President Trump (00:00):
Well, thank you very much. We very much appreciate the attention. Today's a big day in that we had a G7 and President Macron, who's a very special man in my book, we were together. We did it together and I think a lot of progress has been made. We've had some very good talks with Russia. We've had some very good talks with others and we're trying to get the war ended with Russia and Ukraine and I think we've come a long way in a short period of weeks. And the President's been very helpful also. And we're also talking about trade, various trade deals that we will be doing with France. And we'll be discussing a little bit further, then we'll have a press conference later on. You can ask some questions. We'll be having a press conference in a little while. We're going to have lunch with the entire French staff and we look forward to it. And again, the relationship's been very special with France and very special with this gentleman on my right. And we look forward to keeping that going for a long period of time. Thank you very much. Thank you.
President Macron (01:07):
Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. I want to thank Mr. President for his hospitality. We had a good discussion this morning for the G7 here and for the third year of this war in Ukraine. And I think our common objective clearly is to build peace and a solid and longstanding peace. And this is what we will discuss obviously because I have great respect for bravery and the resistance of Ukrainian people. And we do share the objective of peace, but we are very aware of the necessity to have guarantees and the solid peace in order to stabilize the situation. I'm here as a friend because through centuries we've been friends and we are personal friends as you mentioned it, because we work very well together. And I think the US and France always stand on the same side, the right side I would say of history.
(02:07)
And this is exactly what is at stake today, and this is a very important moment for Europe as well. And I'm here as well after discussions with all my colleagues to say that Europe is willing to step up to be a stronger partner, to do more in defense and security for its continent and as well to be a reliable partner and to be engaged on great economy investment in a lot of topics. So I'm very excited by the discussion we will have and obviously we will follow up. And I want to thank you again, Mr. President, for your presence for Notre Dame de Paris, meant a lot for French people and I want to thank you for that.
President Trump (02:49):
That's the cathedral and they've done a fantastic job. The President's done a great job in bringing it back. That was a terrible thing, like what, five years ago-
President Macron (02:57):
Yeah.
President Trump (02:57):
Watching that burn was a very horrible sight and you've done a fantastic job in bringing it back. So I congratulate you. Thank you for being here.
President Macron (03:07):
Thank you very much.
President Trump (03:10):
Anybody want to ask a question or two? Or is that a foolish question?
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Thank you, Mr. President-
Speaker 8 (03:13):
On the critical mineral deal-
President Trump (03:17):
It looks like we're getting very close, the deal's being worked on. We're I think getting very close to getting an agreement where we get our money back over a period of time. But it also gives us something where I think it's very beneficial to their economy, to them as a country. But we're in for $350 billion. How we got there, I don't know. But that's a lot of money, a lot of money invested and we had nothing to show for it. It was the Biden administration's fault. The Europeans were in for about a hundred billion dollars and they do it in the form of a loan. And the Europeans have been great on this issue. They understood it wasn't fair and we were able to work something out. But with the Ukrainians… I think I can say that we're very close. Scott's around here someplace and I think we can say that we're very… Hi, Scott. I think we're very close. Do you have something to say about that, Scott?
Speaker 4 (04:16):
We are very close. One yard line.
President Trump (04:20):
All right.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Mr. President-
Speaker 9 (04:20):
Mr. President, Mr. President-
President Trump (04:24):
What?
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Would a mineral deal include a security guarantee for the Ukraine?
President Trump (04:30):
Europe is going to make sure that nothing happens. I don't think it's going to be much of a problem. I think once we settle, there's going to be no more war in Ukraine and you're not going to have a… It's not going to be a very big problem. That's going to be the least of it.
Speaker 9 (04:43):
Mr. President, we're hearing some Greek media reporting that the US has agreed to shut down a military base in Greece that's been a logistical hub for NATO.
President Trump (04:53):
Who shut down?
Speaker 9 (04:54):
That the US has agreed to shut it down at the request of Turkey and Russia. Is that at all true?
President Trump (04:59):
Marco, do you have anything to say about it.
Speaker 10 (05:02):
Sir, that's a no. That's a no, sir.
Speaker 11 (05:03):
Mr. President, Mr. President.
President Trump (05:06):
Is it a no?
Speaker 10 (05:07):
It's a no, sir.
President Trump (05:08):
It's not a correct statement.
Speaker 9 (05:09):
Thank you.
