President Donald Trump has revealed what he told Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral.
The pair were photographed in what appeared to be an intense exchange inside St. Peter’s Basilica just prior to the Pope Francis‘ funeral on Saturday. It was their first meeting since the pair clashed at the Oval Office earlier this year.
Bill O’Reilly pressed the president on exactly what was said during NewsNation’s “Cuomo Town Hall” Wednesday night to mark his first 100 days in office.
Trump had described the moment to ABC on Tuesday as “a moment of solace” but did not reveal the conversation between the pair.
“What were you and Zelensky talking about when you were nose to nose at the Vatican?” O’Reilly asked.
“I was telling him that it’s a very good thing if we can produce a deal that you sign it, because Russia is much bigger and much stronger and Russia is just chugging forward. It’s a big strong country,” Trump revealed before beginning one of his notorious tangents.
“By the way, not nearly as strong as the United States because I rebuilt our military in my first term, but they gave a lot of it away in Afghanistan and Afghanistan is one of the reasons the incomp-we had an incompetent president, grossly incompetent, he should’ve never been president, but we had a man that didn’t know what the hell he was doing and Afghanistan showed the stupidity of our leader.”
O’Reilly referenced a new deal signed by the U.S. and Ukraine on Wednesday that will see the U.S. benefit from Ukraine’s critical minerals deposits in return for the defense of Ukraine. The agreement, known as the United States–Ukraine-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, was signed months after the public fallout between Zelensky and Trump in the Oval Office.
As O’Reilly pressed Trump further on the deal and whether a U.S. presence will hinder Putin’s advance in Ukraine, Trump said “it could” before criticizing Europe.
“They have great rare earths, things that a lot of places don’t have,” Trump said.
“This is Biden’s war, I’m just trying to stop it.”
Sources earlier told Axios that Zelensky’s advisers were divided over the Vatican meeting, but the Ukrainian president ultimately felt he had swayed Trump afterwards.
Returning from the Pope’s funeral, Trump made an about-face on Putin in a Truth Social post.
“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through Banking or Secondary Sanctions?” Trump wrote.
Talking to reporters after landing in the U.S. Trump said Zelensky “told me that he needs more weapons, but he’s been saying that for three years. He wants to do something good for his country.”
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