“No, in reality, to be frank, we paid,” Mr. Macron stated. As within the case of the US, he stated, there was a mixture of grants, loans and mortgage ensures. “We offered actual cash, to be clear,” he stated.
Mr. Trump, smiling, made a skeptical face and waved his hand as if to say that he didn’t purchase it.
Mr. Trump, who failed to broker an end to the war in 24 hours or earlier than his inauguration, as he had promised to do on the marketing campaign path, stated that talks he had began with Mr. Putin may finish the conflict “inside weeks, if we’re sensible.” He added, “If we’re not sensible, it’s going to preserve going and we are going to lose younger, lovely individuals.”
The president emphasised his demand that Ukraine signal over hundreds of billions of dollars in mineral rights to repay U.S. army support, which Mr. Zelensky has resisted. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, nonetheless, stated U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators have been “very shut” to a deal, on the “one-yard line,” and Mr. Trump stated that Mr. Zelensky may come to Washington to signal it as quickly as this week or the subsequent.
Mr. Trump’s return to energy is convulsing relations with European allies as he threatens to impose tariffs on their shopper items, calls for that they enhance army spending even past a earlier goal and breaks with them over Ukraine. Relations have been infected by a speech in Munich by Vice President JD Vance, who instructed that the largest safety menace to European nations was not 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 appears to be shifting favor from its traditional allies to Russia. However he then rushed to Washington for a hurriedly organized assembly with Mr. Trump to fortify the president in negotiations over the destiny of Ukraine.