Speaker 11 (05:10):
Mr. President, how do you react to people in Europe who say that you are abandoning Ukraine and that you're going to sacrifice the security of Ukraine by making a deal with Vladimir Putin?
President Trump (05:22):
No, we're helping Ukraine like nobody's ever helped Ukraine before. And I can say this, if I didn't become President, Ukraine would right now still be at a level where they would be not even thinking about a peace. And it's a sad thing that this happened. This would've never happened, this war, if I were President, zero chance. And it has happened. So my function is to get you out of the war, get them out of the war, let them live. It's a bloody war. It's a horrible war. Thousands of people are being killed a week. And I would say Russia, maybe 700,000 people. I think Ukraine probably a similar number. And that's not talking about the towns and the cities that have been blown up, that's talking about soldiers. This has been a horrible bloody mess and we're going to get it solved. We've got to get it solved.
(06:18)
And we're not talking about America's soldiers, soldiers from this country. We're talking about Russia and Ukraine. But on a humanitarian basis, we have to get this very, very bloody savage problem solved. And I will say this also, it could lead to World War III if it's not solved. There'll be a point at which it's not going to stop at those two countries. Already there's such involvement from other countries and it could really lead to a very big war, World War III. And we're not going to let that happen either.
Speaker 11 (06:49):
Would you support the idea to send European troops in Ukraine to back the ceasefire?
President Trump (06:54):
European troops may go into Ukraine as peacemakers, so when the agreement is done, they can watch that everything's followed properly. I don't think that's going to be a problem. And a lot of the European countries… I don't want to speak for France, but I know that the President's talked about doing that also. I think that'll be a very good day when we can go in as peacekeepers as opposed to what's going on right now with everybody being killed.
Speaker 12 (07:19):
Will they have US backings, those troops going into Ukraine? Will they have US backings from US troops?
President Trump (07:25):
Well, we're going to have a backing of some kind and obviously the European countries are going to be involved and I don't think you're going to need much backing. I think that's not going to be a problem. Once an agreement is signed, Russia is going to get back to its business and Ukraine and Europe are going to get back to their business. I don't think it's going to be a problem.
Speaker 12 (07:44):
Mr. President, will you be meeting with President Zelensky sooon?
President Trump (07:44):
What?
Speaker 12 (07:49):
Will you meet with President Zelensky soon?
President Trump (07:52):
I will be meeting with President Zelensky. In fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement, which would be nice. I'd love to meet him, would meet at the Oval Office. So the agreement's being worked on now. They're very close to a final deal. It'll be a deal with rare earths and various other things. And he would like to come, as I understand it, here to sign it and that would be great with me. I think they then have to get it approved by their council or whoever might approve it. But I'm sure that will happen. I'm meeting with President Putin also, yes. I don't know when we speak. We're trying to get this thing worked out. But yeah, at some point I'll be meeting with President Putin too.
Speaker 13 (08:39):
[foreign language 00:08:40].
President Macron (08:40):
I can say a few words in French.
President Trump (08:45):
Yes, please.
President Macron (08:45):
[foreign language 00:08:49].
Speaker 14 (10:07):
President Trump has spoken about this just a moment ago. This is exactly what we want to do. We want to build peace with Ukraine. As President Trump mentioned, there are already 1 million dead and wounded in Ukraine since the war began. We had a ceasefire in the past that was not respected. This was under the Minsk agreements one and two. President Trump, as he said, will be meeting with President Zelensky to sign a deal on rare earths. And we are pleased to see this very strong American involvement. Europe, of course, also stands ready to support Ukraine in various ways, supporting its military and we don't want to preempt any sort of discussions that are currently underway, but we do share the same objective of building this lasting peace.
President Trump (10:53):
I just want to tell you a little story. So we were at the Eiffel Tower having dinner with your wonderful wife and with my wonderful wife and we came out and he started speaking the French deal and we didn't have an interpreter and he was going on and on and on and I was just nodding, "Yes, yes, yes." And he really sold me out because I got back the next day and I read the papers. I said, "That's not what we said." He's a smart customer. I will tell you that. That wasn't exactly what we agreed to.
Speaker 15 (11:25):
Mr. President, you called Zelensky a dictator. Would you use the same words regarding Putin?
