Media, Zelenskyy beg Trump to give Ukraine Tomahawks — NATO chief says president was 'completely right' to decline
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House on Friday, hoping that he would talk President Donald Trump into giving Kiev some long-range Tomahawk missiles.
The meeting, while allegedly "cordial," did not go as Zelenskyy had hoped.
Trump, who figures both that America should retain the weapon systems for its own defense and that the provision to Ukraine would not only amount to an intolerable escalation but prove useless in the short term, declined to supply Kiev with Tomahawks.
'It will be too far out into the future.'
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, among the European officials apparently prickled by the decision, implored Trump to hand over the missiles, stating, "Putin believes only in power."
Elements of the liberal media similarly called on Trump to oblige Zelenskyy.
The Wall Street Journal's editorial board, for instance, characterized the cruise missiles as a "force for peace," suggested that "hoarding cruise missiles for another war that may or may not come invites more conflict," and downplayed the use of the missiles against a nuclear power as escalatory.
The Telegraph suggested that Trump should abandon his role as the "mediator president" and gift Russian President Vladimir Putin "a Christmas punctuated by Tomahawk, Storm Shadow, and Atacms strikes."
Amid such blather, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte emphasized on Wednesday that the American president was "completely right."
Following his meeting on Wednesday with Trump, Rutte told CNN, "Let's never think that one specific weapon system will change the whole war. If it was that easy, then we would have ended it when the Germans sent Leopards II, when the Dutch and the Danes sent the F-16s."
"These systems are important," continued Rutte. "They will absolutely help to bring this war to an end, but in itself, one weapon system will never end it."
RELATED: Melania Trump partners with Putin to lead humanitarian effort in war-torn region
Zelenskyy, whose term ended in May 2024, seeks to use such missiles — which cost over $2 million a piece and can be fired from a ground-based Typhon launcher that costs around $6.2 million — in concert with long-range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia, including military bases, factories, oil infrastructure, and command centers. Whereas the British-made Storm Shadow missiles in Ukraine's arsenal have a range of 150 miles, Tomahawk missiles have a range of over 1,000 miles.
Rutte referenced the explanation Trump gave during their meeting and said, "He was completely right here: It takes months for anyone other than American soldiers to be trained on [Tomahawk weapon systems]. So it is not that if you decide today that Ukrainians can use them tomorrow."
Trump noted earlier that "there is a tremendous learning curve with the Tomahawk."
"It's a very powerful weapon, very accurate weapon, and maybe that's what makes it so complex," continued the president. "But it will take a year. It takes a year of intense training to learn how to use it, and we know how to use it, and we're not going to be teaching other people. It will be too far out into the future."
Trump, keen on brokering an end to war well in advance of that time Tomahawk missiles might have capable pilots on the ground, has instead turned to a more immediate method of applying pressure on Russia to end the war, namely sanctions on Russia, its enablers, and — as of Wednesday — two of Russia's largest state-owned oil companies.
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Trump’s Caribbean ‘drug wars’ are forging a new Monroe Doctrine
For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.
The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.
The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.
While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.
Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.
The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.
Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.
Beyond Venezuela
Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.
Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.
RELATED: A war on Venezuela would be a war on reality
All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.
It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.
Trump’s Monroe Doctrine
Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.
Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.
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Trump gives Zelenskyy reality check in alleged 'shouting match' before sending him on his way
President Donald Trump has worked ardently to bring an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine — a war that has resulted in millions of casualties and transformed much of Eastern Ukraine into drone-netted wasteland.
Fresh off brokering a tenuous ceasefire in Gaza and speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.
'They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!'
While Trump suggested on social media that the meeting was "cordial," there are reports indicating that it descended at times into a "shouting match" reminiscent of Zelenskyy's disastrous visit to the White House in February.
Zelenskyy evidently saw his trip to the White House as an opportunity to ask Trump for long-range Tomahawk missiles. The Ukrainian president seeks to use such missiles in concert with long-range drones to strike targets deep inside Russia, including military bases, factories, oil infrastructure, and command centers — as well as Moscow — in hopes of turning the tide in the war and improving Kiev's position in future negotiations.
In exchange for the Tomahawk cruise missiles, Zelenskyy — who spoke earlier in the day with representatives of Raytheon, the manufacturer of Tomahawk missiles — indicated that Kiev could provide the U.S. with some advanced drones.
Trump, who allegedly cursed repeatedly during the meeting, poured cold water on the idea. Rather than hand over weapons that he believes America should retain for its own defense and, in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war, would amount to an escalation, Trump once again impressed on Zelenskyy the need to negotiate an immediate end to the war.
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Trump echoed this suggestion Friday evening on Truth Social, writing, "I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL! Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts."
"They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!" continued Trump. "No more shooting, no more Death, no more vast and unsustainable sums of money spent."
The Financial Times, citing a European official briefed on the meeting, reported that Trump told Zelenskyy that it was imperative that he make a deal to end the war, allegedly noting that "if [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you."
There are, however, conflicting reports about the contentiousness of Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy.
One EU diplomat told Politico, for instance, that the meeting was "not as bleak as reported."
A pair of Republican foreign policy experts with direct knowledge of the meeting suggested Trump had not engaged in any cursing.
One GOP foreign policy expert characterized the meeting as "a dud for the Ukrainians rather than a disaster." The other suggested that "it wasn’t a bad meeting, just a victim of poor timing and inflated expectations."
Blaze News has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
The European official further told the Times that at one point during the meeting, Trump brushed aside one of Ukraine's maps of the battlefield, saying the sight of it made him "sick."
"This red line, I don't even know where this is," Trump allegedly said.
Russia presently occupies around 20% of the entire country and most of the Donbas — including all of the Luhansk region, most of the largely Russian-speaking Donetsk region, much of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, and parts of the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
While Moscow has made gradual territorial gains over the past year, recent analysis by the Institute for the Study of War suggests that Russian forces are several years away from capturing the remainder of the Donetsk region, which "contains territory that is strategically vital for Ukraine’s defense and defense industrial base."
Two senior officials familiar with Trump's conversation last week with Putin told the Washington Post that the Russian president has conditioned ending the war on Ukraine's surrender of Donetsk — a proposal Zelenskyy apparently remains unwilling to accept.
Zelenskyy — whose term officially ended in May 2024 — told reporters after his meeting with the American president that Putin had asked Trump to "withdraw from the Donbas — not the entire east, but specifically the Donbas, that is, completely from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions."
The Ukrainian president suggested further that he "made it clear" to Trump "that Ukraine's stance in this context remains unchanged."
"Trump wants a quick victory — an end to the war — and that would be a victory for all reasonable people," Zelenskyy later told reporters. "Putin, however, wants the total occupation of Ukraine."
Zelenskyy said in an address on Saturday, "We will give nothing to the aggressor."
'Zelenskyy was very negative.'
President Trump said in an interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo that aired on Sunday, "[Putin is] going to take something. I mean, they fought, and he has a lot of property. I mean, you know, he's won certain property."
Trump told reporters on Sunday, "We think that what they should do is just stop at the lines where they are — the battle lines."
As for the Donbas region, Trump said, "I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. You leave it the way it is right now."
Although Zelenskyy suggested the needle had been moved where ending the war was concerned, another European official briefed on the Friday meeting told the Financial Times that "Zelenskyy was very negative" after the American president sent him on his way.
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