Trump says Zelensky backing out of mineral deal

After taking office, Donald Trump wanted to make a minerals deal with Ukrainian President Zelensky to help pay the United States back for aid it had already received and would receive in the future.

While initially hesitant, Zelensky eventually made the deal, but now Trump says he wants to back out.

Zelensky Met with Democrats

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) had confirmed that Zelensky met with top Democrats to discuss the deal, a deal they recommended he not take.

After the meeting, Murphy posted, “Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine.”

From the reports I read, Democrats told Zelensky not to take the deal because Ukraine was getting nothing in return.

My response at the time was to question Democrats what they would consider the $187 billion aid Ukraine has already received and the aid that was still to come.

Ready to Sign

Zelensky had met with Trump and his officials at the White House a few weeks ago, but the meeting did not go very well.

Zelensky would up leaving the White House in a huff, and Trump announced there would be no deal, but not long after that, Zelensky flipped and agreed to the deal.

He told the media that he was now ready to sign the deal, stating, "It is our policy to continue what happened in the past, we're constructive, if we agreed to sign the minerals deal, we're ready to sign it.

"The agreement that's on the table will be signed if the parties are ready.”

He’s Backing Out

On Sunday, Donald Trump dropped a bit of a bombshell, claiming that Zelensky was backing out of the deal, which would not be good news for Ukraine if it wants more aid.

Trump told reporters, "I think Zelenskyy, by the way, he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal, and if he does that, he’s got some problems – big, big problems.

"We made a deal on rare earths, and now he’s saying, ‘well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.’ He wants to be a member of NATO. Well, he was never going to be a member of NATO. He understands that, so, if he’s looking to renegotiate the deal, he’s got big problems."

Trump is right, and I support him on this because Zelensky seems to think he can win this war or get peace without American support, and that will never happen. I think Zelensky took advantage of Biden, not to mention he seems ungrateful for the support he has been given. The man has no leverage, so he better think twice before backing out of this deal.