senior aide to Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, was also present, along with an NSC press officer.578 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listened from a different location, as did Dr. Charles M. Kupperman, the Deputy National Security Advisor.579
Notably, Secretary Pompeo did not reveal that he listened to the July 25 call when asked directly about it on This Week on September 22.580 Neither Secretary Pompeo nor the State Department corrected the record until September 30, when “a senior State Department official” disclosed the Secretary of State’s participation in the July 25 call.581
The two presidents first exchanged pleasantries. President Trump congratulated the Ukrainian leader on his party’s parliamentary victory. In a nod to their shared experience as political outsiders, President Zelensky called President Trump “a great teacher” who informed his own efforts to involve “many many new people” in Ukraine’s politics and “drain the swamp here in our country.”582
The discussion turned to U.S. support for Ukraine. President Trump contrasted U.S. assistance to that of America’s closest European allies, stating: “We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are.” The call then took a more ominous turn. President Trump stated that with respect to U.S. support for Ukraine, “I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.”583
President Zelensky, whose government receives billions of dollars in financial support from the European Union and its member states, responded that European nations were “not working as much as they should work for Ukraine,” including in the area of enforcing sanctions against Russia.584 He noted that “the United States is a much bigger partner than the European Union” and stated that he was “very grateful” because “the United States is doing quite a lot for Ukraine.”585
President Zelensky then raised the issue of U.S. military assistance for Ukraine with President Trump: “I also would like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense”—an area where U.S. support is vital.586 President Zelensky continued: “We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.”587 The Javelin anti-tank missiles, first transferred to Ukraine by the United States in 2018, were widely viewed by U.S. officials as a deterrent against further Russian encroachment into Ukrainian territory.588
Immediately after the Ukrainian leader raised the issue of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, President Trump replied: “I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and Ukraine knows a lot about it.”589
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