Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Karol Nawrocki of Poland and an Exchange With Reporters

President Trump. Well, thank you very much.

It's a great pleasure to have President Nawrocki with us of Poland. [Laughter] He was—did a good job with that, right? Gave me a little different pronunciation. I said, "I want to get it perfect. I want"—did I get it right?

President Nawrocki. Yes.

President Trump. Good.

President Nawrocki. Good, yes. Nawrocki.

President Trump. I better——

President Nawrocki. Yes.

President Trump. I'd better get it right. [Laughter]

And the President has been amazing. He had an incredible race. He came from behind, and he won very handily. The people of Poland have taken to him immediately. They really love him, and there's great love and respect. He's a very successful man, but he was—he went into a political hatchet, so to speak. It was a pretty tough race, pretty nasty race. And he beat them all, and he beat them all very easily. And now he's become even more popular as they got to know him and know him better. He's doing a really fantastic job.

President Nawrocki. Thank you.

President Trump. So it's an honor to—I also endorsed him, so I'm very proud of that. [Laughter] I was—I don't endorse too many people, but I endorsed him, and I was very proud of that, the job he's done.

I want to thank Vince Haley for that recommendation. Vince was fantastic, and I appreciate it.

And I can tell you who really appreciates it: Poland. Because they're very happy with their President.

And I just want to say it's an honor to have you. We'll be discussing trade and various other things—the things that you discuss. We'll have a few questions from you, and then we'll get on to a discussion. Then we'll have lunch.

And then he goes and he meets with the Pope, and that will be very exciting. And say hello to the Pope for me. Okay?

President Nawrocki. Yes, I will. Thank you very——

President Trump. Thank you very much for being here.

President Nawrocki. Thank you very much.

President Trump. Thank you very much, Mr. President.

President Nawrocki. Mr. President, thank you very much. And I would like to express my gratitude for your invitation only after 1 month from my sworn—in sworn and from celebration for my inauguration. It means that Polish-American relations are——

President Trump. It's true.

President Nawrocki. ——very important, very strong.

I think that we have so strong relations that we have never had, and it's very important for me. Our relations are based, of course, on the values.

President Trump. Right.

President Nawrocki. And thank you very much for your support, for your endorsement during my very hard campaign. I remember it, and I am very grateful for your support. It was the fight, me against others. So your support was very important and the support of Polish people, Polish diaspora.

In United States of America, we have almost or more than 10 million people here.

President Trump. That's right.

President Nawrocki. And they voted for Donald Trump.

President Trump. They voted for me, I will tell you. [Laughter]

President Nawrocki. Yes. In vast majority——

President Trump. They did.

President Nawrocki. ——they voted also for me. So I would like to say hello to Polish diaspora in United States of America. Those relations—for me, for Poland, for Poles—are very important with United States of America, and they are based on values: independence, sovereignty, democracy.

And I think, Mr. President, that those values are epitomized by the—our common heroes.

President Trump. Yes.

President Nawrocki. Casimir Pulaski and Tadeusz Kościuszko.

President Trump. That's right.

President Nawrocki. So thank you very much. And I hope it will be very fruitful discussion around energy, around the economy and military service.

President Trump. And the flyover was very much in honor of your great pilot, who just passed away recently, who was a legend in Poland. You might want to say something about him.

President Nawrocki. Yes, of course. It was a terrific accident in Poland. Thank you for this gesture, that F–35 opened our meeting. Major Krakowian was one of the best Polish pilots, well-honed Polish pilots. And he died. He lost two children. So it a great tragedy in Poland.

President Trump. He was a legend in Poland, actually.

President Nawrocki. Yes, he was the legend.

President Trump. A legend as a pilot. He was an incredible pilot. And I think he went to the Air Force Academy, actually. But he was a fantastic pilot, and it was a big setback, a big—the people of Poland are very, very sad. So we thought we'd do that. That was the single plane that swooped up——

President Nawrocki. Yes. And machines—American machines——

President Trump. Yes.

President Nawrocki. ——opened our meeting. It was great. And we are waiting for 32 F–35s——

President Trump. That's right.

President Nawrocki. ——in Poland, so it also shows that we have great relations, according to the best military equipment in the world—American equipment, which built——

President Trump. That's right.

President Nawrocki. ——Polish security too.

President Trump. Well, Poland—we've had a tremendous relationship. I think now it's better than ever because of this relationship, and it's a little special because we fought together. But we've always been very good, and we have some wonderful people, as you know. Duda—a friend. He was a good—he's a good man and still a big fan of yours. Very much so.

