Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine and an Exchange With Reporters

President Trump. Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to have the President of Ukraine with us. We've had a lot of good discussions, a lot of good talks, and I think progress is being made, very, very substantial progress, in many ways.

We had a good meeting, as you know, just a short while ago with the President of Russia. And I think there's a possibility that something could come out of it. And today's meeting is very important.

We have, I guess, the seven—seven very powerful leaders from Europe, and we're going to be meeting with them right after this meeting. And thank you very much for being here.

President Zelenskyy. Thank you so much, Mr. President. If I can, first of all——

President Trump. Please.

President Zelenskyy. ——thank you for invitation, and thank you very much for your efforts—personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you. And using this opportunity, many thanks to your wife, First Lady of the United States. She sent a letter to Putin about our children—abducted children. And my wife, she—the First Lady of Ukraine——

President Trump. Oh.

President Zelenskyy. ——she gave the letter——

President Trump. That's very nice.

President Zelenskyy. ——it's not to you—to your wife.

President Trump. Oh. [Laughter] I want it. I want it.

President Zelenskyy. Yes. [Laughter] Yes, yes, yes.

So we are saying this sensitive topic.

[At this point, President Trump held up the letter.]

Yes. Yes, please.

And thanks to our partners and that you supported this format, that, after our meeting, we're going to have leaders who are around us—the U.K. and France, Germany, Italy, Finland, EU, NATO—I mean, all—all partners around Ukraine supporting us. Thanks them and thank you very much for invitation.

Thank you. Thank you.

President Trump. Thank you very much for being here.

Q. President Trump——

Q. Do you think it's fair——

Q. Right here.

President Trump. Yes, Peter [Peter Doocy, Fox News]. Go ahead.

Russi/Ukraine

Q. Thank you, President Trump.

So, President Zelenskyy, you say, in a post on X today, "Russia must end this war, which it itself started."

President Trump, you say, "President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to."

Which is it?

President Trump. Yes, I think that's true. I think they'll—we're going to have a meeting. I think we're going to—if everything works out well today, we'll have a trilat. And I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that.

Q. And is this the end of the road for American support for Ukraine? Is today's meeting deal or no deal?

President Trump. I can never say that. It's never the end of the road. People are being killed, and we want to stop that. So I would not say it's the end of the road.

No, I think we have a good chance of doing it. It's been almost 4 years now that—a lot of people were killed last week. A lot of people last week. I mean, millions of people killed, but a lot of people last week, for whatever reason. A big number. A lot of soldiers, both—on both sides.

And I know the President, I know myself, and I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended.

Q. And as you—you met with Putin on Friday. Today you've got President Zelenskyy here. As you listen to Russia and Ukraine, which side has the better cards right now?

President Trump. Well, I don't want to say that. I'm just going to—I'm just here to be—look, this isn't my war. This is Joe Biden's war. He's the one that had a lot to do with this happening, and we want to get it ended. And we want it to end good for everybody. We want it to end good. The people of Ukraine have suffered incredibly. Incredibly.

[Several reporters began asking questions at once.]

Q. And to that point, President—President Zelenskyy—President Zelenskyy, are you prepared to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths for another couple years, or are you going to agree to redraw the maps?

President Zelenskyy. Thank you for your question. So, first of all, you know we live under, each day, attacks. You know that today have been a lot of attacks and a lot of wounded people. And a child was dead, small one—one year and a half. So we need to stop this war, to stop Russia, and we need support—American and European partners.

We will do our best for this. So—and I think we—we show that we are strong people, and we supported the idea of the United States, of—personally of President Trump, to stop this war, to make diplomatic way of finishing this war. And we are ready for trilateral, as President said. This is a good signal about trilateral. I think this is very good.

Thank you.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Trump. Go ahead.

Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance

Q. Yes. If the peace deal will be achieved, are you going to be willing to send American peacekeepers to Ukraine?

President Trump. Well, we're going to work with Ukraine, we're going to work with everybody, and we're going to make sure that, if there's peace, the peace is going to stay long term. This is very long term. We're not talking about a 2-year peace and then we end up in this mess again. We're going to make sure that everything is good. We'll work with Russia. We're going to work with Ukraine. And we're going to make sure it works.

And I think if we can get to peace, it's going to work. I have no doubt about it.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Following up on that, any—your team has talked about——

President Trump. Please, go ahead.

Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance

Q. Your team has talked about security guarantees. Could that involve U.S. troops? Would you rule that out in the future?

