President Trump has turned Oval Office meetings with foreign leaders into diplomatic thrill rides, which at times have crashed, a la Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and at other times have been surprisingly smooth sailing.
Photo sprays these days — once brief bursts of cameras and questions before reporters were ushered out — have under Trump been turned into public tests of fealty, often pushing foreign leaders into political corners they would much rather avoid in a stage-managed state visit.
Here’s how the performances of world leaders with Trump have stacked up, from train wreck to seeming success.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Zelensky typifies the train wreck, and yet it’s unclear how badly the Feb. 28 meeting damaged U.S.-Ukraine relations in the long run.
The meeting itself was disastrous.
Zelensky challenged Vice President Vance’s characterization of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and both Trump and Vance jumped down his throat. Trump called him “disrespectful.” Vance said he was ungrateful. Lunch was canceled.
But Zelensky expressed regret, calls were made, Ukraine agreed to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire with Russia, and, two weeks later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the ball was now in Russia’s court, where it effectively remains.
After calls with Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin this week, Trump seemed to back off his demand for an immediate ceasefire. Instead, he suggested Russia and Ukraine would begin direct talks immediately. What these negotiations might look like is far from clear, but both Trump and Pope Leo XIV have suggested the Vatican as a host.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa
Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit was not as difficult as Zelensky’s, but there was a clear effort by the U.S. president to surprise the South African leader. Both the Zelensky and Ramaphosa visits were seen as ambushes by some observers.
Ramaphosa, knowing full well what he might have walked into post-Zelensky, tried Wednesday to get ahead of the elephant in the room by jumping on a question posed to Trump about whether he believed there was a “genocide” of white farmers in South Africa.
The South African leader said Trump’s opinion on the issue would be informed by conversations with the U.S. president’s “friends” in the country, adding later that “criminality” was a problem for citizens of all races.
It didn’t seem to work.
Trump asked his staff to dim the lights and play a video that showed roadside crosses representing farmers killed in recent decades and fiery speeches from South African politicians suggesting violent means of ending Afrikaner domination of agriculture and the economy, a remnant of its apartheid past.
Ramaphosa brought with him to Washington two South African golfing legends, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. They both offered careful comments that suggested there was, indeed, a problem of security in their country. The play to Trump’s passion for the sport seemed to soften the mood, if not change minds.
There’s no evidence of the “genocide” against white farmers, as far-right conspiracists contend. There were 26,232 murders last year, according to South African Police Service figures. Of these, 44 were killings of people within the farming community. Both white- and Black-owned farms face threats in impoverished rural parts of the country.
The Afrikaner anger at Ramaphosa and his ruling party stems largely from policies, including the potential redistribution of land, aimed at addressing the racial inequities imposed under the explicitly white supremacist regime that ended in the 1990s. Ramaphosa pointed out no land has been seized yet under new laws.
Trump has previously used the term genocide when discussing Afrikaners, almost 50 of whom were flown to the United States as refugees earlier this month. But he didn’t explicitly endorse the description during his meeting with Ramaphosa, nor did he have advice on what to do about the problem — apart from arresting Julius Malema, a populist opposition figure with roots in Ramaphosa’s African National Congress.
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Trump said, rifling through a stack of printed news articles about violence against white South Africans. “Death. Death … white South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
You’d think Mark Carney’s visit with Trump would have been a disaster. But it wasn’t.
Carney had just come off a successful election campaign in which standing up to Trump on trade was perhaps his defining message.
Yet the meeting May 6 did not become a contentious affair, even when the new Canadian leader discussed Trump’s desire to take control of America’s northern neighbor.
“Well, if I may, as you know, from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale,” Carney said, referencing Trump’s career before politics.
“That’s true,” Trump said.
“We’re sitting in one right now,” Carney continued, “you know, Buckingham Palace you visited as well, and having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign last several months, it’s not for sale. It won’t be for sale, ever.”
Trump said the issue wouldn’t be a focus of their visit, but he made sure to have the last word.
“I say ‘never say never.’ I’ve had many, many things that were not doable, and they ended up being doable,” Trump said. “Canada loves us, and we love Canada. That’s I think the number one thing that’s important. But we’ll see. Over time, we’ll see what happens.”
Carney also committed to spending more on defense, a longtime grievance of Trump’s, and said the opportunity for both countries “is in partnership and what we can build together.”