So it's a great honor, and we're going to talk about trade. We'll talk about some other things. We'll take a couple of questions from the media.

[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Yes, please.

Poland-U.S. Defense Relationship

Q. Will American soldiers remain in Poland?

President Trump. Say it.

Q. Will American soldiers remain in Poland?

President Trump. Yes, I think so. I mean, do you know something I don't? I don't know. [Laughter]

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, we're very happy. If anything, we have—we'll put more there, if they want. But they've long wanted to have a larger presence. We have some countries that have more—not too many. But no, they'll be staying in Poland. We're very much aligned with Poland.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

India/Russia/China

Q. On Russia—on Russia and China and—sir, can we ask about—we saw a dramatic picture, where we saw the leaders of Russia and North Korea and China together—the first time the leaders of those three countries have been together in this sort of show of solidarity. You said that they're conspiring against the United States. What do you think they're conspiring to do? And given this, is it reason why you should slap or would consider slapping secondary sanctions on Russia if they're conspiring against the U.S. now?

President Trump. Well, I've already done that with regard to India, and we're doing it with regard to other things. And I put out a Truth last night—you saw that—and I was the one that brought it up. I said they're only doing this—they're—really, they're looking to—when they—when they did what they did, I thought it was a beautiful ceremony. I thought it was very, very impressive. But I understood the reason they were doing it, and they were hoping I was watching, and I was watching.

My relationship with all of them is very good. We're going to find out how good it is over the next week or two.

I think that—we helped China very much, as you know, when they talk about freedom. And I don't believe that—and maybe I'm wrong; I hope I'm wrong—but I don't believe that America, that the United States was acknowledged for helping China to get—to gain its freedom.

But perhaps that was just a—that was a sleight of hand. I mean, I was very surprised. I watched the speech last night. President Xi is a friend of mine. But I thought that the United States should have been mentioned last night during that speech, because we helped China very, very much.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Russia/India

President Trump. Yes, go ahead.

Q. You've expressed many times your frustration and disappointment with Putin, but there's no action since you took your office.

President Trump. How do you know there's no——

Q. Don't you worry that——

President Trump. How do you know there's no action?

Q. But don't you worry——

President Trump. Really? Wait, wait.

Q. What—well, what actions did you——

President Trump. Who are you with? Who are you with?

Q.——have you taken?

I'm with Polish radio.

President Trump. Okay.

Q. So——

President Trump. How do you know there's no action? Would you say that putting secondary sanctions on India, the largest purchaser outside of China—they're almost equal—would you say that was no action? That cost hundreds of billions of dollars to Russia. You call that no action?

And I haven't done phase two yet or phase three. But when you say there's no action, I think you ought to get yourself a new job, because, if you remember, 2 weeks ago, I did—I said if India buys, India has got big problems. And that's what happened. So don't tell me about that.

Q. But is it——

President Trump. Go ahead.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Department of Justice Files Concerning Deceased Convicted Sex Offender Jeffrey Epstein/District of Columbia

Q. Mr. President, right now there have been survivors of Jeffrey Epstein speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill. They're calling for these case files, these documents to be released. And Thomas Massie, who is sponsoring a discharge position to get the House to vote on releasing those documents, says he doesn't believe you're implicated in these files but many of your friends and donors may be. And he says that's why the Justice Department is redacting them and slow-walking their release. Are—is the Justice Department protecting any friends or donors, sir?

President Trump. So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation. We gave them everything over and over again, more and more and more, and nobody is ever satisfied.

From what I understand—I could check—but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given, but it's really a Democrat hoax, because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been President.

Even if you look at DC right now, DC—it's a totally safe zone. It's called a "safe zone." That's a—that's a term. It's a term of art. It's a safe zone because it's very safe. You can walk down the street now, and nothing's going to happen: no crime, no murders, no nothing. Because we had a lot of problem with certain places, and we still do—all run by Democrats or, for the most part, run by Democrats.

So what they're trying to do with the Epstein hoax is get people to talk about that instead of speaking about the tremendous success, like ending seven wars.

Q. Sir—sir——

President Trump. I ended seven wars. Nobody's going to talk about because they're going to talk about the Epstein whatever.

Q. Sir, if it's a hoax——

President Trump. I understand that we were subpoenaed to give files, and I understand we've given thousands of pages of files. And I know that no matter what you do, it's going to keep going.

