Trump’s strained affairs with Zelensky stretch back to a single phone call

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—President Trump’s blowup with Volodymyr Zelensky last week might have been sparked by the Ukrainian president’s pursuit of more military aid in an Oval Office meeting, but it also was fueled by personal tensions that date to a phone call between the leaders that sparked Trump’s first impeachment. It is a rift that now threatens to disrupt relations with Kyiv, and open a chasm with western allies.

While European leaders tried to patch up relations with calls to both leaders in the past day, a senior White House official said Saturday that it is up to Zelensky to seek amends with the U.S. So far, he has taken half steps. In a series of tweets on Saturday, Zelensky expressed gratitude to the U.S.

and Trump personally for military aid over the years, but he offered no apology for his appearance Friday where he appealed for more aid and argued that Russian President Vladimir Putin couldn’t be trusted. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, long a backer of Zelensky and weapons shipments to Ukraine, posted on X on Saturday that the Ukraine president’s behavior was “beyond unacceptable" and that his lectures were “wearing thin." In a message to Europeans he wrote, “Be my guest to defend Ukraine from Putin." John Bolton, who served for a year and a half as Trump’s national-security adviser in his first term, said that Trump’s personal dislike of Zelensky is now having an outsize impact on U.S.

foreign policy because “if he likes a foreign leader, we have good relations with that country." “If he doesn’t like a foreign leader, we don’t," he added. “Trump likes to admit he doesn’t like Zelensky. So there’s your equation right there." How President Trump feels about a foreign leader affects