Oval Office meeting between US and Ukraine cut short after heated argument
The World
PRX
4.6 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 28 February 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Donald Trump met today with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, who was set sign a deal allowing the US access to rare earth metals in exchange for military support. But the cordial conversation soon devolved into a shouting match. Also, the Greek capital saw massive demonstrations hit fever pitch as protesters clashed with police outside of parliament on the second anniversary of a deadly train crash that killed dozens of people. And, Japan grapples with a law that has traditionally required married couples to have the same last name. Plus, a look at the unique art of glass engraving by hand in Spain that may soon disappear.
Listen to today’s Music Heard on Air.
Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choicesTranscript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Ukraine's president came to Washington to sign a deal. Instead, his meeting in the Oval Office |
| 0:10.9 | descended into a shouting match. You've allowed you, sir, to be in a very bad position |
| 0:16.0 | and he's happened to be right about it. From the very beginning of the war, you're not in a good position. |
| 0:20.5 | I'm Carolyn Beeler, a dramatic meltdown for American diplomacy. |
| 0:27.4 | Also today, Mexico just sent more than two dozen of its most wanted cartel members to face trial in U.S. courts. |
| 0:34.2 | That sounds like a big deal. |
| 0:36.0 | However, this is a PR coup, but operationally, it means very |
| 0:40.6 | little. We'll hear about one of Spain's last makers of hand-cut glass and the television shows |
| 0:47.0 | airing during the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan. It's all over Instagram, it's all over social |
| 0:51.8 | media. Everybody's talking about them. All those stories and more ahead today on the world. |
| 0:58.4 | This is The World. I'm Carolyn Beeler. |
| 1:00.9 | Thank you for tuning in today. |
| 1:02.8 | It was a highly anticipated meeting in the Oval Office, and it went completely off the rails. |
| 1:09.2 | Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was there to talk about |
| 1:12.1 | cooperation with the U.S. on rare earth minerals and to sign a deal with President Trump. Instead, |
| 1:18.9 | the meeting, which included both Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, turned into a shouting match. |
| 1:24.6 | It was a shocking display of open animosity at the highest level of international |
| 1:29.3 | diplomacy. The world's Daniel Offman is on the line with me now from Washington. Daniel, can you |
| 1:34.8 | remind us what the expectations were going into this meeting today? Yeah, Carolyn, the expectation |
| 1:40.5 | was that the U.S. and Ukraine were beginning a process that would lead to a ceasefire in Ukraine. |
| 1:46.3 | So today the plan was for the U.S. and Ukraine to sign a lucrative rare earth minerals deal that would benefit both countries and provide some security assurances for Ukraine's future. |
| 1:57.8 | However, earlier in the afternoon, the meeting, as you said, completely devolved into a very heated argument that played out on live TV. And now the two sides have cut off the meeting because of this public clash. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PRX, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of PRX and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.