And I think it's—I think—really, I think it's enough, because I think we should talk about the greatness of our country and the success that we're having. I think we're probably having—according to what I read, even from two people in this room, we're having the most successful 8 months of any President ever, and that's what I want to talk about. That's what we should be talking about——

Q. Well, then why not put it to bed?

President Trump. ——not the Epstein hoax.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. What is your message to Putin, Mr. President? What is your message to Putin?

President Trump. I have no message to President Putin. He knows where I stand, and he'll make a decision one way or the other. Whatever his decision is, we'll either be happy about it or unhappy. And if we're unhappy about it, you'll see things happen.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

U.S. Airstrike on a Cartel-Linked Sea Vessel in the Southern Caribbean/Venezuela

Q. On Venezuela. Can you give us a sense of what the U.S. policy or what you're trying to achieve with the aircraft carriers or the boats, I should say, in—near Venezuela.

President Trump. Yes.

Q. And also, the boat that you mentioned yesterday, where 11 people were killed, what was found on that boat? And why were the men killed instead of taken into custody?

President Trump. On the boat you had massive amounts of drugs. We have tapes of them speaking. There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people. And everybody fully understands that.

In fact, you see it. You see the bags of drugs all over the boat. And they were hit. Obviously, they won't be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won't be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they're going to say, "Let's not do this."

We have to protect our country, and we're going to. Venezuela has been a very bad actor. They've been—as you know, they—they've been sending millions of people into our country, many of them Tren de Aragua—some of the worst gangs, some of the worst people anywhere in the world, in terms of gangs. And we had some in Washington, DC. We took care of them very quickly, but they're out of here. They're gone.

But Venezuela has been very bad, both in terms of drugs and sending some of the worst criminals anywhere in the world into our country. They emptied out—you don't know this, but they emptied out their prisons in Venezuela, and they emptied them out into the United States of America, and that's part of the problem we have. We're getting them out. We're getting them out rapidly, but it's caused a tremendous problem.

And Pete and all of the people that are working very hard to rectify the stupidity of the Biden administration allowing these people to pour into our country with open borders. We are paying a big price as a country for the incompetence of the Biden administration.

But think of it, opened-up prisons, drug dealers, drug lords. Everything coming out of Venezuela, they send. And we said, "We're not going to put up with it anymore."

So Venezuela has been one of the worst actors in the whole group, and we have a group of pretty bad actors.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead, please.

Federal Government Appropriations/Democratic Party/National Economy/Crime and Law Enforcement/District of Columbia

Q. Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. At the end of this month, the Government—or the Congress has to pass a budget. Do you think we can avoid a Government shutdown?

President Trump. Yes, I do. I think the Republicans will vote for an extension. We won't have any Democrat votes. We could give the greatest budget ever—a tax cut of 50 percent, everybody taken care of, perfect for women, perfect for men, perfect for minorities, perfect for everything—and we wouldn't get one vote for the Democrats, because they've lost their mind.

They are so deranged. They have Trump derangement syndrome, and I don't want to burden the Republican Party with it. But they really are. They're—they've become almost sick. They're—you know, they're—they actually think there is a disease. It's called Trump derangement syndrome. They've got it.

No matter what we did, no matter how good—you could—you could give them everything that they've ever dreamed of, and you wouldn't get one vote. These are sick people.

And I think we're going to have a tremendous midterm. We just approved the largest tax decrease in the history of our country. We have things when—if you think of it: no tax on tips, no tax on Social Security for our seniors, no tax on overtime, deductions when you buy a car and you borrow money to buy a car. First time they've ever seen anything like this. Middle-income people get deductions. You get a deduction when you buy a car. Nobody's ever seen—and by the way, they're selling cars like crazy. Cars are pouring back. Because of the fact that we have tariffs, cars are pouring back into our—our—car plants are pouring back into our nation. They're coming from all over the world. They're coming back.

You know, we lost about 54 percent of automobile manufacturing over a 30-year period, 35-year period. They're all coming back. I think they're coming back higher than ever before.

We have AI going up.

What we've done is amazing, and what we've—what we've passed is amazing.

But the Democrats—I don't believe we'll get one vote. It's very anticrime. We want anticrime. They're in favor of crime. We're against crime.

You know, they gave us things like men playing in women's sports, open borders for everybody, transgender for everybody. I mean, they wanted transgender for—all of the crazy things that they were saying. And you know, people would say they're 80/20 issues. I say they were 97 to 3. I always say 97 to 3, and nobody knows who the three are.

