Ukraine is embracing MAGA. It’s not clear if MAGA is hugging back.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives in Washington this week having made initial headway courting the MAGA movement that has long complicated his push to keep U.S. support flowing for Ukraine’s war against Russia. But if he wants to get the anti-interventionist wing of the Republican party on his side, Zelenskyy will have a lot more convincing to do during his time in the U.S. The most public MAGA-figure-turned-Ukraine-backer has been conservative activist Laura Loomer, who visited Ukraine last week, interviewed Zelenskyy and said she now fully supports Kyiv. While the social media influencer stressed that she made the trip of her own accord, she said in an interview that it was the Ukrainian president who approached her about the sit-down, rather than the other way around. “Zelenskyy saw that I was in the country, and then he reached out and asked if I would come” to meet him, Loomer said. There have been other signs that Ukraine is getting traction with the anti-interventionist crowd in recent weeks — including Vice President JD Vance, who recently praised Ukraine’s defensive strategy and argued that Kyiv’s battlefield performance could help create the conditions for peace. Ukrainian officials and their supporters have long hoped to bring a wider swath of the Republican Party on board to back their four-year war against Russia — in the hopes of persuading President Donald Trump to stand by Kyiv. Zelenskyy has arrived in Washington with a list of requests for Trump and is trying to seize the moment provided by new backers and the battlefield wins Ukraine has made in recent months against Russia. A person familiar with the Ukrainian president’s plans said the topics he wanted to discuss, in order of priority, were: sanctions, a drone deal, Patriots and peace talks. The person was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive briefings. But scores of hard-line America First Trump allies on Capitol Hill do not share Loomer’s change of heart. That’s especially true of a band of House Republicans who have long pressed GOP leadership to cut off U.S. military and economic assistance to Ukraine. “I can’t speak for MAGA but I’m not” coming around to supporting Ukraine, said Rep. Tim Burchett, an America First and MAGA-aligned Republican from Tennessee. Other MAGA-aligned Hill Republicans argued they believe Loomer is getting paid to push her new Ukraine-friendly position and that no Republican lawmaker has changed their mind about Ukraine. “X doesn’t make foreign policy,” said a House Republican lawmaker, referring to the spate of social media posts from former Ukraine skeptics in the GOP. The individual was granted anonymity to speak about internal discussions. Asked who paid for her trip to Ukraine, Loomer said it was not the Ukrainian government, but did not provide more details. Loomer also stressed that she initiated the trip. “I had no idea people were going to, like, freak out about me being in Ukraine,” Loomer said. “It became like a national news story in the country. I didn’t plan for it to be this way. I just came to Ukraine, and like everybody wanted to meet me, and it just turned out that way.” Zelenskyy’s meeting with Loomer was not originally intended to be an interview but the Ukrainian president “appreciated that she has taken her time” to get firsthand reporting of the war, a Ukrainian official said. Trump remains committed to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, the White House said in a statement when asked about the Zelenskyy meeting. “The president and his team remain committed to continuing to play a constructive role in ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, and he remains optimistic that we’ll ultimately get a peace deal done,” the statement said. The White House didn’t respond to further inquiries about Ukraine and MAGA or Vance’s stance. Some close to the White House question the sincerity of Loomer’s about-face. “Foreign governments and foreign aligned interests have infiltrated the right-wing