Friday, 28 February 2025, at the Oval White House:
TRUMP: We’re very much involved. We got involved—uh, it’s too bad we got involved, because there should have been no involvement. There should have been no war. And there shouldn’t have been October 7th—that would’ve never happened, as you know. Iran was broke. They had no money to give to Hezbollah, they had no money to give to Hamas. They were stone-cold broke. Then under Biden, they became rich as hell. They went from no money to $300 billion in a period of four years.
TRUMP: They gave a lot of that money away, and you see what happened. That’s a real mess also that we hope to be able to solve. But, uh, no, I appreciate your question very much. I just feel I have an obligation to try and do something to stop the death.
REPORTER: Can I—
TRUMP: If I can answer—yes, if I can answer, sorry. Please, please. And I do like your clothing, brother. Yeah, really. Even though I have to—I think he’s a great guy, by the way. But I don’t know if you two like each other. You know what, I think he’s—I like this guy. I think he’s dressed beautifully.
ZELENSKYY: I have more serious things than to answer such a question. I will answer a more serious question, if I can.
ZELENSKYY: so please—about security guarantees and about just ceasefire—We can’t just speak about ceasefire and speak and speak. It will not work. Just a ceasefire will never work. Because I’m, like, a president—I have this experience, and not only me. Ukraine, before my presidency, from 2014, Putin broke it 25 times. 25 times he broke his own signature. 25 times he broke ceasefire.
TRUMP: He never broke it to me. He never broke it to—no, no, you were the president. He never broke it to me.
ZELENSKYY: In 2016, you’ve been the president, Mr. President. You’ve been the president, but he—for—he had, of course, not with you. But he had, during that period, he had conversations without us. We had the Normandy Format, you know—the France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia—and he broke it 25 times. That’s why we will never accept just a ceasefire. It will not work without security guarantees.
ZELENSKYY: Security guarantees—maybe the President is right about this document and others, but this document is not enough. A strong army is enough, because his soldiers are afraid—Putin’s soldiers are afraid of our soldiers when we’re strong enough. If we are not strong enough, if we are empty, if our storage is empty, we can’t defend our land today.
ZELENSKYY: Today, You know, he knows that we have—all the world knows that we have—a meeting. Yes. Why is he using ballistic—Putin today using ballistic missiles on our hospitals, schools, and etc.—ballistic? So he knows that we are here, and that President Trump really has good will to stop this war. And you hear now the President. So why is he using it? He doesn’t want to stop. He doesn’t want to. But I hope that we will do it—really, we’ll do it.
ZELENSKYY: Security—when we speak about security guarantees, when the Europeans are ready for a contingency, they need USA back stop. If the world will not be united—United States—we will never have any contingent, strong contingent, from the Europeans. Because they don’t want to divide airlines’ connection between the United States and the main and strongest—and Europeans. This is crucial. This is important—what we want to speak about very much. This is very important.
ZELENSKYY: so air defence, really, we have a big deficit with all these systems. And we need to provide this. We need it very much. Otherwise, Putin will never stop and will go further and further. He doesn’t want—he hates us, you know. It’s not about me. He hates Ukrainians. He thinks that we are not a nation. He thinks—and he shared these words, I think maybe with your team also, I don’t know—but with all the Europeans, in media, officially and not, he always said that there is no such country, such nation, such language, and such life like Ukrainian. No, he really doesn’t respect all the Ukrainians, and he wants to destroy us.
ZELENSKYY: And you are right, Mr. President, that’s 2%—this document, maybe other documents. It’s a very good start, very good, but it will not be enough to stop this person.
REPORTER: Should Russia pay to rebuild Ukraine
ZELENSKYY: This is the rule of war. During all the centuries, all the history, this is the rule of war: who began it, they pay. Putin began this war. He has to pay all money for renovation. He has to pay. Of course, some Russian assets—what we have, uh, in Europe, about 300 billion—we can use them. We can use them for renovation and buy military support from the United States also. We can do it. But it’s not enough. It’s not enough.