This is the best issue of all. They are against preventing crime. They are fighting us. I want to go into Chicago, and I have this incompetent Governor that doesn't want us.

Do you know that this weekend 72 people were shot in Chicago? I'm embarrassed to say it in front of the President of Poland. Eleven people were killed. Seventy-two people were shot. Last week, seven people were killed in Chicago—a place which is probably your number-one place, I hate to say it.

President Nawrocki. Yes, a lot of Poles in Chicago.

President Trump. But seven—and we've got to keep it safe, but seven people were killed. The week before that, 5 people were killed and 21 people were shot. This is in three weeks.

So, in 3 weeks, I lost almost—almost 35 people were killed. It could have been stopped.

If you look at Washington, DC, three weeks ago, it was the same or worse, and now it's considered a totally safe zone. Restaurants are open. They're bustling. Restaurants—you have to see. Restaurants were dying. Nobody wanted to go out. They didn't want to be attacked. They didn't want to be mugged. They didn't want to be attacked even in the restaurant.

And you take a look at what's happened. Friends of mine that haven't gone to a restaurant in 4 years—one of them went out five times in the last 2 weeks to a restaurant with his family. They feel totally safe.

Washington, DC, is a totally safe city. You're not reporting any crime because there is none. They said crime is down 87 percent, and I said: "No, it's not. It's down 100 percent." We have a great thing going.

I could do that with Chicago. We could do that with New York. We could do it with Los Angeles.

So we're making a determination now: Do we go to Chicago? Or we—do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great Governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite—you know, quite tough, quite bad.

So we're going to be going to maybe Louisiana. And you have New Orleans, which has a crime problem. We'll straighten that out in about 2 weeks. It will take us 2 weeks. Easier than DC.

But we could straighten out Chicago. All they have to do is ask us. To go into Chicago, if we don't have the support of some of these politicians—but I'll tell you who is supporting us: the people of Chicago. And I sort of want them to let it be known. They have incompetent people.

A guy like Gavin Newscum, he's the Governor of a State that if we didn't go in—if we didn't go into Los Angeles with our soldiers, with our National Guard, you wouldn't even be having the Olympics there. They were going to take it.

And remember this: Your top law enforcement officer in Los Angeles said, "There's no way we could have done this without President Trump coming in with the troops." We saved Los Angeles, and we saved the Olympics.

Thank you very much.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice].

California Wildfires

Q. Yes, sir—yes, sir. Speaking—I got this, David. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you. Mr. President, in regards to Gavin Newsom, would you be open to a congressional investigation in regards to the Pacific Palisades fire, where it killed 12 seniors, to see if there's any negligence on Gavin Newsom or Karen Bass in regards to those deaths?

President Trump. Well, I'll tell you, there's negligence on not getting people permits. That is negligent. We got all of the Federal permits—Lee Zeldin. The Federal permits are much more difficult. They were all gotten within 30 days. People could go build their houses. It's going to be years before they are allowed to build their house.

And Karen Bass is grossly incompetent. And Newsom, he's—this is a very incompetent guy. I watched him with the hands. I'm saying, "What's going on with the hands?" There's something wrong with—there's something wrong with him. If you watch him, there's something wrong with this guy.

But more importantly, he didn't allow the water to come from the Pacific Northwest. You know, they have tremendous amounts of water in California. People don't know. They send the water out to the Pacific Ocean. So I demanded it be open. If that were open during the fire, before the fire, you wouldn't have had the fire, because all the sprinklers would have worked in the houses.

They had no water. They had no water in the fire hydrants. You wouldn't have had the fires. It would have been put out after one house, two houses. But he stopped the water from coming in. And I had to send in the military to have that water opened after the fires. And now they have water, but he should have more, because he's—they've restricted—they still restrict it.

There's something wrong with these people. There's something really wrong.

As to an investigation, I view it as a gross incompetence. I view it as an ideology that's wrong. It's a radical-left ideology, and if I didn't win this election, I think our country would be destroyed. I don't believe you'd be here right now, and our country would be destroyed.

Yes.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead, please.

Poland-U.S. Relations/North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Q. Mr. President Trump, thank you, sir. What's the most important branches of interest between Poland and U.S., in your opinion?

President Trump. Well, it's just the relationship we have. I think there's a great trust and a great—more than—you know, more than most countries, more than almost any countries. We have some in a category that's very special, and Poland is in that category. We have a very special relationship. It's like the question about the soldiers that was asked.

