A week ago Donald Trump branded Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator.
But on Friday he will host the Ukrainian president at the White House and sign a deal granting Washington access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
The extraordinary turnaround caps a week of frantic international diplomacy centered on Washington, as Kyiv seeks to shore up support despite Trump’s recent pivot towards Russia.
Trump upended years of US policy on Ukraine two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war.
He also alarmed allies as he appeared to turn on Zelensky, berating him as a ‘dictator without elections’ and blaming Ukraine for Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
But Trump’s tone has softened in recent days after visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
‘I have a lot of respect for him,’ Trump said of Zelensky on Thursday. ‘We’re going to get along really well.’
