Trump: Putin is a smart man, he did not sit down at the negotiating table under duress
Russia is an incredible country, and together we could do a lot, Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News. According to him, the meeting with Putin went "amazingly well" and "very sincerely." Zelensky can only agree to the deal, the US president stressed.
Fox News anchor Sean Hannity: Glad you could come. So… Prior to that, he stated: "I'll understand in two minutes..." I watched very carefully when you met on the red carpet after the landing of both planes. How did you feel during those two minutes?
Donald Trump: Well, you know, we've always had a great relationship with President Putin. And we could do great things together... you know, they have an incredible land. Rare earths, oil, gas — everything is just amazing. The largest territory on the planet... far surpasses the rest. They seem to have 11 time zones, this is serious. I think we could have done a lot together, but the "fake Russia-Russia-Russia stuffing" [accusations of interference in the US election process] prevented these plans from coming to fruition. We could have worked so wonderfully together, but... we had one of the greatest... of the greatest fraudulent schemes... that is, I mean, there were others, as well as the elections themselves, as you know. Because you covered it better than anyone else... however, it was a rigged election, a terrible thing that happened in 2020. And we would have had a great relationship, but it went amazingly well considering that… You know, he would have looked at [what was going on] and decided that we were just crazy! Fabricated fraud with "Russia-Russia-Russia".
So we had a very important... and very good meeting today — let's see! That is, it is necessary to conclude a deal.… We discussed a lot of things. I want people to stop dying in Ukraine, and that's exactly what's happening. We are losing 5, 6, 7 thousand... Russians — mostly Russians (in fact, the proportion is the opposite. — Approx. InoSMI) — and Ukrainian soldiers… People are dying in cities where they are trying to destroy missile factories and other [military infrastructure facilities], and some cities – I don't know if you are aware of what is happening there, but a lot of people are dying. And we can put an end to this conflict, it will be great, and I was very happy to hear from him that if I were president, this conflict would never have broken out.
— Mr. President, that's exactly the question I was going to ask next. He said at a joint press conference… And you've said it repeatedly.... And he confirmed today in front of the whole world that if you had been president at that moment, nothing would have happened. Are there any details as to why he said that?
— Yes, but it doesn't matter now. But this conflict shouldn't have broken out, but many wars shouldn't have started, idiotic things were happening, the wrong people were negotiating. Biden was a terrible president in many ways, he shouldn't have let that happen. But it happened… Millions of people died, this is the worst, as I understand it: everyone says this is the worst since the Second World War, nothing else is even close to comparable. However, we had a good meeting today and, I think, discussed many topics. On behalf of Ukraine and on behalf of... the whole situation with NATO, which we are coping well with, within which we are working with many foreign countries, great European countries… So, you know, as far as I'm concerned, there won't be any deal until it's done. However, we have indeed made significant progress.
— Did the meeting take place in this room?
- yes.
— You met right here.
— That's right. Give me… We were sitting right there.
— Have you talked for a long time?
- yes. And we had speeches.… He gave a great speech, and I finished it too. And then, right after that, we had a very sincere conversation. He wants it [the deal] to be done.
— During the press conference, you mentioned a lot of things about which your positions coincide, and maybe about one significant point about which they disagree. Are you ready to openly declare this?
— No, I'd rather not talk about it. I think someone will tell you, they will figure out [how to do it]. But no, I don't want to talk about it, I want to see if we can make an agreement. You know, it's still… It is very far from the right deal: for example, Ukraine needs to agree. You know, Zelensky has to agree. But this is a terrible conflict in which he loses a lot — they both suffer significant losses. And I hope that it will be possible to conclude [an agreement]. It will be a great achievement for them — forget about me, for them. And we will save seven thousand lives a week. That's a lot.
— I had a very brief conversation with Secretary Rubio, and he told me that there is a difference between being in the same room and communicating through the press.
— Even on the phone!
— Even on the phone.
