Mr. Macron said: “No, in fact, to be honest, we have paid.” As in the case of the United States, he said, there was a mixture of grants, loans and loan guarantee. “We have made real money, to be clear,” he said.
Mr. Trump, smiling, made a skeptical face and waved his hand as if he was saying he did not buy it.
Mr. Trump, who failed to mediate at the end of the war within 24 hours or before his inauguration, and promised to carry out the campaign’s path, said that the talks he started with Mr. Putin may end the war “within weeks, if we are smart.” He added: “If we are not smart, this will continue and we will lose young and beautiful.”
The President stressed his demand that Ukraine’s signing of more than hundreds of billions of dollars in mineral rights to pay American military aid, which was resisted by Mr. Zelinski. However, Treasury Secretary Scott Payett said that American and Ukrainian negotiators were “very close” to a deal, in “one line”, and Mr. Trump said Mr. Zellinski could come to Washington for signing it as soon as he signed him on Washington a week or next.
The return of Mr. Trump to power spasms relations with European allies because it threatens to impose a tariff on their consumer goods, and demands that military spending be increased even behind the previous goal and break with them on Ukraine. The relations were inflamed with a speech in Munich by Vice President JD Vance, who suggested that the greatest security threat to European countries was not Russia or China, but its own political and cultural policies.
Mr. Macron organized two meetings of European leaders to formulate a plan to deal with America, which seems to have turned in favor of its traditional allies to Russia. But he then rushed to Washington to attend an urgent organized meeting with Mr. Trump to fortify the president in negotiations on the fate of Ukraine.
