Trump: [Zelensky] was taking candy from a baby [Biden]; I’ve checked - there is titanium, lithium in Ukraine;
Ukraine might not survive anyway; I’ve been tougher on Russia than Hamas;
no cut of the U.S. defense spending because of China, Russia. 0/
He's [Zelensky] a smart and tough guy. And he took money out of this country under Biden, like candy from a baby. And I don't think he's grateful. 1/
Trump: If I were president, you wouldn't have had Russia going into Ukraine, situation with Hamas, cause Iran was broke, worst evacuation from Afghanistan, and the highest inflation like under Biden. 2/
Trump: Interest rates are down for the last 3-4 days. Nobody ever gets rich when interest rates are high because people can't borrow money.
Energy's gone down, and interest rates have gone out over the last week. That's a big thing. 3/
Reporter: Do you expect Zelensky to come back and do rare earth minerals deal?
Trump: Yeah. I think it'll happen. 4/
Reporter: Are you sure there's the titanium, lithium, and other rare earth minerals?
Trump: I do. I've had it checked. It's very valuable. 5/
Trump: Other thing in Europe that bothers me, they've given Russia more money, by far, for buying their oil than they put into Ukraine. 6/
Reporter: Are you comfortable with fact that you walked away and Ukraine may not survive?
Trump: It may not survive anyway, but we have some weaknesses with Russia. It takes two. 7/
Trump: Now we're stuck with this mess. Open borders where we have 21 mln people came into our country, many of whom are criminals, murderers, drug dealers. 8/
Reporter: Ukraine and Israel are both victims. Is America treating both countries similarly? Are they treating the aggressors similarly?
Trump: They're very different. You're talking about very different places, levels of power, parts of the world. 9/
Trump: Middle East has been under attack forever. Then we came along and did the Abraham Accords, which was unheard of. 10/
Reporter: Have you been as tough on Russia as you've been on Hamas?
Trump: Much tougher because I haven't done [much] to Hamas. That's been Israel that has to do to Hamas.
I've been very tough to Russia, tougher than anybody's ever been to Russia. 11/
Trump: I stopped the Russian pipeline, Nord Stream-2. Biden came in, and he approved it.
I'm the one that put sanctions on Russia. I'm the one that gave the javelins against Russia. 12/
Trump: I was tough. At the same time, I got along with Putin. I got along with Kim Jong Un.
I got along with president Xi. But nobody was tougher, like, on China than I was. 13/
Reporter: Can the United States negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran?
Trump: There are two ways Iran can be handled, militarily or you make a deal. I would prefer to make a deal. 14/
Trump: I'm not looking to hurt Iran. We can make a deal that would be just as good as if you won militarily. 15/
Trump: I've written him a letter saying, I hope you're gonna negotiate because if we have to go in militarily, it's gonna be a terrible thing for them. 16/
Reporter: You said you wanted to cut a trillion dollars in defense spending.
Trump: No, I never said that. I'd love to cut defense spending, but not in these days, because of China, Russia, a lot of problems out there. 17/
Trump: We spend a lot of money on nuclear missiles. It's just bad that everybody has to spend all this money on something that if it's used, it's probably the end of the world. 18/
Trump on climate vs nuclear threat: They talk about the dangers of the climate in three hundred years, but don't talk about the dangers of a nuclear weapon, which could happen tomorrow. 19X
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Bloomberg nails it: Putin’s demands are deliberately too extreme for a peace deal. But Trump still thinks Putin wants peace.
Putin wants no NATO for Ukraine, recognize territory as Russian, captured and some not, reduce Ukraine military 1/
Bloomberg: The U.S. is running two tracks: Rubio and Waltz are meeting Ukrainians in Saudi Arabia to push for concessions, while Witkoff is headed to Moscow to meet Putin this week.
The Saudi talks aim to determine Ukraine's potential concessions before approaching Russia. 2/
Putin’s demands: Ukrainian neutrality, recognition of annexed land, and no European peacekeepers.
Now, he’s asking for even more - rolling NATO back to pre-1997 borders, kicking out Eastern European members. 3/
Trump: No recession, tariffs are working, we’re about to lift the intel-sharing block on Ukraine. Putin isn’t disrespecting me, China isn’t escalating, Elon and the cabinet get along fabulously. We are stronger than China, Russia, and Iran combined. The Saudi meeting is key 0/
Trump: We have a meeting in Saudi Arabia. Including Russia and Ukraine.
A lot of people died this week. Not only Ukrainians, but Russians.I think everybody wants to see it get done.
1/
Is Putin disrespecting you by attacking Ukraine when you're trying to make peace there?
Trump: What did he do? Is he disrespecting me? Yeah. Who are you with?
Reporter: Michael Bernthal from the Washington Post.
AN interesting point in Foreign Policy: Europeans are better at manufacturing, while the U.S. at digital. Which is more important in the new Trump’s world? 0/
FP: Europe produces 50% more steel than the U.S. and dominates in vehicles, ships, and civil aircraft. In 2024, Airbus built twice as many planes as Boeing. 1/
Manufacturing employs 30 million Europeans, more than twice the 13 million in the U.S. It drives 16.4% of the EU’s economy versus 11% in the U.S. 2/