President Trump. We'll let you know that maybe later today. We're meeting with seven great leaders of great countries also, and we'll be talking about that. They'll all be involved. But there'll be a lot of help. When it comes to security, there's going to be a lot of help. It's going to be good.

They are first line of defense because they're there. They're Europe. But we're going to help them out also. We'll be involved. Yes.

Please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Ukraine/Russia/President Trump's Foreign Policy

Q. Mr. President, Vladimir Putin mentioned the—that the war will not end without addressing the root causes of this war. Do you—have you had an understanding what are the root causes of this war?

President Trump. Well, look, the war is going to end. When it ends, I can't tell you. But the war is going to end. And this gentleman wants it to end, and Vladimir Putin wants it to end. I think the whole world is tired of it. And we're going to get it ended.

It was—you know, I've done six wars. I've ended six wars. And I thought this maybe would be the easiest one. [Laughter] And it's not the easiest one. It's a tough one. A lot of—a lot of reasons for it, and they'll be talking about it for a long time, but they'll be talking about the others.

Look, India-Pakistan. We're talking about big places. When you look at—you just take a look at some of these wars. You—go to Africa and take a look at that: Rwanda and the Congo—Republic of the Congo. That's been going on for 31 years.

And so we've done a total of six, and we really have six, not including the fact that we obliterated—and it turned out to be a total obliteration—the nuclear in—as you saw, the nuclear—the future nuclear capability of Iran.

And this one, I think we're going to get solved also. I think—I feel confident we're going to get it solved.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. [Inaudible]—guarantees, sir, like your Special Envoy put forward?

Please.

President Trump's Consultation With European Leaders

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Can you tell us about your conversations with European leaders and what they need to see to support an end to the war?

President Trump. Yes. Well, we're going to be meeting with a great representative group and seven very powerful, very big countries; great people, all friends of mine and friends of yours. And we're going to have some suggestions made. They want to see peace. They would like to see peace.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead, please.

Q. You said last night that——

President Trump. In the red. In the red.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. Me? President Trump, do you think it's fair to—for Ukraine and for Russia to achieve a lasting and a durable peace if Ukraine cedes its territories that Russia hasn't yet conquered? Do you think it's a fair peace for Ukraine?

President Trump. We're going to have a lasting peace, just to answer the first part of your question. We're going to have a lasting peace. I hope it's going to be immediately. I hope it doesn't have to go on, and I think people—the whole world is going to be very happy when that's announced.

Yes, please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

First Lady Melania Trump's Interest in the Ukraine-Russia Conflict

Q. Mr. President—you posted on social media, Mr. President, a very touching letter from the First Lady, and the letter was hand-delivered to President Putin. And it calls for an end to the war, essentially, because of the children and the children's future. Why did the first lady feel that letter was necessary? Was it because she believes that Mr. Putin is the aggressor in the war? Is a similar letter being delivered—hand-delivered to President Zelenskyy?

President Trump. So the First Lady felt very strongly. She's watched the same thing that you watch and that I watch. I see things that you don't get to see, and it's horrible.

But when—she's got a great love of children. She has a wonderful son that she loves probably more than anybody, including me, I hate to say it. But she loves her son. She loves children. And she hates to see—she hates to see something like this happening, and that goes for other wars too.

I mean, she sees the—the heartbreak, the parents, the funerals that you see on television—always funerals. We want to see something other than funerals.

No, she felt—it was a beautiful letter. He—it was very well received by him. And she did ask me to say—you know, she would love to see this end. She would love to see it end. And she says it very openly, very proudly, and with great sorrow, because so many people have been killed.

Yes.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Mr. President, last week—last week, Mr. President——

President Trump. Brian [Brian Glenn, Real America's Voice]. Go ahead, Brian.

Q. Yes. Yes, sir. I've got a question for each of you.

President Trump. Yes.

Q. First of all is, President Zelenskyy, you look fabulous in that suit.

President Trump. I said the same thing.

President Zelenskyy. Good to see you.

Q. You look—you look good.

President Trump. I said the same thing.

Q. Yes. It looks good on you.

President Trump. Isn't that nice? That's the one that attacked you last time. [Laughter] See, now he's a——

President Zelenskyy. I remember the—[laughter]——

Q. Yes.

President Zelenskyy. ——post.

Q. I apologize to you. But you look wonderful.

No, my first question for you, President Zelenskyy——

President Zelenskyy. But you are in the same suit. [Laughter]

Q. Well——

President Trump. I think it's——

President Zelenskyy. You see, I changed. You are not.

