CNN
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Top Trump Cabinet secretaries and national security officials are holding meetings this week to discuss the administration’s next steps on Ukraine – including the prospect of suspending military aid – following the spectacular collapse of Friday’s Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz, among others, planned to meet Monday as they map out how to move forward with peace talks, a Trump administration official and a State Department official told CNN.
“We’re going to have a broad discussion on what’s next,” Waltz told CNN on Monday.
There was little evidence the ill will between Washington and Kyiv was waning three days after the Oval Office blow up. Trump and top advisers continued to harshly criticize Zelensky for his demeanor and outlook on the war, refusing to rule out the notion he should resign.
“I just think he should be more appreciative, because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin,” Trump told reporters in the Roosevelt Room on Monday when asked what it would take to revive a rare earths mineral deal.
Earlier, Trump slammed Zelensky’s remarks to reporters that the end to the war “is still very, very far away.”
“This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump posted on Truth Social. “[T]his guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking?”
Trump’s stance, not for the first time in recent weeks, seemed close to the Kremlin’s.
Earlier on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov suggested that “someone must force Zelensky to change his position,” adding, “someone must make Zelensky want peace.”
Zelensky’s latest comments to rile the president came at the end of a gathering of Western leaders, without Trump, in London, where the US’ traditional allies including Britain, France and Canada made clear they remain staunchly supportive of Zelensky and are on a very different page to the US president.
Officials said they wanted to see a public apology with expression of regret from Zelensky before they could resume talks on the mineral deal that was scrapped after the Oval Office debacle.
Behind closed doors, Trump aides were considering how to get both Russia and Ukraine to agree to a potential ceasefire and how to end long-range strikes, including on critical energy infrastructure, the administration official said.
Also on the table were questions over whether the Trump administration will pause funding for Ukraine committed by the Biden administration, something Trump officials have flirted with even before the president took office. No decisions had been made Monday morning on halting American assistance, but Trump suggested his patience was wearing thin.
“Obviously when you’re trying to assess how to move forward, you won’t exclude options. All options are a matter of discussion,” the official said.
“I just think he should be more appreciative, because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin.”
Trump did not rule out halting American aid in his remarks from the White House.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
The Trump administration is also considering whether to cut back on intelligence sharing with Kyiv, a US official told CNN.
Throughout the war, US intelligence has been critical to support Ukraine’s ability to withstand Russia’s military and to fight back against the Kremlin’s forces.
US military officials said on Monday that it appeared unlikely that the Trump administration would request additional funding for Ukraine aid from Congress, which will be required for the US military — and in particular the Army — to continue transporting military equipment to Ukraine and training Ukrainian troops.
The Army has been paying for the transportation of the aid and the training out of its own budget, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, military officials said. But the branch will have to either cut back or halt those operations if it doesn’t receive new funding.
A similar situation played out last year, when funding for Ukraine faced an uncertain future in Congress and left the Army to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars in support for Kyiv’s war effort.
At that time, under the Biden administration, these operations were considered mission critical, so money had to be moved around from within the Defense Department’s budget to support them. But this time, it’s far from clear that support for Ukraine remains a White House or Pentagon priority.
As of Sunday, aid was still moving into Ukraine. A defense official told CNN that “the Department is continuing to deliver via previously-approved [presidential drawdown authorities] some of the critical munitions, including hundreds of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and anti-tank weapons and thousands of artillery rounds, that Ukraine is employing on the battlefield when they are available from our stocks.”
The official added that “DoD is also providing other capabilities, such as armored vehicles, as soon as required repairs are completed.”
Already, some Republicans have raised alarms about the administration potentially cutting off support for Kyiv. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said over the weekend she was feeling unwell over “whispers from the White House that they may try to end all US support for Ukraine.”
“I know foreign policy is not for the faint of heart, but right now, I am sick to my stomach,” she wrote.
The discussions come as the president and members of his Cabinet have continued to publicly question Zelensky’s intentions and express skepticism that he is ready for a peace deal.
Earlier Monday, Walz argued that “what became so evident to us in that session [on Friday] was he is not ready to talk peace at all.”
“What we don’t have right now is President Zelensky saying, ‘I am ready to take the steps necessary and have the conversations necessary and make the compromises necessary to end the fighting,’” Waltz told Fox News.
“We’re ready to have those conversations. We had it with the Russians in Riyadh,” Waltz said, referring to last month’s US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia. “We’re ready to have it with the Ukrainians and then engage in shuttle diplomacy. But we need to hear that latter piece from Zelensky, and we need to hear it publicly.”
Trump administration officials are still committed to moving forward with navigating an off-ramp to the war, the sources said. That includes continuing talks with the Russians and Ukrainians. CNN previously reported that preparations are now underway for a second round of US-Russia talks, to be hosted shortly, potentially also in a Gulf state.
“We are not gonna stop to make movements to try and stop to end the war,” the administration official told CNN. “But it would be extremely helpful if Zelensky expressed an openness to go somewhere other than where we are today,” the official said.
CNN’s Zachary Cohen contributed reporting.