Trump’s tone was a sharp change from his dealings with Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, who Trump mockingly called “governor,” a nod to his 51st state rhetoric.
The real test of the new relationship, however, will be seen during trade negotiations after both sides have largely walked back from a tariff tit for tat earlier this year.
Jordan’s King Abdullah
King Abdullah II was a picture of restraint in his Feb. 11 visit to the Oval Office, even as Trump laid out a future vision for Gaza that clashed with his own.
“It’s not a complex thing to do,” Trump said, referring to his proposal for the U.S. to clear out and rebuild Gaza, which critics have described as a prescription for ethnic cleansing.
“With the United States being in control of that piece of land — that fairly large piece of land — you’re going to have stability in the Middle East for the first time,” Trump said.
Abdullah’s visit was also among the first in which Trump surprised his guest in front of the television cameras, and at times Abdullah looked like he wasn’t entirely sure how to react.
He avoided directly contradicting Trump during the meeting, pointing instead to a postwar plan being crafted by Egypt. In social media posts after the meeting, the king said that Jordan was “steadfast” in its “position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.”
Even despite their differences, Abdullah struck a tone of admiration in the meeting.
“I finally see somebody that can take us across the finish line to bring stability, peace and prosperity to all of us in the region,” he said of Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Despite growing tensions between Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump over their visions for the future of the Middle East, the Israeli leader studiously avoided picking any fights, even as Trump discussed direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program, which Israel opposes.
“Look, we’re both united in the goal that Iran does not ever get nuclear weapons. If it can be done diplomatically, in a full way, the way it was done in Libya, I think that would be a good thing. But whatever happens, we have to make sure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.
The April 8 meeting came before Trump announced sanctions relief on Syria following a meeting with its new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, during a Middle East trip last week.
Israel has deep concerns about the Turkish-backed coalition, led by al-Sharaa, filling the power vacuum on its doorstep, after it ousted longtime dictator Bashar Assad. Al-Sharaa has roots with extremist groups that oppose Israel and the U.S. but has presented a more moderate vision since taking power.
Israel and Turkey have long seen Turkey as a key battleground for regional influence, and Trump credited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for taking out Assad.
“He’s very smart. And he did something that nobody was able to do. You know? You gotta hand it to him,” Trump said of Erdoğan.
Trump said he could resolve the tensions between Israel and Turkey — as long as Netanyahu was “reasonable.”
“Any problem that you have with Turkey, I think I can solve,” Trump said. “I mean, as long as you’re reasonable. You have to be reasonable. We have to be reasonable.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer
If Zelensky showed the perils of pushback, Keir Starmer represents the rewards of a charm offensive.
The U.K. leader lavished praise on Trump during their Feb. 27 meeting and brought a personal invitation from King Charles III to visit London.
“It’s an invitation for a second state visit. This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented,” Starmer said.
The war in Ukraine was most likely to create a wedge between the two leaders, with Starmer a staunch backer of Ukraine’s fight against Russia, and Trump tacking more toward Russia’s demands in his push for a ceasefire.
But Starmer used the issue as another opportunity to praise Trump.
“Thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal,” Starmer said. “And we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that it’s a deal that goes down to, historic deal that nobody reaches.”
The United Kingdom, perhaps not coincidentally, was the first country to reach a new trade deal with the U.S. after Trump’s tariff “liberation day” on April 2.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele
Nayib Bukele enjoyed by far the friendliest Oval Office meeting of Trump’s second term, coming as critics blasted the administration for sending U.S. deportees to El Salvador’s prison.
The Salvadoran strongman joined Trump officials in offering scathing pushback to questions from reporters, focused largely on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order.
“Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said when asked if he’d return Abrego Garcia. “The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?”
The remarks played right into Trump’s hands.
Before Bukele spoke, Trump and a number of his aides suggested the decision would rest with El Salvador. “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
Trump also made headlines with his suggestion that U.S. citizens convicted of heinous crimes could also be sent to El Salvador’s notorious prison system. “They’re as bad as anyone that comes in. We have bad ones, too. And, I’m all for it,” Trump told reporters.
The U.S. is reportedly spending millions on its contract to hold nearly 300 deportees in El Salvador’s maximum security prison. Trump has halted flights to the country, for now, but has continued to resist court orders to return Abrego Garcia.