President Trump. That's pretty good.

Q. Maybe yours is much better than mine.

President Zelenskyy. Yes, please.

Ukraine/Russia/Elections During Military Conflict

Q. Real quickly, upon peace—God willing you get peace—are you open to holding an election in your country?

President Zelenskyy. Yes, of course. We are open for election, yes. We have to do safety circumstances and a little bit we need to work in the Parliament, because during the war, you can't have elections. But we can do security. We need, maybe—how to say—we need a truce, yes, everywhere—in the battlefield, in the sky, in the sea—yes, to make possible for people to do democratic, open, legal elections.

So we aren't ready——

President Trump. So you say during the war, you can't have elections.

President Zelenskyy. So——

President Trump. So, let me just see, 3½ years from now—so, you mean, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections? Oh, that's good. [Laughter] I wonder what the—I wonder what the fake news is going to say.

President Zelenskyy. You like this idea?

President Trump. No, no. This is very——

President Zelenskyy. Oh, no, no, no.

U.S. News Media/President Trump's Foreign Policy/District of Columbia

Q. Speaking of news, I got a question for you. This sounds insane for me even to ask this. But do you think the American media really doesn't even want a peace deal? Because they seem to have been so critical of you every step of the way as you lead the charge for peace.

President Trump. It's an amazing phenomena. I said that if in the settlement, you got Moscow, St. Petersburg, and thousands of miles around them, they would say I made a bad deal. The level of hatred and animosity is incredible. Not with all. I mean, we have great people up here. We also have terrible people up there that, I think, are told what to say.

But you know, in solving all of these wars, they don't even write about it. You know, I solved major wars. I've solved wars that have been going on for 31, 35, and 37, and a couple of quicker ones—one that was going to go into a full-blown deal very quickly. You know what—the one I'm talking about. It was a big one. But they don't even write about that.

No matter what I do, no matter what—and you know, this is not anything to do with you. It's probably to your advantage, in a certain way. But no matter what I do, no matter what deal I make, from my standpoint, you'll come out good, maybe President Putin will come out good, but they'll say, "Trump was absolutely horrible." It's just that—and I've lived with that for a long time. I've lived with it since just before the first election.

I used to get great publicity. Now I get the worst publicity anyone's ever gotten in office. But I won in a landslide, so the people understand. They're the only ones that count, ultimately.

But I've also had great reporters. I've had journalists that are very good.

But it's very sad when you do the right thing—as an example, they said, "Because of the fact that Vladimir Putin came to American soil, this was a tremendous defeat for Donald Trump." No, it was really wonderful that he did it. It was a hard thing for him to do, to be honest with you. It was the opposite of what they said, but they said it.

Now, if he didn't come, they'd say that was also bad for Trump. You know, there's no way. And there's just a great dishonesty of the press, and I think that's why it's lost its credibility. You know, its credibility is at an alltime low.

We have a thing going on right now in DC. We went from the most unsafe place anywhere to a place that now people—friends are calling me up, Democrats are calling me up, and they're saying: "Sir, I want to thank you. My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in 4 years, and Washington, DC, is safe, and you did that in 4 days." I'll tell you, it's safe.

I had another friend of mine—he has a son who's a great golfer. He's on tour. And he came in fourth yesterday in the big tournament, where Scottie Scheffler made the great shot. And he said his son is going to dinner in Washington, DC, tonight. I said, "Would you have lowed-—allowed that to happen a year ago?" He said: "No way. No way."

He said, "What you've done is incredible." And I think the people realize it. But the press says: "He's a dictator. He's trying to take over." [Laughter] No, all I want is security for our people.

But people that haven't gone out to dinner in Washington, DC, in 2 years are going out to dinner, and the restaurants the last 2 days were busier than they've been in a long time.

Thank you for the question.

Q. Sir, I walked around—I walked around yesterday with MTG. If you can walk around with—DC with MTG and not be attacked, this city is safe.

President Trump. Yes, that's right. [Laughter]

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Go ahead.

Russia/Ukraine/President Trump's Approach to Diplomacy

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Last week you warned of what you called "severe consequences" if a 30-day cease-fire or any type of cease-fire were not agreed to by Russia. Will there be severe consequences? Does that change because of your meeting with President Putin?

President Trump. I don't think you need a cease-fire. You know, if you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn't do any cease-fires, and I know that it might be good to have. But I can also understand strategically, why, well, you know, one country or the other wouldn't want it. You have a cease-fire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild, and you know, maybe they don't want that.

