Exclusive | Zelensky’s friend list dwindling in the Trump White House as peace talk tensions grow: ‘Best case is that he leaves to France immediately’

WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has few — if any — advocates in President Trump’s inner circle as the pair’s souring relationship threatens to tank Kyiv’s standing in peace talks with Russia.

The ever-tenuous relationship between the two leaders descended into open hostility this week after Ukraine’s president rejected an initial US proposal to sign over 50% of his country’s rare earth elements to the US as repayment for military aid — while rebuking Trump’s emissaries for meeting Russian diplomats without him.

Trump retaliated by blasting Zelensky as a “Dictator,” erroneously claiming the Ukrainian had a 4% approval rating and even suggesting he had triggered Russia’s February 2022 invasion, with Zelensky in turn accusing the leader of the free world of living in a “disinformation space.”

While the deterioration between Washington and Kyiv appears sudden, one source familiar with White House discussions told The Post Thursday: “It’s nothing new to me.

“I heard months ago it’s time for an election and new leadership,” added this person, who said the public breakdown was a long time coming and that anti-Zelensky feeling is widespread within the West Wing.

The “real question is, has anyone told [Trump] they really, really like him?” the source said of the Ukrainian president.

A second source close to Trump concurred with the assessment and suggested that “the best case for [Zelensky] and the world is that he leaves to France immediately.”

A White House official, meanwhile, privately confided their anti-Zelensky views, telling The Post that “like the Pope, I’m no fan of someone who bans churches” — referring to Zelensky’s August law that outlawed religious organizations linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, which has close relations with the Kremlin.

That official added that the Republican Party “is a big tent on Ukraine” and posited that there are are “people in the White House [who] have a traditional GOP view on Zelensky” — although this person did not suggest any examples.

Ukraine’s former advocates at the White House, including national security adviser Mike Waltz, have stepped in behind Trump to rip Zelensky and hold their fire about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelensky,” Waltz said Thursday at a White House briefing, where he appeared to indicate a slowdown in arms transfers was taking place, after a Ukrainian parliamentarian claimed “the weapons that were going to be sold have stopped being supplied.”

“Trump’s administration obviously doesn’t like Zelensky and does everything to let everyone know that,” said a Ukrainian political analyst and active duty soldier who asked not to be identified by name.

“Recent remarks by the US president show that he wants Ukrainian elections ASAP and Zelensky replaced by someone more negotiable. This can be some who Trump and his allies trust: Military leader or businessman.”

Washington insiders say there’s no obvious contender who Trump would prefer if Ukraine were to hold elections, as Trump and his allies like Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk insisted this week should happen.

Presidential elections were due to be held in Ukraine last year, but were postponed due to the state of martial law Zelensky declared Feb. 24, 2022, in response to the Russian invasion. According to the country’s constitution, elections cannot be held under martial law

Tensions between Trump and Zelensky date back to 2019 when the then-45th president urged his counterpart to launch an investigation into the Biden family’s dealings with Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, which paid Hunter Biden a salary of $1 million a year while his father Joe Biden was vice president and leading American policy toward the country.

Zelensky declined to launch the investigation, but deftly navigated the ensuing controversy after the distribution of a transcript containing Trump’s request — insisting he felt no pressure in that call, as congressional Democrats moved to impeach Trump for allegedly abusing his power.

“We had, I think, a good phone call. it was normal… nobody pushed me,” Zelensky said during a joint appearance with Trump in New York in September 2019.

Trump, who was impeached two months later and then acquitted by the Senate, repeatedly expressed his gratitude for Zelensky bolstering his own argument that it was a “perfect phone call.”

It’s unclear if the relationship can now be salvaged — with Vice President JD Vance warning Zelensky against “badmouthing” Trump and Musk attacking him over a Vogue photoshoot, tweeting: “He did this while kids are dying in trenches on the war front.”

Zelensky was widely viewed in America as a Churchillian hero for putting up a surprisingly stubborn resistance to Putin’s 2022 invasion, reportedly brushing off an offer of a flight out of the country from then-President Joe Biden with the quip, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Signs of tension mounted as Trump returned to power.

In January, Donald Trump Jr. revealed on social media that Zelensky was refused a ticket to his father’s inauguration, which was attended by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Argentinian President Javier Millei in an expression of the incoming administration’s warm feelings toward those leaders.

“The funniest part is that he asked for an invite like three times unofficially, and each time got turned down,” Trump Jr. wrote. “Now he’s acting like he decided not to go himself… what a weirdo.”

Zelensky has also vulgarly disparaged other leading conservative critics of his government — saying this month that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a major outside ally of Trump’s, should “stop licking” Putin’s “ass.”

Trump himself signaled a possible path forward Wednesday night while venting his outrage that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was turned away in Kyiv earlier this week upon presenting the natural-resources plan.

“I’m going to resurrect it or things are not going to make him too happy,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

Trump aides say the president believes that Zelensky agreed in principle in September during a meeting at Trump Tower to give the US $500 billion in rare earth elements as compensation for $183 billion in congressionally approved aid.

“We had a deal,” Trump said during remarks at a Saudi-backed investment conference in Miami. “We had a deal based on rare earth and things, but they broke that deal… they broke it two days ago.”

Additional reporting by Caitlin Doornbos in Kyiv.