Q. [Inaudible]

President Trump. We never even thought in terms of removing soldiers from Poland. We do think about it with regard to other countries, but we would never—no, we're with Poland all the way, and we will help Poland protect itself.

Okay?

President Nawrocki. Thank you. Can I add something?

President Trump. Yes, please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Nawrocki. I would like to add something. Yes, of course, security is most important, also, for our relation. And I'm a historian, as you know, maybe, Mr. President.

President Trump. Sure.

President Nawrocki. I was a—I'm historian. And this is the first time in Polish history, in 20th century and the 21st century, that the Poles are happy that we have foreign soldiers in Poland. So the American soldiers are the part of our society nowadays. We have almost 10,000 soldiers. And this is the signal to all the world, and also to the Russian Federation, that we are together.

But we are not like the Poland free riders in Europe and in NATO—Mr. President Trump knows it—because our GDP for military service achieved 4.7. So we are probably the one NATO nation which is on this level. And we will not stop. Me, as the President of Poland, we are going to achieve 5 percent of GDP for military service.

But with American soldiers on Polish soil, we solidified, and we are secure. [Inaudible]

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Trump. You know, just about that. You know, Poland was one of two nations that paid more than they were supposed to with NATO. I don't know if anyone knows that, but there were two nations, and Poland paid more than they were supposed to with NATO. I don't know if anyone knows that, but there were two nations, and Poland paid more than they were supposed to. They thought it was low.

And by the way, since then, at my request, they've raised it from 2 percent to 5 percent, but Poland was one of two nations that paid more than they were supposed to, which was a very nice thing.

Yes, please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

China

Q. Mr. President, were you upset that you were not invited to the parade in Beijing?

President Trump. Never even thought about it until just now.

Q. President Nawrocki, what's your message for President——

President Trump. Never even thought—I would—it wouldn't have been my place to be there.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

District of Columbia/Crime in U.S. Cities

Q. Sir, will you visit a restaurant in DC? You haven't gone to a single——

President Trump. I might. Sure.

Q. You haven't gone to one in either of your terms that wasn't in your hotel.

President Trump. How do you know? How do you know?

Q. Because I and many other reporters keep track.

President Trump. Do you want me to prove you wrong? Do you want me to prove you wrong?

Q. Yes, please.

President Trump. But I will—I think it's something we could consider doing. Love to do it. I love the White House food, but after a while I could see going to a nice restaurant. [Laughter] It's safe.

If you would have said, like, the Governor—Governor Moore wanted me to go and walk through Baltimore with him. And I said, "You know, I'm—I think I'm a brave guy, but there's no reason to be stupid." They have crime that's at levels that nobody's ever seen before in Baltimore. They've done a terrible job.

We'd go into Baltimore, straighten it out very quickly too. You know why? They respect our soldiers. You see our soldiers. They respect our soldiers. We'd go there too, but we're going to have people asking us to go. They're going to want to—and I think the people of those places are—the politicians are not in tune with the people. The people in Chicago, the people in Baltimore, the people in all of the places we talk about, they want to see us there. And I think we're pretty much waiting till we get asked and properly, because we're doing them a big service.

Yes, please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Tariffs/President Trump's Foreign Policy/Trade Negotiations

Q. Mr. President, you've talked about how historic these tariffs have been, bringing in revenue——

President Trump. Yes.

Q. ——additional revenue for our country. You've also mentioned before, they could possibly replace Federal income tax.

President Trump. It's possible.

Q. Do you think that's——

President Trump. Someday, it's possible. It used to be. So, if you go back to—1913 is when they ended tariffs. We were the richest ever, from 1850—it was all tariffs. We didn't have income taxes—from 1850 to 1913.

In the 1887—it's about 1887, they had the great national tariff act, and it was a group of people that got together because our country was so rich, they didn't know what to do with the money. We had so much money, they didn't know what to do. It was a group of very prominent people that were set up to hand out money to everybody, because we were the richest we ever were, proportionately.

We were—in 1887, around that time, even in 1913—we ended them in 1913. How did that work out? And then we went to the income tax system, and then we had the Depression. And by the way, a lot of people try and say that, "Oh, tariffs were the Depression"—no, they ended in 1913 and then we went to income tax and then in 1929 you had the Depression.

