Trump's Reset With Zelensky Triggers Warning From MAGA

Back in February, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stormed out of the White House after a tense meeting with Donald Trump. The atmosphere then was bitter, ending in sharp words and a visibly strained relationship. Fast forward to this week, and the contrast couldn’t have been greater: Zelensky was smiling, joking with Trump, and even accepting compliments about his suit from reporters as European leaders looked on.

White House officials called the new talks “terrific” and “really productive.” Even Vice President JD Vance, who had clashed with Zelensky during the last visit, stayed noticeably quiet this time.

But Trump’s warmer tone has not reassured everyone — especially within his MAGA base.

The former president’s willingness to discuss NATO-style security guarantees for Ukraine has triggered an angry backlash from some of his most loyal allies. Steve Bannon, on his War Room podcast, blasted the idea as “globalist overreach.” He said:

“I want to give a security guarantee to the citizens of the United States… That’s the security guarantee I want. This entire war is so that Ukraine could be a Western country. Well, I don’t give a tinker's damn.”

Bannon later told Politico that any U.S. guarantee would tie America too closely to the war:

“If we don’t fund this, it stops happening. The Europeans don’t have the hardware or the money.”

Online, grassroots supporters echoed that anger. One MAGA-aligned user wrote: “All I heard were Article 5 and security guarantees. If POTUS agrees with that, we MAGA are out.” Another posted: “Get out of Ukraine! No more US money! No Article 5! No security guarantees! World War II is over!”

Trump, however, has drawn a line in one area: Ukraine will not join NATO. Ahead of the summit, he repeated, “No going into NATO by Ukraine.” Instead, he’s pushing for a separate security framework that would protect Ukraine without granting full NATO membership.

According to U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, the framework could include joint U.S.-European guarantees that obligate a response if Ukraine is attacked. He called it “game-changing,” although details remain unclear. French President Emmanuel Macron and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte both suggested the talks were about Europe’s overall security, not just Ukraine’s.

Trump has also promised there would be no deployment of U.S. combat troops to Ukraine. Still, one official told Politico that Trump might consider a limited peacekeeping role “if it was the final piece of the puzzle.” That hint of ambiguity has only deepened unease among Trump’s America First supporters, who fear it could open the door to the very kind of foreign entanglements Trump once vowed to end.

As Bannon put it:

“The war we got to win is right here in this country.”

For Zelensky, the stakes remain high. He welcomed the talks as a “strong signal” but warned that any deal must be lasting — unlike the failed 1994 security guarantees that were supposed to protect Ukraine after it gave up its nuclear arsenal.

“They didn’t work,” Zelensky said.

So while this week’s images show smiles and handshakes, both Washington and Kyiv still face major questions: what kind of security deal will emerge, and will it hold up under pressure from critics at home?