President Trump (11:29):
I don't use those words lightly. I think that we're going to see how it all works out. Let's see what happens. I think we have a chance of a really good settlement between various countries. And you're talking about Europe and you're talking about Ukraine as part of that whole situation. The other side has a lot of support also. So let's see how it all works out. It might work out… Look, you can never make up lives. You can make up the money, but you can't make up the lives. A lot of lives lost, I think probably a lot more lives than people are talking about. It's been a rough war, but I think we're close to getting it solved.
Speaker 16 (12:08):
Question on DOGE, sir. Do you think that DOGE could benefit from more streamlined communications? There was that email telling employees to give five things that they've done last week. Agency heads then told people to ignore it. Elon Musk-
President Trump (12:21):
You're talking about the last email that was sent-
Speaker 16 (12:22):
Yes.
President Trump (12:23):
Where he wanted to know what you did this week. You know why he wanted that by the way? I thought it was great. Because we have people that don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government. So by asking the question, "Tell us what you did this week," what he's doing is saying, "Are you actually working?" And then if you don't answer, you're sort of semi-fired or you're fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist. That's how badly various parts of our government were run especially by this last group. So what they're doing is they're trying to find out who's working for the government. Are we paying other people that aren't working and where's the money going? We have found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud so far and we've just started. We're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there because maybe somebody stole the gold, tons of gold.
Speaker 16 (13:20):
Some of the agency-
President Trump (13:22):
So I think it was actually… There was a lot of genius in sending it. We're trying to find out if people are working and so we're sending a letter to people, "Please tell us what you did last week." If people don't respond, it's very possible that there is no such person or they're not working.
Speaker 16 (13:37):
Some of the agency heads instructed their employees not to respond because they're waiting on further guidance. But Elon Musk's tweet said, "A failure to respond would be taken as a resignation." So there's been a disconnect in communications.
President Trump (13:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 16 (13:48):
Are you concerned at all about that?
President Trump (13:49):
No, no, no. That was done in a friendly manner. Only things such as perhaps Marco at State Department where they have very confidential things or the FBI where they're working on confidential things and they don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They're just saying there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they're working on last week. But other than that, I think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea. We have to find out where these people are, who are they? And we said, "If you don't respond, we assume you're not around."
Speaker 16 (14:22):
And that holds? That stands?
President Trump (14:23):
And you're not getting paid anymore too. So we're doing a real job and we just had a poll come out, I guess the Harvard poll saying that it's massively popular what we're doing.
Speaker 17 (14:33):
So Mr. President, you still believe in NATO, in the alliance between Europe and America in NATO? Are you going to attend this meeting in June?
President Trump (14:42):
NATO is very much involved in this. When I first got elected at the very beginning, first term, I got hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO. NATO had no money because they hadn't paid for years. And I said, "Look, if you don't pay, we're not going to be a part of NATO, we're not going to protect, we're not do what we're supposed to do." And we took in hundreds of billions of dollars into NATO. No, NATO is a good thing if it's done properly and if it's used properly.
Speaker 18 (15:09):
Mr. President, in these days, you speak a lot about tariff in Canada, in Mexico, and in Europe. I want to know what is your idea about Italy, if you want to make the same thing?
President Trump (15:33):
What? Can you talk up a little louder?
Speaker 18 (15:35):
In these days-
President Trump (15:35):
Can you talk a little louder? You have a beautiful voice but you're not-
Speaker 18 (15:38):
In these days, you speak-
President Trump (15:38):
Where are you from?
Speaker 18 (15:39):
Italy.
President Trump (15:42):
From Italy. Oh, I love Italy. Go ahead.
Speaker 18 (15:51):
I want to know if you have the same idea with Italy about tariffs.
President Trump (15:52):
Look, I love Italy and Italy is a very important nation. We have a wonderful woman as your leader. And she was on the conversation today, one that we had, the G7 and no, I think Italy is doing very well. I think Italy has got very strong leadership with Georgia.
Speaker 19 (16:08):
[foreign language 00:16:11].
President Trump (16:15):
Any other questions over here? Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 20 (16:18):
Can you clarify what you meant in your troops today on the major economic development transactions between the US and Russia? Any more detail-
President Trump (16:20):
With respect to what? Russia?
Speaker 20 (16:21):
In solving a peace deal, you said there'll be major economic development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia.