REPORTER: I want to ask this question that you didn’t like, because I wanted to know if you want to position yourself in the middle between Russia and Ukraine, or on the Ukraine side?
TRUMP: I’m in the middle. I want to solve this thing. I’m for—I’m for both. I want to get it solved. And, uh, it’s wonderful to speak badly about somebody else, but I want to get it solved. If we can solve it, great. If we can’t solve it, they’re going to have to fight it out, and who knows what’s going to happen. But I want to see it get solved.
REPORTER: May I follow up one more question—about U.S. troops in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? Uh, your predecessor sent additional troops to Eastern Europe, including Poland, my country. Are you committed to keeping these troops on the eastern flank of NATO in the future?
TRUMP: I’m very committed to Poland. I think Poland has really stepped up and done a great job for NATO. They, as you know, they paid more than they had to. They are one of the finest groups of people I’ve ever known. Uh, I’m very committed to Poland.
REPORTER: What about the Baltics—
TRUMP: Poland’s in a tough neighbourhood, you know. What about the Baltics? Uh, the Baltics—they’ve got a lot of—that’s a tough neighborhood too. But we’re committed. We’re going to be very committed. And we’re committed to NATO, but NATO has to step up, and the Europeans have to step up more than they have. And I want to see them equalize, because they are in for far less than we’re in, and they should be at least equal. You understand that—why is the United States—we have an ocean in between—why is the United States in for so much more money and other things than Europe? With that being said, and as you said, they’ve also been obviously very helpful. But we have put in far more than they have, and I think they should equalize.
REPORTER: Mr. President, about the agreement again today—what changed between the first time that Secretary Blinken gave President Zelenskyy the agreement and today for the signing? What was the deciding factor?
TRUMP: I’m a business person. We made a deal. That’s what changed. I didn’t think we were going to make a deal, and, uh, we ended up making the deal. So that changed.
REPORTER: Mr. President, what—and how do you envision a trilateral summit with President Zelenskyy and Putin?
TRUMP: I dont know, Well, they don’t like each other, I can tell you that. They do not like each other. This is not a love match, and it’s unfortunate. That’s why you’re in this situation. The United States should not have allowed this to happen. Okay? The United States, run by a man that didn’t know much—I’m going to be very nice—run by an incompetent person, very incompetent person, should never have allowed this to happen.
TRUMP: I’ve stopped wars. I’ve stopped many wars. My people will tell you—I stopped wars that nobody ever heard about. I stopped wars before they ever started. You can look at some of—I could give you a lot of nations that would tell you right now they were probably going to war. I could tell you right now there’s a nation thinking about going to war on something that nobody in this room has ever even heard about—two small nations, but still big. And I think I’ve stopped it. But this should have never happened.
ZELENSKYY: Just a second—about any negotiations— First of all, I want really to tell you—and I think that everybody understands—that Ukraine, more than Ukrainians, nobody wants to stop this war. But in the future, any negotiations—it’s understandable that two sides of the war—not Russia and the United States, because this is not the war between Russia and the United States. This is a war of Russia against Ukraine and Ukrainian people. So these two sides will be at any—anyway—will be at the negotiation table.
ZELENSKYY: Then, of course, the United States, like the strongest partner of Ukraine, and of course Europe—I think Europe is very important. I want to speak about it with the President. Yes, Europe is very important for us, because we really defend Europe today.
