Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remained stone-faced Wednesday after President Donald Trump called him a "difficult character" to his face – a jab Trump seemed to find funny, letting out an awkward laugh after delivering it.
Meeting in Turkey Wednesday for the NATO summit, Trump and Zelenskyy spoke briefly before taking questions from the media. But before opening the floor for journalists, Trump issued the Ukrainian president a sharp jab.
“We've settled a lot of wars, and this one is the one that I thought maybe would be the easiest, but [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's a difficult character, and this guy's a difficult character!” Trump said as he pointed to Zelenskyy, followed by a short laugh.
Zelenskyy didn’t reciprocate Trump’s laughter, however, and remained stoic as he glared at Trump.
“It's not the easiest thing,” Trump continued. “There's a lot of commitment and there's a lot of love of the countries and everything else, but... I think we've made a lot of progress in the last couple of weeks. We'll see how it all goes.”
Trump:
We've settled a lot of wars, and this one is the one that I thought maybe would be the easiest, but Putin's a difficult character, and this guy's a difficult character!
- points to Zelenskyy pic.twitter.com/m5fxW6RCDX
— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) July 8, 2026