President Trump (16:33):
Yeah, we're trying to do some economic development deals. They have a lot of things that we want and we'll see. I mean I don't know if that will come to fruition, but we'd love to be able to do that if we could. They have massive rare earth… It's a very large… It's actually the largest… In terms of land, it's by far the largest country and they have very valuable things that we could use and we have things that they could use and it would be very good. If we could do that, I think it would be a very good thing for world peace and lasting peace. Well, I mean by far, our first thing that we want to do in the first element of the overall transaction is ending the war. But just as we're doing with Ukraine, if we could do some economic development in terms of Russia and getting things that we want, something like that would be possible. Yes.
Speaker 21 (17:31):
Can you explain the rationale, sir, in the US-?
President Trump (17:33):
Yes, go ahead, please.
Speaker 21 (17:33):
Can you explain the rationale in having the US vote against the UN resolution that Ukraine proposed and also the US proposed?
President Trump (17:38):
I would rather not explain it now, but it's sort of self-evident I think.
Speaker 22 (17:42):
Mr. President, you first talked about increasing the tariffs on products from the European Union. Is that still something you want to do today?
President Trump (17:50):
Well, it's not increasing, it's reciprocal. So whatever they charge us, we're charging them. So it's not a question of increasing. If they charge us 20%, we charge them 20%. If they charge us 30 or 40%, then we do that too. So that would be on Europe, but that really would be with respect to everybody. It's reciprocity. So reciprocal, whatever they charge us, we charge them. Nobody has a problem, even you. I see you don't have a problem any more, right?
Speaker 23 (18:19):
Mr. President, are you thinking of going to Moscow soon? Maybe 9th of May for the anniversary?
President Trump (18:25):
I mean not soon, but I would be certainly… if this all gets settled out, which I think it will, sure, I would go then.
Speaker 23 (18:32):
On the 9th of May.
President Trump (18:33):
And he'd come here too.
Speaker 23 (18:35):
On the 9th of May on the Red Square.
President Trump (18:37):
I don't know, the 9th of May. No, I think that's pretty soon. But no, at the appropriate time I would go to Moscow.
Speaker 23 (18:48):
How soon could the war end?
President Trump (18:49):
I think the war could end soon.
Speaker 23 (18:49):
How soon?
President Trump (18:50):
Within weeks.
Speaker 23 (18:51):
Weeks?
President Trump (18:52):
I think so. Don't you think so? I'd like to ask… I think we could end it within weeks if we're smart. If we're not smart, it'll keep going and we'll keep losing young, beautiful people that shouldn't be dying and we don't want that. And remember what I said, this could escalate into a third world war and we don't want that either.
Speaker 24 (19:18):
Mr. President, your envoy, Steve Witkoff suggested a temporary ceasefire in the conflict, but the Russian government has denied that out of hand. Do you worry that they're not dealing in good faith?
President Trump (19:28):
No. I think they at some point will agree to that. I think they probably wanted to and I think once you have a ceasefire, it's going to end because they're not going from a ceasefire back to war. I think people have had their full… I'm just glad I was able to help because there was no communication with Russia until I came along. Biden didn't communicate. He couldn't communicate with his own child. So Biden didn't communicate. It was terrible. He hadn't spoken to Putin in three years. You're trying to end a war. People are being killed. Every week, thousands of people are being killed, soldiers in this case mostly, also towns. These missiles go in back and forth. No, it's a shame. This should have never happened. This is a very sad… This is going to go down to the history books as a very sad moment because that should have been stopped. That should have never started. And if it did start, it should have stopped the first week, not three years later.
Speaker 25 (20:24):
… for Ukraine?
President Macron (20:24):
If you allow me. [foreign language 00:20:33].
President Trump (22:40):
That is the most beautiful language. I have no idea what he's saying. But that is-
President Macron (22:45):
She'll translate.
President Trump (22:46):
That is the most elegant, beautiful language. Go ahead, please.
Speaker 6 (22:49):
This is a question that was asked by several. What we need to do is make sure that we are building peace. We have deterrence-
President Trump (22:57):
Can you speak up, please?
Speaker 6 (22:59):
We have deterrence capabilities that have been restored. As President Trump said, there won't be anymore problems. We've seen the US re-engagement and the message that that sends to Mr. Putin. We ave deterrence which will allow a truce to take place. Verification of that truce and then a peace agreement can be put in place so that we can start rebuilding Ukraine with security guarantees. And we have a role to play in that. Again, I'm not preempting any discussions, but we've spoken about Ukraine's sovereignty and that has been a subject of discussion between the US and Ukraine. We have also been working closely with our British partners.
