President Trump welcomed President Emmanuel Macron of France to the White Home on Monday at a time of rising pressure over the way forward for the Atlantic alliance and peace talks with Russia which have sidelined Ukrainian and European leaders.
Because the president greeted Mr. Macron on the entrance to the West Wing, the 2 engaged in a vigorous handshake wherein each appeared intent on asserting masculine dominance, harking back to comparable encounters throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period. They then headed inside for a gathering within the Oval Workplace prematurely of a joint information convention scheduled for two p.m. Japanese.
The assembly got here on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which Mr. Trump in current days has blamed on Kyiv quite than Moscow. Whereas different world leaders spent the day in Kyiv to point out solidarity with the Ukrainians, Mr. Trump participated in a video name with different Group of seven leaders and issued an announcement providing no criticism of Russia for attacking its smaller, weaker neighbor.
Talking with reporters within the Oval Workplace with Mr. Macron, Mr. Trump declined to name President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a dictator, regardless that the president used the phrase final week to explain Volodymyr Zelensky, the democratically elected president of Ukraine. “I don’t use these phrases evenly,” Mr. Trump stated.
As an alternative, he stated he would possibly go to Moscow if a peace deal is reached. That will make him the primary American president to go to Russia in additional than a decade and can be seen as a boon for Mr. Putin, who faces a world arrest warrant for battle crimes.
Mr. Trump, who did not dealer an finish to the battle in 24 hours or earlier than his inauguration, as he promised on the marketing campaign path, stated the battle might finish “inside weeks, if we’re good.” He added: “If we’re not good, it can preserve going and we are going to lose younger, stunning folks.”
The president emphasised his demand that Ukraine signal over lots of of billions of {dollars} in mineral rights to repay U.S. navy assist. “It was some huge cash and we had nothing to point out for it,” he stated. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators had been “very shut,” on the “one-yard line.”
Mr. Trump’s return to energy has convulsed relations with European allies as he threatens to impose tariffs on their shopper items, calls for that they enhance navy spending even past a earlier goal and breaks with them over Ukraine. Relations had been infected by a speech in Munich by Vice President JD Vance suggesting that the most important safety menace to European nations shouldn’t be Russia or China however their very own political and cultural insurance policies.
Mr. Macron has organized two conferences of European leaders to formulate a plan for coping with an America that may now not be trusted as an ally and hoped to make use of his go to to fortify Mr. Trump in negotiations over the destiny of Ukraine.
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