ZELENSKYY: All Europeans really recognize that we are the defending line, and they have real life, and our people are dying. That’s why they help us. And also it’s about the—yes, like the President said, you have a big, nice ocean, yes, between us. But if we will not stay, Russia will go further—to the Baltics and to Poland, by the way. But to the Baltics, it’s understandable for them, because they’ve been—they’ve been in the USSR, you know. They’ve been one of the republics of the USSR, and Putin wants to bring them back to his empire. It’s a fact. And when he will go there—if we will not stay—you will fight. Your American soldiers—it doesn’t matter if you have an ocean or not—your soldiers will fight,
REPORTER: Mr. President. Would you be willing to visit Ukraine—maybe Kyiv or Odessa, which is known to be—
ZELENSKYY: That was my question
TRUMP: I don’t want to talk about Odessa now. Let’s not talk about Odessa. I want to talk about making a deal, getting peace. We don’t have to talk about Odessa. But a lot of cities have been destroyed—a lot of cities that are not recognizable. There’s not a building standing, and a lot of things—
ZELENSKYY: Mr.—you have to come and look. No, no, no, we have very good cities, yes. A lot of things have been destroyed, but mostly Ukraine is alive, and people work, and children go to school. Sometimes it’s very difficult—sometimes closer to the frontline, children have to go to underground schools or online—but we live. Ukraine is fighting, and Ukraine lives. This is very important. And maybe Putin is sharing this information that he destroyed us—no. He lost 700,000 people—700,000 soldiers he lost, every—yes.
REPORTER: So, Mr. President, when did you last speak with President Putin, and what did he say?
TRUMP: A couple of days ago
REPORT: and what did he tell you that gave you the assurance that he wanted peace?
TRUMP: Well, that’s what I do my whole life is deals. I know pretty good, uh—and I really—I’ve known him for a long time. I’ve dealt with him for a long time. He had to suffer through the Russia hoax, you know—Russia, Russia, Russia was a hoax. It was all Biden—it had nothing to do with him. So he had to suffer through that, and he was able to do that. Uh, I think that he wants to make a deal, and he’d like to see it end.
TRUMP: That’s all I do—that’s what I do my whole life. That’s what I do is make deals, and I’m in the middle of a mess, because this is a real mess. It’s a very dangerous one. If this doesn’t get solved now, it’s not going to get solved for a long time. So I hope we’re going to—I hope we’re going to get it solved.
REPORTER: In the back, please—thank you, Mr. President. Uh, Prime Minister Starmer repeatedly claimed that his government believes in free speech and was not engaged in censorship. Uh, but his country’s government arrests people for memes and thought crimes, and even more worrisome is pressuring American companies to censor Americans on his behalf. Um, how can he be a reliable, trustworthy partner when he says things that are demonstrably false on such an important topic
TRUMP: Well, we actually spoke to him about that yesterday, and we thought they took it very, very much too far. JD was very strong on it, so was I, uh, so was Marco. And we’ve been speaking to him about it. Marco, would you like to say something about it—
MARCO: Yeah, we—we have concerns, obviously, with the conduct there, particularly as it impacts Americans. And there’s real concern that American speech, which is online, could fall into the hands of British or any country’s jurisdiction. And so this is a point the Vice President made at Munich, and I think it’s a very compelling one—that what unites us with Europe, as much as anything else, is these shared values, and one of them being free speech.
MARCO: And so, if Americans are threatened by it, we’re going to need to take action in that regard.
TRUMP: It’s actually a very important question.
JD: We spoke about this in detail with the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary and others at lunch yesterday. And I know that Secretary of Commerce Lutnick followed up in private meetings last night. This is really important. We believe Americans have the right to speak their mind—even if we in this room disagree with them, they have the right to speak their mind in the public square, which is often online these days. And we’re going to defend that right as it pertains to American companies and American citizens vigorously, if we have to. I do think that under the President’s leadership, we’re going to find common ground with our friends in the UK on this question. But it remains to be seen. The principle that will guide us is we believe in free speech in this country, and we’ll fight forward for American citizens.
REPORTER: Mr. President, on the deal—is there any other oil and gas component to the deal? Is it all—
TRUMP: A little bit. We’ll see, but we’re not really looking for that so much. We’ve got a lot—we have more than anybody in the world, by far. So no, we’re not talking about it too much. But a little bit, I think it affects also. But for the most part, no.
REPORTER: And, sir, is there any agreement from Ukraine to purchase U.S. LNG, as part of the deal, or is that on the table at all?
TRUMP: No, we don’t need that.
REPORTER: I just wanted to ask you about—you just mentioned that you’d spoken to Vladimir Putin a couple of days ago. Just to be clear, that’s a new call, not the one—
TRUMP: I’ve spoken to him on numerous occasions, okay?