(23:38)
This week, we've shared this information with other European countries and we are ready and willing to provide those security guarantees, which could perhaps include troops, but they would be there to maintain peace. They would not be along the front lines. They would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected. Our assistance may include other capacity building perhaps for the military. We see US credibility here. We each have our role to play, but it'll be done in a united fashion.
Speaker 26 (24:14):
Mr. President, do you think that Ukraine should give up on part of its territory?
President Trump (24:16):
Well, we're going to see. It's a negotiation that's just starting and they've been fighting and there's been a lot of land that's been taken. So we'll have to see how that works out as part of the negotiation. I will say there was great unity in that room today via Skype or whatever, but it was great. Tremendous unity today in that room with the other countries. I was very impressed there.
Speaker 26 (24:40):
Ukraine wants its territory back. Can they take it back, what they lost in the past years?
President Trump (24:46):
That's not an easy thing to do, is it? Right. It's not an easy… Asking whether or not you could take back the land that they lost. And I say that… Yeah, perhaps some of it. Yeah, I hope so. But that's not an easy thing to do.
Speaker 26 (25:02):
But it's not-
President Trump (25:05):
It's going to be something we're talking about.
Speaker 26 (25:06):
Will you convince Vladimir Putin to accept the European troops as peacekeeper, would you think?
President Trump (25:12):
Yeah. He will accept that.
Speaker 26 (25:12):
He will accept?
President Trump (25:15):
I've asked him that question.
Speaker 26 (25:16):
You talked to him?
President Trump (25:17):
I've asked him that question.
Speaker 27 (25:17):
Is France going to lift the block on the $300 billion-?
President Trump (25:19):
Look, if we do this deal, he's not looking for more war. He doesn't mind. But I've specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it.
Speaker 27 (25:28):
Is France going to lift the block on the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets in Belgium? France has opposed unfreezing it to pay Ukraine and compensate the US for its support. Is France going to lift its opposition to that?
President Macron (25:42):
I mean we speak about frozen assets/ we already used them to back precisely the loans negotiated at the G7 and it's part of the sanctions. So it'll depend on the follow-up of the discussions. But clearly we respect international law. It's just frozen assets now. You can take the proceeds of the frozen assets, but you cannot take the assets themselves because it's not respecting international law. And we want to respect international-
Speaker 27 (26:10):
How is one different than the other? You can take the proceeds from it, how can you not take that-?
President Macron (26:11):
Because it's very different. You keep the assets, you take the proceeds because they are paralyzed in a certain way. You take the proceeds during the wartime, but you keep the assets and it's part of the negotiation at the end of the war. Because I mean this war costed all of us a lot of money. And this is the responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia.
Speaker 27 (26:29):
Should the US be compensated?
President Macron (26:30):
So at the end of the day, this frozen asset should be part of the negotiation, all in all.
Speaker 27 (26:35):
Will France support the US being compensated?
President Macron (26:38):
I support the idea to have Ukraine first being compensated because they are the one who have lose a lot of their fellow citizen and being destroyed by this attack. Second, all of those were paid for could be compensated, but not by Ukraine, by Russia because they weren't the one to aggress.
President Trump (26:58):
Again, just so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back.
President Macron (27:03):
No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60% of the total defaults. It was through, like the US, loans, guarantee, grants. And we provided real money to be clear. We have $230 billion frozen assets in Europe, Russian assets. But this is not as a collateral of a loan because this is not our belonging. So they are frozen. If at the end of the day in the negotiation we'll have with Russia they're ready to give it to us, super. It'll be loaned at the end of the day and Russia will have paid for that.
President Trump (27:36):
If you believe that, it's okay with me.
Speaker 28 (27:38):
Mr. President-
President Trump (27:39):
If they get their money back, we don't. And now we do. But that's only fair.
Speaker 29 (27:43):
Mr. President, shouldn't Russia be the one that pays everybody back? Are they the aggressors?
President Trump (27:48):
Well, we're negotiating everything and everything's on the table and we'll see if we can get some land back and we'll see about a lot of different things. And we're going to be making a little speech and say a few words. In a little while, we're going to have another meeting, a luncheon meeting and we'll see you in about two hours. Okay? Thank you very much everybody.
Speaker 30 (28:05):
Thank you, sir. Thank you.