WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively on Wednesday afternoon that his phone calls on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky were “two very good conversations.”
“The one with President Putin was yesterday—that went very well,” Trump said in an interview in the president’s private dining room just off the Oval Office. “I then spoke with President Zelensky today and explained what took place yesterday, and my aim is to put these two countries together. Then we work a ceasefire and ultimately we stop losing 2,000 people a week. Two thousand people a week or more are being killed in that war, and I want to stop it. I also want to stop massive payments that are necessary to be made by us. I also want Europe to pay the same as us because they weren’t able to do that under Biden and Biden never asked that because Biden was a grossly incompetent president. We had two very good phone calls and I do believe a deal will be worked out so we can stop the bloodshed that’s taking place over there.”
The White House readout of Trump’s call with Putin on Tuesday noted that both leaders expressed an interest in strengthening economic ties between the U.S. and Russia.
“The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside,” the White House readout read in part. “This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
As Breitbart News has reported, though, the Russians have effectively seized an American-owned company called Glavproduct. The canned food maker, which is wholly owned by U.S. company Universal Beverage, was taken over by the Russians in the waning days of former President Joe Biden’s administration. The American CEO of the company, Leonid Smirnov, has publicly asked for Trump to help fix this situation as part of the U.S.-led negotiations between the Russians and the Ukrainians to end the war in Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously told Breitbart News that fixing that situation would be “part of” the conversation down the road as part of the economic normalization between the U.S. and Russia in these negotiations. Trump, when asked about this in the interview with Breitbart News, said he personally had not heard about this issue but said he is sure Putin would be “very generous” in dealing with this and fixing the situation.
“I haven’t heard about this. Nobody has complained about it to me. But if I heard, I’m sure President Putin would be very generous,” Trump said.
Trump also said that, while it is not a goal or motive of the U.S. in opening up economically with Russia to split Russia off from China, that may be a result of these actions.
“That may be a consequence of it, but no, I think it’s a good thing,” Trump said. “We should be dealing with Russia. They have the largest piece of land by far, bigger than China. They have 11 time zones. You can fly through 11 time zones from one side to the other. They have very valuable earth. Now, we’re getting a deal with Ukraine on rare earth so at least we can say we got our money back and we can do something. We’re in for $350 billion. Biden gave away money like he was just a dope, which he is—a real dope. Think of it: We’re at $350 billion and Europe is at $100 billion, and that hundred is a loan. I exposed that too. The money the European nations put in is a loan. They are getting it back. We just gave them the $350 billion. So now we get our money back plus.”
When it comes to China in particular, Trump discussed the U.S. relationship with India as well with Breitbart News. Asked about his recent summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said he has a “very good relationship” with India but that India has too many high tariffs on the United States.
“I have a very good relationship with India, but the only problem I have with India is they’re one of the highest tariffing nations in the world,” Trump said. “I believe they’re going to probably going to be lowering those tariffs substantially, but on April 2, we will be charging them the same tariffs they charge us.”
Asked about the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor (IMEC), a deal he signed the U.S. onto during Modi’s visit to the U.S., Trump did not mention China in particular but said it was a “group of wonderful nations” banding together “countering other countries that look to hurt us on trade.”
“We have a powerful group of partners in trade,” Trump said. “Again, we can’t let those partners treat us badly, however. We do better in many ways frankly with our foes than we do with our friends. The ones that wouldn’t be as friendly to us in some cases treat us better than the ones that are supposed to be friendly, like the European Union, which treats us terribly on trade. India and everybody would think of them as an ally. I can say the same for others. But this is a group of wonderful nations that is countering other countries that look to hurt us on trade.”
More from President Trump’s exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the White House is forthcoming.
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