'War deadline' for Russia and 'big problems' for Zelenskyy: Trump's key statements from Air Force One
Donald Trump (Photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump spoke with media representatives aboard his Air Force One aircraft. Journalists asked him about ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, a possible third presidential term, tariffs, and Iran.
RBC-Ukraine has compiled Trump's key statements in the article below.
Contents
Putin and the ceasefire agreement
The American president stated that he and his team have made "progress" towards reaching a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia.
One journalist asked Trump if he would say that his relations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin had reached their lowest point.
Trump denied this, adding that "I don’t think he’s going to go back on his word."
He also told reporters that deals are made with people, whether you like them or not.
When asked whether there was a deadline for Russia to agree to a deal, Trump responded that Moscow had a "psychological deadline" to accept a ceasefire in Ukraine.
"It’s a psychological deadline. If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it," Trump said.
According to the US president, Russia is "not stalling the peace process," and he believes that Putin "wants to make a deal."
At the same time, Trump said he was "not happy" about Putin’s recent remarks, as the Russian leader had made comments suggesting that Zelenskyy is "not credible."
However, Trump added that he believes Putin's "going to be good."
The White House leader also said he does not want to impose additional tariffs on Russia.
However, he will definitely impose them on Venezuela and all countries that "have been cheating the US all this time."
Zelenskyy and the mineral deal
Trump claimed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is trying to "back out" of a mineral agreement and warned that if he does, he will face "big problems."
"And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems," Trump told reporters.
He also added that Zelenskyy wants Ukraine to become a NATO member, but "he was never going to be a member of NATO," and the Ukrainian president "understands that."
Third presidential term
Journalists also asked Trump if he was considering running for a third presidential term.
"I don't want to talk about a third term now because no matter how you look at it, we have a long time to go. We have almost four years to go, and that’s a long time, but despite that, so many people are saying you’ve got to run again. They love the job we’re doing. Most importantly, they love the job we’re doing," the US president explained.
According to Trump, he and his team have had "the best 100 days in history, better than any other president."
He added that he had been with some very important people that day, and they had said they had never seen changes happening as fast as they were at that moment.
Iran and the nuclear program
The US president also made a new statement about Iran.
Previously, in an interview with NBC News, Trump threatened Tehran with "unprecedented bombings" if the country’s leadership did not agree to a nuclear deal.
However, later, while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he was considering implementing secondary tariffs depending on whether Tehran agrees to a deal.
"We'll probably give it a couple of weeks and if we don't see any progress, we're going to put them on. We're not putting them on right now. But if you remember, I did that six years ago, and it worked very well," he said.
TikTok deal
The White House leader expressed confidence that the deal for the sale of TikTok to an American buyer from the Chinese company ByteDance will be completed by this Saturday.
Reuters reminds that in January, Trump set April 5 as the deadline for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer — until then, the enforcement of the law banning TikTok in the US had been postponed.
"We have a lot of potential buyers. There's tremendous interest in Tiktok. I'd like to see Tiktok remain alive," Trump added.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump gave an interview to NBC, in which he stated that he was "very angry" at Putin after the Russian leader questioned the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He said that such statements are "not going in the right direction."
Trump also stated that if Russia proves unable to make a peace deal in Ukraine, the US will impose secondary tariffs on all oil supplied from Russia.
Sources: Fox News, Reuters, The Hill.