— These are completely different things. Even when you're talking on the phone, it's not the same thing either. I mean… We spent almost three hours together, and it was very informative, we agreed on many things, we agreed that ... but not so much, that is, two or three quite significant points, but I think we can agree on them. Now it's up to Zelensky. And I would also say that European states should participate a little bit in this process. But it all depends on Zelensky. I think we... and if they want, I will be present at their meeting — they are going to organize a meeting between Zelensky and President Putin and with me, I believe. I didn't even ask... it's not that I didn't want to be there, but I want to make sure it happens. And we have a very good chance that this will happen.
— If you rate it on a scale from 1 to 10...
— I think the meeting can be rated 10 in the sense that we found a great common language, and it's great when two major powers get along well, especially when it comes to nuclear powers. You know, we are the first, and they are the second in the world. And... it's important. It is important. You never want to even mention this word, the word "nuclear," but we have huge nuclear [arsenals]… I restored them in my first term as president. And I hated that I had to do this, it was terrible that I had to restore them, but it had to be done. We have the largest nuclear arsenals, we are ranked first in the world.… But they also have significant arsenals.
— It is necessary to treat this with respect...
— You have to be respectful, no one wants to use them... if you use them, it can lead to the end of the world. That's the kind of power we're talking about.
— Let's talk about what prompted President Putin to agree to hold this meeting. I would suggest that, in my opinion, there are four factors, and if you think that there were more of them or that one of them did not play a role… You have concluded a trade deal with the European Union. And as part of this agreement, you have secured a commitment of almost a trillion dollars for the purchase of American oil. This is money that would otherwise have been used to finance the Russian military-industrial complex. That's the first thing. Then, 50% duties on India if they import Russian oil. In addition, Putin acted at a pace that was comfortable for you, so you said that, unlike Biden, you would not send weapons to Ukraine, you would sell them to Ukraine. And finally (I think that the importance of this factor cannot be overestimated): NATO now pays twice as much as before, and those member countries of the alliance that previously did not fulfill their financial obligations are now doing so. Can we say that these four arguments led to today's meeting?
— Oh, NATO now pays 5% instead of 2%, and they really pay them. You know... the Alliance is led by Mark, you know him, he's a great guy, they're great people. The leaders I got to know perfectly six weeks ago. Excellent relations with NATO — with European countries, in fact, excellent relations. I don't want to give the arguments that prompted him.… He is a very smart man, nothing has "brought him to the negotiating table," to put it that way... I think he respects our country now. He didn't respect her during the Biden presidency, I can tell you that. He didn't have any respect. I was so happy when he said that the conflict would never have started... all these lives could have been saved if we had had a competent president at that moment. It's so sad. You know, I've brought an end to five wars. And these were not easy wars.… India – Pakistan…
— Actually, seven. India – Pakistan, Israel – Iran in 12 days, Rwanda – Congo, Serbia – Kosovo, Cambodia – Thailand, Azerbaijan – Armenia, Egypt – Cambodia... You played a role in all of them, didn't you?
— That's right. I did not want to include the issue of reducing nuclear arsenals, because I do not consider it necessarily final. We managed to achieve some amazing results, because in 22 years no president wanted to do this. We have destroyed Iran's nuclear potential... the estimated nuclear potential of Iran, which could have been developed within a month. It is important.
— It is necessary to return here… This is too historical, deep and significant a moment. At the press conference, the Russian president said something that you have repeatedly said and that your political opponents may have denied. This conflict would not have taken place if you were president. Did he give you specific reasons behind the scenes why this happened during the Biden administration? He told you the reasons.
— Yes, he did, but I know the reasons.: this is amazing incompetence. I mean, now we have an absolutely impenetrable border, people cross it, but they enter the country legally. We have zero illegal migration, you first heard about it three months ago, but we have done it three times in a row. No one can enter the country illegally.