REPORTER: And how was the latest call? What did you discuss? How did it go—
TRUMP: Are you serious with that question?
REPORTER: I am. I’d love to know.
TRUMP: It went well. I think—I think we’re going to have a deal.
REPORTER: on the minerals deal Mr. President, some of those minerals are in the east of Ukraine, not far from the front lines and in areas that Russia has occupied. Will you direct President Putin to withdraw his forces from those areas if there’s U.S. interest?
TRUMP: Well, we’ll take a look at—at the time. We have a lot of area, uh—it’s a very big area we’re talking about. So we’ll take a look. I’ll study that, and I’ll see.
REPORTER: And who would protect those minerals if they are U.S. interests? Would that be Ukrainian-protected—
TRUMP: The agreement will protect them. The agreement, yeah. We’re signing an agreement.
REPORTER: But what if Russia tries to invade, or there’s Russian aggression in those spots?
TRUMP: I just told you—I don’t think that’s going to happen. And if that were going to happen, I wouldn’t make a deal. If I thought that was going to happen, I wouldn’t make a deal. You know, they ought to focus on CNN, on survival, not asking me these ridiculous questions. Focus on surviving, because CNN’s got such low ratings, I don’t think they’re going to survive. Lets go-
REPORTER: I already mentioned Poland—that Poland was under Russian control for decades after the Second World War. When I was a kid, I looked at the United States not only as the most powerful country, richest country in the world—the country that has great music, great movies, great muscle cars—but also as a force for good. Now I’m talking with my friends in Poland, and they are worried that you align yourself too much with Putin. What’s your message for them?
TRUMP: Well, if I didn’t align myself with both of them, you’d never have a deal. You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, “Hi, Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal?” That doesn’t work that way. I’m not aligned with Putin. I’m not aligned with anybody. I’m aligned with the United States of America, and for the—of the world, I’m aligned with the world, and I want to get this thing over with.
TRUMP: You see the hatred he’s got for Putin—it’s very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of—he’s got tremendous hatred, and I understand that. But I can tell you, the other side isn’t exactly in love with him either. Uh, so it’s not a question of alignment. I have to—I’m aligned with the world. I want to get things settled. I’m aligned with Europe. I want to see if we can get this thing done.
TRUMP: You want me to be tough? I could be tougher than any human being you’ve ever seen. I’d be so tough, but you’re never going to get a deal that way. So that’s the way it goes. One more question—
JD: I’d like to respond to this. So look, for four years in the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country. The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy. We tried the pathway of Joe Biden—of thumping our chest and pretending that the President of the United States’ words mattered more than the President of the United Statess’ actions. What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy. That’s what President Trump is doing.
ZELENSKYY: Can I ask you—
JD: Sure, yeah, yeah, okay.
ZELENSKYY: So he occupied it—uh, our parts, big parts of Ukraine, part of the east, and Crimea. Uh, so he occupied it in 2014. So during a lot of years—I’m not speaking about just Biden, but that time was Obama, then President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, now President Trump. And God bless, now President Trump will stop him. But during 2014, nobody stopped him. He just occupied and took. He killed people, you know—
TRUMP: 2015,
ZELENSKYY: 2014, so, Yes. But during 2014 till 2022, was the situation the same? That people have been dying on the contact line. Nobody stopped him. You know that we had conversations with him—a lot of conversations, my bilateral conversations. And we signed with him—me, like a new president in 2019—I signed with him the deal. I signed with him, Macron, and Merkel. We signed ceasefire—
ZELENSKYY: Ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go. We signed him—gas contract, gas contract, yes. But after that, he broke this ceasefire. He killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn’t do it. What kind of diplomacy—JD are speaking about what? What do you mean?
JD: I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media right now. You guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the President for trying to bring an end to this conflict.
ZELENSKYY: Have you ever been to Ukraine, that you say what problems we have?
JD: I’ve been to—well, I’ve actually watched and seen the stories, (Zelenskyy says ‘Cyka’) and I know what happens is that you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour Mr. President. Do you disagree that you’ve had problems, bringing people into your military? Do you think it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that’s trying to prevent the destruction of your country?