But if you look at the six deals that we made peace on, you know, long-term, long-running wars—I didn't do any cease-fires. Would I like—I like the concept. You know, I like the concept of a cease-fire for one reason: because you'd stop killing people immediately, as opposed to in 2 weeks or 1 week or whatever it takes.

But we can work a deal where we're working on a peace deal while they're fighting. They have to fight. I wish they could stop. I'd like them to stop. But strategically, that could be a disadvantage for one side or the other. But all of these deals I made without even the mention of the words "cease-fire."

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance

Q. Can you explain the decision to offer Ukraine article 5–like security guarantees, but stop short of pushing for their full membership to NATO?

President Trump. Yes. Well, we haven't done anything on that yet. If you look back and you go back long before President Putin, it was always a statement that they would never allow Ukraine into NATO. So that was a statement that was made.

But we haven't discussed any of that yet. We're going to be discussing it today. But we will give them very good protection, very good security.

Q. So——

President Trump. That's part of it. And the people that are waiting for us, they are—I think they're very likeminded. They want to—they want to help out also.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Peter.

Q. Thank you. Thank you, President Trump.

Q. Are you disappointed there's no cease-fire, Mr. President?

Ukraine/Russia/Former President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Q. The United States has already given hundreds of billions of dollars to this war effort in Ukraine.

President Trump. Biden.

Q. At best, it is a stalemate, and the killing continues. So, President Trump, how much more is the United States willing to give Ukraine? And, President Zelenskyy, how much more do you want?

President Trump. Well, I'll start off just by saying we're not giving anything now. We're selling weapons. This is something before—I guess the number is well over $300 billion. That was under Joe Biden—a corrupt politician, not a smart man. Never was. By the way, go back 40 years. He was not a smart man 40 years ago, either. But now he's, in particular, bad.

This was done by a corrupt administration that shouldn't have been in. And of the—and frankly, if the right results of the election were given, if I were President, this war would have never taken place. And he would have been very happy, because he would have liked to have seen—I mean, they went through hell. He went through hell.

This war would have never happened. And the people that were killed, a couple of million people—a lot of people were soldiers and everything else—and the people that have been displaced and forced into other areas and other countries because of what's happened, none of that would have happened.

And I'm just saying that he was a horrible President. Whether it was the borders or this, he was just a horrible, corrupt President.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

You want to answer the question?

President Zelenskyy. Yes, I can. Thank you so much.

So, first of all, we have possibility now to buy weapon from the United States. We are thankful for this program and this opportunity. We are thankful for Europe—they pay for this—and through NATO program for—[inaudible]—and et cetera. We have some programs where we can have some money to finance this. And this is a part, I think—it's not a part for the war and to defend us. It's also will be a part for security guarantees to strengthen our army, to rearm Ukrainian army.

This is very, very important, and it depends how much money we need to rearm. For example, the question of air defense, we spoke about it with President Trump, and I am happy that we have now bilateral decisions, and we work on it with production—American production.

Nobody in Europe has so many air defense, like Patriots, for example. We need it very much. And this is also about defending.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Trump. And I think—you know, I think the good news—we make the best military equipment in the world, by far. You mentioned the Patriots. How good are they?

President Zelenskyy. Yes, yes. Systems. Air defense.

President Trump. We have systems. They're literally 100-percent foolproof. And it's really like shooting two bullets—you know, two bullets hitting each other in the air, in a space like this. The chances—100 percent. It's 99 to 100 percent.

So we sell the equipment to NATO, and NATO does what—I don't know what the arrangement is that you have with—but I know that they want you to have the equipment. And we're getting the best equipment in the world, but they pay us for the equipment.

Under Biden, it was just crazy what was going on. I believe the number is over 300. I think it could be 350 billion dollars' worth of equipment and money and everything else.

And we've made more progress in settling this war in the last 2 months than they made in 4 years. This should have been settled a long time ago, but it should have never happened.

Yes, please.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Real quickly, you pushed out on social media——

Q. Thank you, Mr. President. Was there—was there any miscommunication ——

President Trump. Brian, go ahead—go first.

Election Security and Integrity/Mail-In Ballots and Voting Machines

Q. Yeah. You pushed out on social media about doing away with mail-in ballots and potentially electronic voting machines. Can you expand on that and how important it is?

President Trump. Well, I will. That's a very off-topic. Just——

Q. Sorry.

President Trump. ——really quickly. Mail-in ballots are corrupt. Mail-in ballots—you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots. And we, as a Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots. We're going to start with an Executive order that's being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they're corrupt.

