last week.
Zelenskyy, the senator added, should apologize to Trump. “If he can’t say that, then Ukraine—you need to either send us somebody new we can deal with or just accept the consequences.”
