President Donald Trump expressed significant personal scepticism about the prospect of Ukrainian membership in NATO during a closed session with allied leaders, according to three people briefed on the content of the discussion. The White House declined to characterise the president's remarks, and the State Department said only that the American position on Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration remained "as set out in official communications."
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg maintained after the session that Ukraine's path toward membership remained "irreversible" — the language agreed by the alliance at previous summits. But a senior European official who was present at the closed session described the atmosphere among allies after the president's remarks as notably uncomfortable. "We left that room uncertain about where the administration actually stands," the official said. "That uncertainty is itself a problem."
A second European official, briefed by a colleague who had attended, said the president's comments had gone beyond general hesitation. "He was not equivocal," the official said. "He expressed a clear view." The official declined to provide further detail on the specific language used.
The American position on Ukrainian NATO membership has not been stated publicly by the president since he took office. The State Department spokesperson, when pressed, said the administration's view was "consistent with prior statements" but declined to specify which statements or to say whether the president's private views aligned with his government's official position.
President Zelensky, who was not present at the closed session but was briefed on its content by European counterparts, continued to press publicly for written security guarantees from Western governments. In remarks to Ukrainian media on Thursday, he said his government needed "clear commitments, on paper, that survive changes in government in any country." He did not reference the reported American scepticism directly.
European foreign ministers who attended the session held a follow-up discussion among themselves later in the day, according to two people familiar with the meeting. They agreed to seek additional clarification from Washington through bilateral channels before drawing formal conclusions about the administration's position.
The gap between the alliance's official language on Ukrainian membership and what allied leaders are being told privately has become a recurring source of tension in internal NATO discussions, with Eastern European members in particular arguing that ambiguity on the question is itself a strategic liability.