Washington Summit Snub: The Von der Leyen Issue

Was the president of the European Commission shown the door by Trump during Oval office talks? That’s what the vice president of the Bundestag initially claimed — before walking it back. Awkward.

Is Ursula von der Leyen out of place? There’s clearly tension in the air.
What was the President of the European Commission doing at the Washington summit — where Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz, Alexander Stubb, and Mark Rutte gathered to discuss prospects for peace in Ukraine?

The European Commission has no authority over defense or armaments. Such powers rest with the member states. The Commission does not represent EU member states, but only itself, a bureaucracy. That question resurfaced — even more pointedly — when German MP Omid Nouripour, Vice President of the Bundestag and a member of the Green Party, expressed indignation on German television over reports that Ursula von der Leyen had been asked, on multiple occasions, to leave the Oval Office.