They did try and bring it back in 1931, -32, but the Depression had long started, and this poor, beautiful Nation was gone. It was gone. We suffered for 25 years. Took 25, 30 years to really recover from the Depression, and we don't ever want to see that happen again.

The tariffs are vital to the success of this country. When I say I ended seven wars, at least half of those wars were ended because of the power of tariffs. I was able to say, "Well, we're not doing any business with you" or "If you go into war, we're putting a big tariff on you." And all of a sudden, they announced that the war was settled.

I would settle—I settled seven different wars, one going 31 years, one going—look at the Congo and Rwanda. Look at that. Thirty-one years, 10 million people dead. I got it settled. And a little bit of that one—less than in some cases—had to do with trade and had to do with tariffs.

So, you know, it's a—tariffs are vital to our country. And, just so you know, other countries use them on us, but I just used them a lot better. We're in a much better position. We have trillions of dollars coming into our country. If we didn't have tariffs, we would be a very poor nation, and we would be taken advantage of by every other nation in the world, friend and foe. We're not going to let that happen.

And we have a very, very big case in the Supreme Court. I can only say this: Our country has a chance to be unbelievably rich again, but it can also be unbelievably poor again. If we don't have—if we don't win that case, our country is going to suffer so greatly, so greatly.

Q. What's the backup plan, sir?

President Trump. But I think we're going to have a big victory. Even if you look at the people that brought the case, they're foreign-oriented. They're foreign—countries have taken advantage of the United States for so many years.

And I started with China. You know, last term, I took in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs from China, but when COVID came, the last thing I was going to do is: "We're going to tariff France and Italy and, you know, others—Spain—when they were doing so badly. But now we made a deal with the European Union where they're paying us almost a trillion dollars, and they're happy to do it. You know what? They're happy. It's done. These deals are all done. I guess we'd have to unwind them. We've done deals with Japan, with South Korea. We've done deals with many countries, and others to come.

And if we didn't have the power, prestige, and dignity of tariffs—and I used them wisely. And people respect America again, and we've become a rich country again. The money coming in is incredible.

And, again, they use them on us. If we didn't have them, they would use them on us, and we would have no way to fight them. We would be a third-world nation. So I think it's one of the most important cases I've ever seen go before the Supreme Court of the U.S.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia/Ukraine

Q. A few weeks ago, you gave Vladimir Putin a 2-week deadline to agree to talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That deadline is now, nearly, approached. Can you give us any indication of when you will make a decision?

President Trump. Well, I'm having a conversation with him very shortly, and I'll know pretty much what we're going to be doing.

We've taken very strong action, as you know, and in other ways, we've taken very strong action. But I'll be speaking to him over the next few days, and we're going to see——

Q. With who, sir?

President Trump. I'm going to know exactly what's happening.

Q. With Zelenskyy?

Q. Who? Zelenskyy?

Q. Mr. President, with——

President Trump. But I'm not happy with all the people—you had 7,819 people killed last week. Russian soldiers and Ukraine soldiers, right? Not American soldiers, not soldiers from Poland, but they're human beings. They're souls. They have parents. They wave goodbye to their parents, and their—their parents never see them again. That's the end of them over a stupid war. And I want to see it stopped.

Now, we have stopped the money. I send—we send weapons to NATO. They pay full price. We don't—you know, Biden spent $350 billion so stupidly, and it was one of the reasons that this whole thing happened. A big reason this war happened was sitting right in these chairs, this one in particular.

So I will tell you that I think that—I think we're going to have a good solution, but they're losing soldiers at levels that nobody has seen since the Second World War.

This is the worst conflict, and it's just going on and on. It's—one's defense, one's offense. The offense moves a little bit—just a little bit. You take a look, they move inches. They're dropping bombs and killing everybody. The whole thing is crazy—not since the Second World War has there been anything even close to this. And they're not—again, they're not soldiers from my country. This is my country.

But I have a power to end things. That's why I was able to end seven other wars. And you know that I thought of the seven. There are basically seven. Those were tough wars to end—much tougher, I thought, than the war with Ukraine and Russia. I thought that Ukraine and Russia—I have a very good relationship with President Putin—I thought that that would be much easier. I thought that would be in the middle of the pack, maybe one of the easiest.

Sometimes you never know with war. You know, war is a very interesting thing. You never know with war. War is complex and dangerous and—and what a mess. What a bloody mess.

It's going to get done one way or the other, but they have to stop killing all of these souls. They're souls, and we have to stop killing.

Thank you very much.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.