President Donald Trump shared with Breitbart News on Wednesday afternoon that his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday were “two very good conversations.”
“The one with President Putin was yesterday—that went very well,” Trump stated during an interview in the president’s private dining room, just adjacent to the Oval Office. “I then spoke with President Zelensky today and explained what took place yesterday, and my aim is to put these two countries together. Then we work a ceasefire and ultimately we stop losing 2,000 people a week. Two thousand people a week or more are being killed in that war, and I want to stop it. I also want to stop massive payments that are necessary to be made by us. I also want Europe to pay the same as us because they weren’t able to do that under Biden and Biden never asked that because Biden was a grossly incompetent president. We had two very good phone calls and I do believe a deal will be worked out so we can stop the bloodshed that’s taking place over there.”
In the White House’s account of Trump’s call with Putin on Tuesday, it was emphasized that both leaders expressed a shared desire to enhance economic ties between the United States and Russia.
“The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside,” the White House summary stated. “This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
However, Breitbart News previously reported that the Russians had taken control of an American-owned company, Glavproduct. The canned food company, fully owned by U.S. firm Universal Beverage, was seized by the Russians during the final days of former President Joe Biden’s term. Leonid Smirnov, the American CEO of the company, publicly requested Trump’s assistance in resolving the matter as part of the U.S.-led efforts to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also mentioned to Breitbart News that addressing this issue would be a key part of the broader negotiations regarding economic normalization between the U.S. and Russia. Trump, when questioned about this issue in his interview with Breitbart News, said that he had not heard of it but was confident that Putin would be “very generous” in resolving it.“I haven’t heard about this. Nobody has complained about it to me. But if I heard, I’m sure President Putin would be very generous,” Trump remarked.
Trump also expressed that, while the U.S. is not specifically aiming to isolate Russia from China through its economic engagement, such an outcome may occur naturally.“That may be a consequence of it, but no, I think it’s a good thing,” Trump explained. “We should be dealing with Russia. They have the largest piece of land by far, bigger than China. They have 11 time zones. You can fly through 11 time zones from one side to the other. They have very valuable earth. Now, we’re getting a deal with Ukraine on rare earth so at least we can say we got our money back and we can do something. We’re in for $350 billion. Biden gave away money like he was just a dope, which he is—a real dope. Think of it: We’re at $350 billion and Europe is at $100 billion, and that hundred is a loan. I exposed that too. The money the European nations put in is a loan. They are getting it back. We just gave them the $350 billion. So now we get our money back plus.”
In regards to China, Trump also discussed the U.S. relationship with India in his conversation with Breitbart News. When asked about his recent summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump confirmed having a “very good relationship” with India, although he pointed out that the country imposes some of the highest tariffs on U.S. imports.
“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is they’re one of the highest tariffing nations in the world,” Trump commented. “I believe they’re going to probably going to be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us.”
When asked about the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor (IMEC), a deal he signed during Modi’s visit to the U.S., Trump did not specifically mention China, but referred to the agreement as a collective effort by “wonderful nations” to counteract countries that pose a threat to the U.S. in trade.
“We have a powerful group of partners in trade,” Trump said. “Again, we can’t let those partners treat us badly, however. We do better in many ways frankly with our foes than we do with our friends. The ones that wouldn’t be as friendly to us in some cases treat us better than the ones that are supposed to be friendly, like the European Union, which treats us terribly on trade. India and everybody would think of them as an ally. I can say the same for others. But this is a group of wonderful nations that is countering other countries that look to hurt us on trade.”
{Matzav.com}The post Breitbart: Trump on Ukraine War, Calls with Zelensky, Putin: ‘Two Very Good Conversations,’ ‘I Do Believe a Deal Will Be Worked Out’ first appeared on Matzav.com.