{"id":789823,"date":"2026-07-28T18:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/789823\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T18:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:44:12","slug":"zelenskyy-says-he-and-trump-have-good-meeting-before-graham-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/789823\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy says he and Trump have ‘good meeting’ before Graham funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> met Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s funeral<\/a>, with the two leaders discussing ways for Ukraine to produce its own powerful weapons and \u201cother ideas that could help\u201d in its ongoing war against Russia. <\/p>\n

The sit-down in the Oval Office, which was closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the NATO summit<\/a> earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where Trump announced that the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot defense systems<\/a> \u2014 a long-running request from Kyiv to counter Russian missile attacks. <\/p>\n

In a post on social media after the meeting, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for the \u201cgood meeting\u201d and the Republican administration\u2019s efforts to aid Kyiv in the long-running war, which began more than four years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,\u201d said Zelenskyy, who also noted that he offered condolences to Trump for the death of Graham<\/a>, a close ally. \u201cWe also spoke about diplomacy \u2013 it\u2019s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said both the Zelenskyy meeting and a separate, later sit-down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were \u201cpositive and productive.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump welcomed Zelenskyy to the White House as the Ukrainian leader traveled to Washington to honor Graham, whose final act as a public official was visiting Kyiv<\/a> and securing an agreement on a package of sanctions that seek to punish countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and other exports.<\/p>\n

In a Fox News Channel interview on Tuesday, Trump recalled Graham\u2019s hawkishness and said the Republican South Carolina senator\u2019s support for Ukraine never wavered. Trump said Graham had suggested it was time to make a deal with Iran but had no similar suggestion for the Russia-Ukraine war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine, he\u2019s very militant about,\u201d Trump said on \u201cFox & Friends.\u201d \u201cI mean, Lindsey liked war, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s embrace of Zelenskyy comes as a far-right activist with the U.S. president\u2019s ear had a recent, widely publicized change of heart on Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine. <\/p>\n

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Laura Loomer<\/a>, known primarily for her incendiary social media posts and her influence with Trump, has been traveling through Ukraine, witnessing Moscow\u2019s barrage firsthand and interviewing Zelenskyy while admitting she was \u201cbamboozled by Russian propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loomer said she spoke to Trump after she met with Zelenskyy in Ukraine last week and she expects to meet with the U.S. president once she returns from her trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s looking good for Ukraine, right?\u201d Loomer said during an interview<\/a> with The Associated Press. \u201cGoing into this meeting next week at the Oval Office is looking pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of the meeting, Zelenskyy also warned that Russia has been aiding Iran as the war persists by capturing satellite imagery of U.S. bases in the Gulf region that later appear in Iran. The Ukrainian president also asserted that there was a \u201cclear correlation\u201d between Russia\u2019s images and subsequent Iranian strikes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose is clear,\u201d Zelenskyy said earlier this month. \u201cNone of us in the world should turn a blind eye to one very simple fact: Evil always seeks ways to make things worse and spread further.\u201d<\/p>\n

But on Monday, Trump downplayed any impact of potential Russian assistance for Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ve been doing it, certainly not at a high level,\u201d Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan<\/a>. \u201cAnd if they have, it has been very un-impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he said he would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy has a busy itinerary during his latest visit to Washington. Besides his White House meeting, Zelenskyy will head to the Capitol to meet with senators on Tuesday evening after Graham\u2019s funeral at Washington National Cathedral, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Republican leadership is hoping to advance Graham\u2019s sanctions legislation<\/a> this week, although the Senate is juggling several other priorities before lawmakers leave Washington for their August recess.<\/p>\n

The bill has dozens of backers from both major political parties and is seen as the main policy tribute to Graham, who died unexpectedly<\/a> this month from a tear in his aorta. It imposes tariffs on goods from the world\u2019s top five purchasers of Russia oil or natural gas, including China and India.<\/p>\n

The legislation also includes sanctions against Putin; senior Russian political and military leaders; and Russian financial institutions and energy projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,5620,1930,3505,12,4380,793,801,228242,17153,37746,5852,3,59842,111,6509,963,12807,1208,40479,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,6508,40477,800,965],"class_list":["post-789823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-diplomacy","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-funerals-and-memorial-services","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-war","tag-karoline-leavitt","tag-laura-loomer","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-news","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","tag-politics","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-turkey","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}