Sen. Lindsey Graham didn’t mince words about the heated Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Republican from South Carolina told reporters that the torched minerals deal between the United States and Ukraine was a “complete, utter disaster” and called for Zelenskyy to resign based on his conduct during the meeting.
That meeting, which has been described as an “ambush” and a “bad day” by politicians and commentators, went south after Vice President JD Vance accused Zelenskyy of being both “disrespectful” of the president and ungrateful for U.S. support.
“Do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?” Vance said, shortly before the meeting’s abrupt end. “Have you said ‘thank you’ once?”
After the leaders had left, Graham told reporters that he warned Zelenskyy not to get his dander up while talking to Trump.
“I talked to Zelenskyy this morning. [I said,] ‘Don’t take the bait,'” he shared. “At the end of the day, I was hoping that this minerals deal, which would be transformative in the relationship, would go over well.”
Graham, who has split from Trump in some of his early policy decisions, was in the president’s corner on Friday.
“I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of JD Vance standing up for our country,” he shared. “We want to be helpful. What I saw in the Oval Office was disrespectful and I don’t know if we can ever do business with Zelenskyy again.”
Graham went on to say that Zelenskyy was “a guy that [most Americans] would not want to go in business with.”
“Zelenskyy either needs to resign and send someone over that we can do business with or he needs to change,” Graham said.
Several Republican lawmakers backed Trump and Vance’s actions on Friday. Sen. Bill Haggerty, R-Tenn., thanked the president on X.
“The United States of America will no longer be taken for granted,” he wrote. “The contrast between the last four years and now could not be more clear.”
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., praised Trump’s “strong leadership” and thanked the administration for “standing up for our nation.”
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