Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was the first to see his Oval Office meeting take a turbulent turn, with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance castigating him as ungrateful and threatening to cut off U.S. aid to his besieged country.
Next came South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had hoped to discuss tariffs and instead was accused by Trump of facilitating white genocide in a choreographed spectacle broadcast around the globe. Trump himself asked aides to tee up the now-infamous video clip central to the confrontation 15 minutes before the meeting, according to a White House aide.
Now, elected leaders across the nation and world are wondering who will be next, officials and experts said, weighing the benefits of a high-profile meeting with the most powerful man on Earth against the chance that they will be politically bruised by an Oval Office ambush.
High-stakes display
On Thursday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will become the latest world leader to face a phalanx of cameras beside Trump in an increasingly high-stakes display. A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, downplayed the likelihood of tension, saying the meeting “shouldn’t be any different than any other state visits.”
But roughly four months into his second term, Trump has transformed what was historically a routine performance that countries choreographed well in advance into a political and diplomatic minefield. Trump routinely places world leaders before cameras for as long as an hour, often veering off topic and raising sensitive issues that leaders once discussed behind closed doors.
The Oval Office grillings reflect Trump’s love of showmanship and his instinct to reject custom in search of political advantage - a tendency praised by supporters as a projection of strength and criticized by others who question the long-term cost. He sometimes targets opponents, foreign and domestic, or amplifies falsehoods on a very public stage.
“It makes going to the Oval Office dangerous, potentially,” said John Bolton, a national security adviser during Trump’s first term who clashed with him repeatedly. “The last thing any foreign leader wants to do is go and be embarrassed in front of his own public back home.”
Trump’s style
Trump’s style has both foreign embassies and some congressional staffers fretting over public engagements, often gaming out meetings in advance or steering the conversation in a favorable direction. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer brought a letter from King Charles III, which he used to flatter Trump. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store brought his finance minister, Jens Stoltenberg, the former NATO secretary general who earned a reputation as a Trump whisperer.
Merz has been preparing extensively for his first in-person meeting with Trump, speaking with leaders familiar with dealing with him, Germany’s Bild newspaper reported. Publicly, he has insisted he will defend German interests, and aides say he is treating the meeting like any other foreign visit. But some opposition leaders worry that Merz, who stands 6-foot-6 - three inches taller than Trump - will appear too deferential to avoid confrontation.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who has worked on bipartisan bills signed by Trump, said he would not rule out a White House visit for serious matters, but the possibility gives him pause. “I would not go to anything where I was a prop for Trump,” he said.
Staffers for several Democratic lawmakers told The Washington Post they would also discourage their bosses from going to the White House. Captive before cameras with Trump, anything - from a critical comment to an executive order unrelated to the event - is possible, said the staffers, who spoke anonymously to avoid stoking tensions with the White House.
For most foreign leaders, a meeting with a U.S. president remains a valuable chance to lobby the world’s most powerful military and economy. Their domestic audiences are unlikely to penalize them unless the encounter is grossly mismanaged.
Pushing false claims
But the stakes rise if Trump utters a falsehood they feel they cannot leave unchallenged. As president, Trump can summon reporters to the Oval Office on short notice and focus attention on his message, often without rigorous fact-checking. During the South African president’s visit, for example, Trump pushed unfounded claims about the large-scale murder of white farmers and did not mention the actual epidemic of violence facing a nation still grappling with apartheid’s legacy.
In February, during a mostly cordial meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump criticized Europe for issuing loans to Ukraine instead of no-strings-attached aid. Macron leaned in, gently touched Trump’s forearm and said, “No. In fact, to be frank, we paid. We paid 60% of the total effort.”
Trump gave a tight smile, then pursed his lips. “If you believe that, it’s OK with me,” he responded.
Presidents have long used the Oval Office to project strategic images, “but embedded always with those images is the idea that the Oval Office is somewhere to be revered, and it’s not a place where any president can sandbag an opponent or spread falsehoods,” said Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University.
Trump, Dallek added, “views these spaces as belonging to him rather than to the country. And so what does he do? He attempts to dominate these spaces. He attempts to remake them in his image.”
Demanding more gratitude
The earliest and perhaps most consequential Oval Office confrontation happened when Ukraine’s Zelenskyy appeared a few weeks after Trump’s inauguration. Trump and Vance demanded more gratitude and respect, with U.S. aid hanging in the balance.
“You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position,” Trump told Zelenskyy, pinning Ukraine’s troubles on its leader, despite the war being launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ramaphosa stared straight ahead last month as aides dimmed the lights and played the video, occasionally shifting in his seat and glancing at Trump, who refused to make eye contact as footage played of crowds chanting “Kill the Boers,” referring to white farmers descended from colonists who imposed apartheid.
Trump and his advisers have reveled in the amount of news coverage his state visits generate, with the dynamics of appearances often previewed in his social media posts in the days leading up to meetings.
If the heightened and often lengthy media coverage makes some visitors nervous, so be it, according to Trump’s team.
“This is the Trump show,” the senior White House official said. “We’re giving access on an unprecedented level, and nobody should be scared of that. And if you’re scared of that, it says a lot about you.”
Dallek said the made-for-TV meetings mirror Trump’s past life on television.
“It’s reminiscent of ‘The Apprentice’ and the way he would sit in this large conference room or boardroom and go around the table and tell people they’re fired,” Dallek said, referring to the reality TV show that starred Trump. “It’s basically what he did with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. (Telling him:) ‘You haven’t shown us enough respect or deference. And we’re going to fire you. You’re no longer a friend of the United States.’”
Unless sensitive intelligence is aired publicly, Trump’s tactic may ultimately be beneficial, said Dave Carney, a Republican strategist who worked in President George H.W. Bush’s administration.
“There’s a lot of good things for transparency and democracy, for people to see what the hell goes on,” Carney said.
“It’s unseemly, like the Ukrainian visit, but you know what? They’re all big boys. They all got over it,” Carney continued, noting that Trump later had a positive meeting with Zelenskyy. “It may not all work out, but it’s not because of the visit to the Oval Office.”