This fact check originally appeared on PolitiFact.
In an extraordinary televised Oval Office meeting, President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shouted and argued about how to end Ukraine’s war with Russia.
Trump threatened to withdraw U.S. support for Ukraine if the leaders couldn’t make a deal.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Trump said during the Feb. 28 meeting. “And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.”
Vice President JD Vance called Zelenskyy “disrespectful” for “litigating” the dispute in front of the media and chastised Zelenskyy for not expressing thanks for U.S. support.
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A planned joint news conference after the meeting was canceled and Trump blasted Zelenskyy on Truth Social, writing that he “is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations.”
The Oval Office fight followed weeks of Trump’s ridiculous and misleading statements about Ukraine, including a Pants on Fire claim that Zelenskyy started the war. Trump broke his campaign promise to end the war within 24 hours.
During the Oval Office event, Trump and Vance made several misleading claims about Zelenskyy and Ukraine. We fact-checked three of them.
Vance: Zelenskyy has not said, “Thank you” to the United States for its support of Ukraine.
This is inaccurate. Vance and Trump repeatedly chided Zelenskyy for not expressing more thanks to the U.S. But there have been many instances in which Zelenskyy has expressed his gratitude to the American people before and after Trump took office.
On Feb. 12, after a phone conversation with Trump about negotiations to end the war, Zelenskyy posted twice on X expressing his gratitude and appreciation for Trump, saying, “I am grateful to President Trump,” and, “I appreciate his genuine interest.” In a Feb. 19 press conference, Zelenskyy said he is “thankful for all of (Trump’s) support.”
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Before the Oval Office meeting, Zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group of senators and expressed thanks multiple times.
During the Oval Office conversation, Zelenskyy opened his remarks by saying, “Thank you so much, Mr. President,” and throughout the meeting, he reiterated his thanks to the U.S. After the meeting ended, Zelenskyy posted on X, “Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.”
There are also examples from before Trump took office. In 2022, during President Joe Biden’s tenure, Zelenskyy started his speech before a joint meeting of Congress by saying, “Thank you so much. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. It’s too much for me. All this for our great people. Thank you so much.”
Vance: Zelenskyy “went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October.”
This is wrong. On Sept. 22, Zelenskyy met with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, but that was not a campaign event. It was at a Scranton ammunition plant, where Zelenskyy thanked workers producing munitions for Ukraine.
The event was an official one for Shapiro, who was not on the ballot in the battleground state in November. Then-Sen. Bob Casey and then-Rep. Matt Cartwright, Democrats who faced competitive reelection bids, also attended.
On Sept. 26, Zelenskyy met separately with then President Joe Biden and then-Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the White House. An official summary said Harris “expressed her unwavering commitment to stand with Ukraine.”
During the same trip, on Sept. 27, Zelenskyy met with Trump in New York.
“It’s an honor to have the president with us, and he’s been through a lot,” Trump said at the time. “He’s been through a tremendous amount, like probably nobody else — almost nobody else in history if you really get right down to it.”
Vance criticized Zelenskyy’s Pennsylvania visit days later at a Newtown, Pennsylvania, campaign rally, saying Zelenskyy “came to campaign with the Democratic leadership of this country.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson also criticized Zelenskyy’s Pennsylvania visit, saying “we don’t need foreign countries intervening” in a “hotly contested election.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., in September launched an investigation into the use of an Air Force plane to fly Zelenskyy to the Pennsylvania event. A search of the committee’s press releases and the Nexis news database found no further information about the investigation or its findings.
A Pentagon spokesperson told Politico in September that Defense and State Department officials traveled with Zelenskyy and that the Defense Department requested the military plane and paid for the trip.
Trump: “We gave you $350 billion.”
This is incorrect. The amount the U.S. has spent on Ukraine varies depending on what’s being counted, but most estimates are in the $175 billion to $185 billion range, Mark Cancian, a senior defense and security adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told PolitiFact earlier this month.
Ukraine Oversight, the website of the special inspector general for Operation Atlantic Resolve, which the U.S. government created in 2014 to coordinate its military aid to Ukraine, said that as of Sept. 30, 2024, the U.S. had spent $183 billion to help Ukraine.
The White House did not respond to an earlier request to clarify where Trump’s $350 billion figure came from.
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird and Senior Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this article.
