A common criticism of Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous Friday performance in the Oval Office is that he failed to read the room.

Actually, the Ukrainian president did read a room — but it was the wrong room.

Prior to his meeting with President Trump, Zelensky had discussions with Democrats who opposed Trump’s policies. Senator Chris Murphy stated that these Democrats advised Zelensky to decline the mineral deal terms proposed by the president.

“Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,” Murphy’s office posted on X at 11:15 a.m. Friday.

He attached a picture of Zelensky at a conference table, with Murphy seated on the opposite side.

Forty minutes later, Zelensky arrived at the White House, where Trump met his car, smiled, shook his hand and walked him into the Oval Office.

Arrogant ingrate

The meeting, as the world now knows, quickly went off the rails and ended with Trump angrily ejecting the arrogant ingrate from the White House.

The earlier meeting with Dems undercuts wild claims that Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance staged an ambush. In fact, it was Zelensky who came with an ulterior motive.

The purpose of the meeting was to sign the mineral agreement he and Trump representatives had negotiated. He had twice refused to sign it after promising to, and thanks to Murphy, we now know he had no intention of signing it Friday.

By listening to the nakedly partisan advice of Dems instead of dealing forthrightly with the current president, Zelensky betrayed his countrymen and, for now at least, leaves them without the military and diplomatic protection that only America can provide.

Good luck counting on Britain, France and the rest of Europe to save Ukraine. Maybe the Germans will send strudel.

In a perverse way, Murphy and other Dems got the outcome they wanted. The fireworks at the White House gave them an excuse to replay their Russia Russia Russia hoax.

Once again, they and their media handmaidens are dishonestly insisting that Trump is in Vladimir Putin’s camp.

Like the original Russia hoax that consumed much of Trump’s first term, Russia 2.0 is born of political desperation. After months of not knowing how to respond to Trump’s fast, populist start to his second term, Dems up and down the food chain decided that the president’s refusal to write a blank check to Zelensky and pledge a military guarantee amounts to a gift to Putin.

Desperate for relevance

The logic is twisted beyond description, but any port in a storm will do. And with Trump off to the fastest start of any president in modern history, Dems are desperate to be relevant.

It’s a mark of their bad judgment that Zelensky is their new hero. He and they have zero chance of persuading tapped-out Americans that an open-ended commitment of their tax dollars and possibly sending troops to Ukraine is sensible.

Certainly Trump supporters didn’t vote for that, and the president himself campaigned on bringing the war to a fast end, not sending our army to fight Russians.

He made it repeatedly clear for three years that he viewed Joe Biden’s strategy of providing just enough support for Ukraine to keep the war going without any plan for victory as a fool’s errand. He has also been consistent about his desire to stop the enormous loss of life on both sides and the destruction of Ukrainian cities and towns.

Despite the fact that the president made foolish comments two weeks ago suggesting Ukraine started the war, I am convinced Trump truly wants peace. He is not afraid to use the military, but he is not a warmonger.

To that end, he and his White House came up with the minerals plan that he called a first step to a cease-fire.

The plan went through several drafts and the latest would have America and Ukraine form a partnership to mine the eastern European nation’s plentiful rare earth deposits, with much of the proceeds going to help rebuild Ukraine.

A gift to Putin

Zelensky, who privately agreed to the terms, has every right to demand a security agreement — up to a point. But he didn’t get one and his decision to respond by insulting the president and vice president, interrupting them and waving off their responses, was madness.

As Trump noted, the heated jabs made for great television, but it was a disaster for Ukraine and a gift to Putin.

Zelensky had an opportunity to apologize to Trump in a later interview with Brett Baier on Fox, but repeatedly refused to do so, saying “I’m not sure we did something bad.”

Add ignorance to his list of flaws.

Unfortunately for him, there is an audience egging him on. Beyond Washington Dems, the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, wrote on social media that “the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge. We stand by Ukraine.”

Sure, Europe stands by Ukraine — and will continue to stand by as it gets carved up by Putin’s war machine.

‘Ukraine is our ally’

Murphy and other Dems are no better, celebrating Zelensky’s stupendous failure as if it were a victory. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote that “Trump and Vance are doing Putin’s dirty work” and the always repellent Sen. Adam Schiff called Trump a “coward.”

New York’s daffy governor, Kathy Hochul, who seems to pick a daily fight with Trump, added her two cents, saying “Ukraine is our ally. Putin is not. It’s not complicated . . . This president may not stand with democracy, but we will.”

Oh, please. Hochul can’t even keep the peace on New York’s crime-ridden streets.

Meanwhile, Zelensky’s rejection of the mineral deal means there will be no American interests and businesses in Ukraine, which, as Trump repeatedly said, would help deter Russian attacks.

Moreover, Trump said a final settlement would require Putin to return some of the lands he has taken, and that France, Great Britain and others likely would station peace-keeping troops in Ukraine.

All that should have given Zelensky more than enough confidence to go forward, or at least to raise any concerns in private. Instead, he used a friendly meeting in front of the press to complain that no agreement was sufficient without an American security guarantee, despite being told repeatedly none would be included in the minerals deal.

He’s right that Putin can’t be trusted but he’s a fool for rejecting Trump’s plan and counting on Europe and feckless Dems to help him get a better deal from Trump.

As the president reminded him three times, “you don’t have the cards” to make the demands he was making, but Zelensky ignored the advice and the facts.

What a tragic mistake.