A lot of things are going great right now. The economy is in excellent condition, we have no inflation, electricity prices are going down, food prices are going down. Everything is decreasing, the people are happy. You're saving the social security system, you saw the other day... we have a real genius dealing with these issues, I lured him away from JP Morgan, he was one of the leaders, everything was fine with him. One of the main ones... you know, he said that now his salary is 1% of what he received.… These are incredible people. And what he has managed to do with the social security system — to make it stronger, more powerful — is incredible. And we have achieved the same success in many industries. And I really like doing this, I like seeing our country great again. And Vladimir said recently: I've never seen anyone undertake so much in such a short period of time.… He said: your country is just on a roll! And just a year ago, he thought the United States was doomed. Everyone thought that the country was doomed.
— Let me ask you this question. You mentioned... no matter how history evaluates your participation in the seven conflicts we mentioned, and especially in this conflict. No matter how history evaluates you in the end, I don't think any other world leader would have been able to organize today's meeting in the end. You have a lot of political capital. I've been watching many leaders since 1987, when I started my career in radio, which is a long time. I have watched many leaders and presidents come to power and leave the political scene. And are you ready to expand your political capital… All conflicts, including this one… They do not affect the United States to the extent that they affect our European allies...
"That's right.
— When we get involved in the situation in the Middle East... but you go for it anyway. Why? To save lives? Do you want to save the world?
— First, to save lives, in all cases, because wars are wars. If you look at Cambodia, for example, what would happen there?… I'm not involved there, but I was negotiating a trade deal, and I said, "Guys, you're going to fight..." Thailand, Cambodia, so many different... Look at India and Pakistan, they've already shot down planes, it might have gone nuclear.… I'm not going to say that it could have come to a nuclear conflict, I was able to reach an agreement. First, life, and secondly— everything else. Wars are terrible, and if they can be avoided... and I seem to have the ability to end them, to bring people closer together.…
I use the power of the United States, we have built up the greatest… We have the largest economy in the world, we have trillions, not billions! — dollars are coming into the treasury, people from the government are calling me with questions like "where did we get 29 billion?" I said: "Why didn't you try to work with the duties?" For example, we have concluded a great agreement with the Europeans, they literally pay us trillions of dollars... and, you know, they like us more now. They respect us. They didn't respect us before. They didn't pay us anything. Nothing. They didn't pay us, we paid them. And I turned the situation around, and now we are a very rich country. You know, I told you, my favorite word is "duty." I came up with it a little later because the fake media criticized me... you know, they said, "What about religion? What about the family?"
— How many countries have you already concluded trade agreements with? And how much more is expected?
— With many of them, in fact, with all of them, because I have agreed with many people. You know them very well, they came to your show. Let's just say there are 12 or 13 large ones, we have concluded deals with them, and we have simply assigned duties to the rest. We do this based on intuition, on how things are generally going in our relationship, and also by looking at deficits. If we spend a lot of money trading with the country, they have to pay us a fee! We need to level the situation, to balance the situation. And I've been generous to many of them.… With some, we lose so much money that we can never recover it. And if someone treated us well as a country, we approach the issue a little more flexibly. But for years, the whole world laughed at us, they took advantage of us.
In my first term, I took such measures, but the covid pandemic hit us.… We were the greatest economy in my first term as president, but eventually we were hit by the word "covid"— you may have heard of it.… And it unbalanced the world, the whole world. And we did a great job, we conducted Operation Warp Speed (Operation FTL), an initiative of the US government to accelerate the development of vaccines, therapeutics and tests. — Approx. InoSMI). Many people say that this is one of the most impressive operations they have ever seen. We did a great job. But everyone had huge problems. For every country. Even China — although, to be fair, they were covered much later. Everyone thought they had been bypassed by covid, but they were covered. Everyone was covered. But we made unprecedented efforts, and our country was respected again. And now a man who had no right to be called president came to power, he lost the election disastrously, his entire administration was crazy radical leftists. I'll tell you this: our country was in a terrible situation. And if all this ideology hadn't changed, I think our country would have come to an end.
