The Trump administration has formally stopped financing new weapons sales to Ukraine and is considering freezing shipment from US stockpiles. This comes in the wake of a disastrous White House meeting on Friday between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which resulted in an anticipated mineral rights deal not being signed.

I'd be the last to claim to know what is going on behind the scenes, but this seems to be a public relations response to the online kerfuffle earlier today between Trump and Zelensky.

Trump on Monday also lashed out publicly at Zelensky for saying the war with Russia was likely to continue for some time. “This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, using a different spelling of the Ukrainian leader’s name. 

For the record, Zelensky is absolutely right because an absence of shooting is not peace, and a ceasefire is not an armistice. By now, Trump's inaugural promise of "I’ll have that done in 24 hours" and “I will settle Russia-Ukraine while I’m president-elect" should be seen as the fatuous nonsense sane people thought it to be.

I say this appears to be public relations at this point because Ukraine's ability to finance US weapons was halted in January. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed a waiver to permit financing to continue, but the letter was never sent to Defense. For practical purposes, halting financing does nothing but ratchet up pressure. Unless Rubio is facing some sort of mutiny, this seems like the decision to stop financing weapons sales was coming, and all that remained was the timing.

Perhaps more important than financing is the use of Presidential Drawdown Authority, which sends weaponry from US war stocks to Ukraine. That seems intact for now, but it is reportedly under consideration for suspension. About $3 billion remains in this authority.

The Trump administration is continuing to ship the $1.22 billion weapons package released by Joe Biden or some intern in the White House on December 30.