And do you know that we're the only country in the world, I believe—I may be wrong, but just about—the only country in the world that uses them, because of what's happened: massive fraud all over the place.

The other thing we want changed are the machines. For all of the money they spend, it's approximately 10 times more expensive than paper ballots, and paper ballots are very sophisticated, with the watermarked paper and everything else.

We would get secure elections. We'd get much faster results—the machines, I mean, they say, "We're going to have the results in 2 weeks." With paper ballots, you have the results that night.

Most people, almost every—but most people, many countries, use paper ballots. It's the most secure form. So, between paper ballots—very, very important—paper ballots and—I think maybe even more important—the mail-in voting, we're going to end mail-in voting. It's a fraud.

If you have mail-in vote—even Jimmy Carter with his Commission—they set it up—he said, "The one thing about mail-in voting, you will never have an honest election if you have mail-in"—and it's time that the Republicans get tough and stop it, because the Democrats want it. It's the only way they can get elected. Because with men in women's sports and with transgender for everybody and open borders and all of the horrible things—and now the new thing is they love crime. They're fighting me on the fact that I've made Washington, DC, safe, where you're not going to get mugged, beaten up, or killed, like all the people you've been watching get so badly hurt.

I'm glad—I hate to take your time on this, but I'm glad you asked me that question.

Q. Sorry.

President Trump. We're going to stop mail-in ballots because it's corrupt.

You know, when you go to a voting booth and you do it the right way and you go to a State that runs it properly, you go in—they even ask me. They ask me for my license plate, for identification—if I said, "I don't know if I have it," they said, "Sir, you have to have it." I was very impressed, actually.

But it's very hard to cheat. With mail-in voting, as you know what happens in California, it's so corrupt, where some people get five, six, seven ballots delivered to them. No, we got to stop mail-in voting, and the Republicans have to lead the charge.

The Democrats want it because they have horrible policy.

If you have mail-in voting, you're not going to have many Democrats get elected. That's bigger than anything having to do with redistricting, believe me. And the Republicans have to get smart. We're not going to have a country. I said for a long time at rallies everywhere—you need borders and you need free and fair elections—those two things. Otherwise, you don't have—we have strong borders now.

In 90 days, Mr. President, we didn't have one—zero, zero, and zero—3 months—not one person came in illegally into our country. In fact, even I find that hard to believe, but it's run by a little bit of a liberal group that put out the numbers. So I guess it's, but—zero, zero, and zero. You go back a year ago, 2 years ago, 3—millions of people poured into our country. It was terrible.

Thank you very much.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. President Zelenskyy, what security guarantees do you need from President Trump to be able to make a deal? Is it American troops? Intelligence? Equipment? What is it?

President Zelenskyy. Everything. Really, we—it's includes two parts. First, strong Ukrainian army. Another one I began to discuss with your colleagues. And it's a lot about weapon and then people and training missions and intelligence. And second, it will—we will discuss with our partners. It depends on the big countries, on the United States, on a lot of our friends.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance

Q. And, Mr. President, are you willing to commit American troops to that NATO-like protection in order to get President Zelenskyy to a deal today?

President Trump. Well, I don't know if you define it that way, but NATO-like. I mean, we're going to give—we have people waiting in another room right now. They're all here, from Europe—biggest people in Europe. And they want to give protection. They feel very strongly about it, and we'll help them out with that. I think it's very important.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

I think it's very important to get the deal done.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Yes, please. Go ahead.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. Mr. President Trump, you have been involved to the peacekeeping in Ukraine since your first day in the administration. What would you say to the Ukrainian people right now, who are suffering under the Russian attacks and hoping that the American people will stand with them?

President Trump. Well, I know Ukrainian people. I've known many over the years. They're great people. They're smart. They're energetic. They love their country. I mean, they love their country. And we want to get this war ended. That's all I can do. I love the Ukrainian people, but I love all people. I love the Russian people. I love them all. I want to get the war stopped. Very important.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Trump's Diplomatic Efforts

Q. Mr. President, was there any aspect of your discussion with Vladimir Putin that left you disappointed?

President Trump. Look, we just spoke to—I was just telling the President—I just spoke to President Putin indirectly, and we're going to have a phone call right after these meetings today. And we may or may not have a trilat. If we don't have a trilat, then the fighting continues. And if we do, we have a good chance. I think if we have a trilat, there's a good chance of maybe ending it.

But he's expecting my call when we're finished with this meeting.

Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Peter.