Donald Trump veered off script during a eulogy for Senator Lindsey Graham and was later spotted struggling to stay awake, after holding separate meetings with Volodymyr Zelensky and Benjamin Netanyahu that yielded no firm commitments on military aid.
"Virtually everyone, Republican or Democrat, liked Lindsey," Trump said at the funeral service in Washington DC. "Well, not everybody," he quipped. "But it sounds good. He was a tough cookie. I have to be honest. I have to veer from this for a second."
“Trump veers off script and nods off at Graham funeral after Zelensky and Netanyahu meetings yield no firm pledges.”
The 80-year-old president closed his eyes during the service, just hours after the closed-door talks with the Ukrainian and Israeli leaders. Both had travelled to the US capital to attend the funeral of Graham, a staunch supporter of Israel and advocate for US aid to Ukraine, who died earlier this month.
In a post on X, Zelensky thanked Trump for "everything we do together to protect the lives of Ukrainians" and confirmed they discussed the president's recent pledge to allow Ukraine to produce Patriot interceptor missiles, as well as "several ideas that could help". He added: "It's important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated."
Ukraine has long sought American Patriot missiles to defend its cities from escalating Russian drone and ballistic missile attacks. But the meeting ended without any firm announcement over US military assistance. Zelensky also met representatives of defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin to discuss co-production of Patriots, and held talks with a bipartisan group of US lawmakers ahead of a Senate vote that overwhelmingly advanced legislation sanctioning buyers of Russian oil and gas.
Netanyahu, for his part, arrived at a time when US-Israel ties have been frayed by diverging views on Iran. He hailed the meeting as "one of the best conversations I’ve had with the President of the United States", despite Trump having claimed just a day earlier that Israel "wouldn't survive" without the US.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X: "Both meetings were positive and productive!" Yet with no formal commitments announced, it remains unclear whether the two leaders will return home satisfied.
