Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed out the one area where Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky could’ve made some points, asked questions, and outlined concerns during last Friday’s visit. The Ukrainian president could’ve been the ungrateful clown in front of the cameras in this setting but opted not to. Bessent highlighted the obvious: there was a private lunch. It goes back to that adage: there’s a time and a place—Zelensky misread the room and got smacked down for it.

On CBS’ Face the Nation, Bessent reiterated that there was a deal. Both parties agreed upon it. Zelensky could have had a minerals deal done, with reported continuation of US aid. The language was vague, but if the US wanted to maintain this fund, there would have to be some security guarantees. Ukraine wanted specific ones—this could have been hashed out during the private lunch. Still, Zelensky opted to ambush the Oval Office meeting with petulant nonsense reported under the Biden presidency. Yes, Joe got angry with Zelensky as well. 

The private lunch is where grievances could’ve been addressed. That didn’t happen. Instead, Zelensky got booted from the White House, and this deal is now in peril. Zelensky was already playing Russian roulette on this minerals deal. It could've been signed Friday. Everyone expected it to be signed, and then Zel boy went off-script and killed everything. Bessent called this one of diplomatic history's biggest ‘own goals’. Everything was there: the deal was inked, lunch was ready, and the press conference set up, and Zelensky decided to nuke it all, blithely unaware of the changing attitudes toward this war.