

I read his statements as attempts to make it clear he’s not the unreasonable “everyone must give Ukraine all the aid we want with no compensation allowed” figure that conservatives in the US now want to paint him as. It makes it clear that Trump isn’t upset that Zelenskyy isn’t open to negotiating compensation for the US, he’s just trying to find an excuse to pivot US foreign policy towards Russia’s goals, and Zelenskyy meanwhile is even willing to discuss something as absurd as signing away Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
I think it’s a good idea for him to call Trump’s bluff. If he railed hard against the deal, it’d become another partisan issue, whether relations with Ukraine broke because of Trump or Zelenskyy being a hardliner. That’s why they’ve been trying to find any excuse at all to say Zelenskyy was somehow rude to Trump while he was sitting there listening to Trump spit out Russian propaganda. Conservatives need some narrative that the US pivot to Russian foreign policy is Ukraine’s fault, and Zelenskyy is denying them that.
It’s wild how “take seriously” just means “stop pretending that his ramblings are seventh dimensional chess”. Sometimes, the emperor really is just wearing no clothes!