ZELENSKYY: A lot of questions. Let’s start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems. Even you. But you have a nice ocean and don’t feel it now. You will feel it in the future, God bless.
TRUMP: Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.
ZELENSKYY: I’m not telling you, I’m asking..
TRUMP: You’re in no position to dictate that. Remember this: you’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good, very strong.. You’re right now, are not in a very good position. You’ve allowed yourself to be in a bad position, and he e happens to be right about—you’re not in a good position. You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards. Right now, you don’t. You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War III. What you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.
JD: Have you said thank you once in this entire meeting?
ZELENSKYY: Event today—
JD: No. In this entire meeting, have you said thank you? You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the President who’s trying to save your country.
ZELENSKYY: Please, you think that if you speak very loudly about the war—
TRUMP: He’s not speaking loudly. Your country is in big trouble.
ZELENSKYY: Can I answer—
TRUMP: You’ve done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. You’re not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out okay because of us.
ZELENSKYY: Mr. President, we are staying in our country, staying strong. From the very beginning of the war, we’ve been alone, and we are thankful. I said thanks in this cabinet—
TRUMP: You havent been alone, we gave you through the stupid president $350 billion dollars. We gave you military equipment. Your men are brave, but they had to use our military. If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would’ve been over in two weeks.
ZELENSKYY: In three days, I heard it from Putin. In three days. This is something – in two weeks of course yes.
TRUMP: Maybe less. It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this, I tell you.
JD: Just say thank you. Except that there are disagreements, and let’s litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong. We know you’re wrong.
TRUMP: But you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on. I think it’s very important. That’s why I kept this going so long.
TRUMP: You have to be thankful. You don’t have the cards. Your people are dying. You’re running low on soldiers.
ZELENSKYY: I am thankful.
TRUMP: You’re running low on soldiers. It’d be a damn good thing—then you tell us, “I don’t want a ceasefire.” I look, if you can get a ceasefire right now, I tell you, take it. The bullets stop flying, your men stop getting killed.
ZELENSKYY: But of course we want to stop the war. But I said to you—with grantees
TRUMP: But your saying you don’t want a ceasefire? I want a ceasefire because you’ll get a ceasefire faster than any agreement.
ZELENSKYY: Ask people about ceasefire and what they think.
TRUMP: That wasn’t with me. That was with a guy named Biden, who was not a smart person. That was with Obama, who gave you sheets. I gave you Javelins. I gave you the Javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets. In fact, the statement is: “Obama gave sheets, and Trump gave Javelins.” You’ve got to be more thankful because, let me tell you, you don’t have the cards with us. You have cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards.
~~~
REPORTER: One more question to Mr. Vice President—
TRUMP: Be a tough deal to make because attitudes have to change.
REPORTER: What if Russia breaks this ceasefire? What if Russia breaks these talks? What do you do then? Understand that it’s a conversation, right?
JD: She’s asking, “What if Russia breaks the ceasefire?”
TRUMP: What if a bomb drops on your head right now? Okay, What if they broke it? I don’t know. They broke it with Biden because they didn’t respect him. They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me. Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me. He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him—Russia, Russia, Russia. You ever hear of that deal? That was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam. Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff—it was a Democrat scam. He had to go through that, and we didn’t end up in a war. He was accused of all that stuff—he had nothing to do with it. It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom, Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting. Then they said, “Oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia.” The 51 agents—the whole thing was a scam. He had to put up with that. All I can say is this: he might’ve broken deals with Obama and Bush, and he might’ve broken them with Biden—maybe, maybe not, I don’t know what happened. But he didn’t break them with me. He wants to make a deal. I don’t know if you can make a deal. The problem is, I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States. Your people are very brave, but you’re either going to make a deal, or we’re out. If we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out. You don’t have the cards. Once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position, but you’re not acting at all thankful. That’s not a nice thing, I’ll be honest. That’s not a nice thing. All right— I think we’ve seen enough. What do you think? This is going to be great television, I will say that. We’ll see what we can do about putting it out there.
