NEW YORK \u2014 Donald Trump said he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday as the foreign leader appeals to U.S. politicians for continued American aid against Russia\u2019s invasion.<\/p>\n
Trump said at a New York news conference that he plans to meet with Zelensky around 9:45 a.m. at Trump Tower. A person familiar with Zelensky\u2019s schedule, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic encounter, confirmed the meeting.<\/p>\n
The presidential election has major implications for the war in Ukraine, now in its third year. Trump has been deeply skeptical of U.S. involvement in Ukraine \u2014 a contrast to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, who have pushed for American aid. Trump often says he wants to strike a deal between Ukraine and Russia, and he has privately said he could end the war by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory, people familiar with the matter previously told The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
Trump, however, offered little detail for how he\u2019d end the war on Thursday. Instead, he has repeatedly claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have never invaded Ukraine if he were president. Trump has boasted about his relationship with Putin and has previously praised the Russian president, calling him a \u201cgenius\u201d and \u201csavvy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump suggested at other campaign stops this week that the U.S. had been overly generous to Ukraine. He accused Biden and Harris of \u201cfeeding Zelensky money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,\u201d called Zelensky \u201cthe greatest salesman on Earth\u201d and claimed Zelensky supports his Democratic opponents: \u201cHe wants them to win this election so badly,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The rare meeting comes two months after Trump and Zelensky spoke over the phone. Zelensky said in a statement at the time that he emphasized the importance of U.S. support for Ukraine and added that he and Trump agreed \u201cto discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting.\u201d Trump said afterward that he would \u201cend the war\u201d and that both sides would \u201cnegotiate a deal that ends the violence,\u201d but did not elaborate on the terms he would accept.<\/p>\n
At his Thursday news conference, Trump said Zelensky had requested the meeting with him. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame what\u2019s happening in Ukraine \u2014 so many deaths, so much destruction,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s a horrible thing.\u201d He went on to argue that European countries were not spending enough on the war in Ukraine compared to the U.S.<\/p>\n
Republicans criticized Zelensky this week for appearing with Pennsylvania\u2019s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, at a factory in the state that makes shells for Ukraine \u2014 a visit that GOP officials suggested was partisan. Zelensky also drew GOP ire by calling Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump\u2019s running mate, \u201ctoo radical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said he looked forward to seeing Zelensky and reiterated that he thinks he can help strike a deal between Putin and Zelensky \u201cquite quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
A reporter asked what that would look like.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to tell you what that looks like,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Asked about Democrats\u2019 criticism that Trump\u2019s strategy is a concession to Russia, Trump said: \u201cI don\u2019t think so \u2026 I want to save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has a complicated history with Zelensky. A conversation with the Ukrainian leader led to Trump\u2019s first impeachment in 2019. Trump had urged Zelensky to investigate Biden \u2014 then his political rival \u2014 and raised the possibility of a White House meeting, prompting a whistleblower complaint and an ultimately unsuccessful effort in Congress to remove Trump from office.<\/p>\n
Trump began his New York news conference talking about immigration ahead of Harris\u2019s planned visit to the southern border. He criticized her and Biden\u2019s approach to the border and said anything Harris proposes should prompt the question: \u201cWhy hasn\u2019t she done it, and why didn\u2019t she do it almost four years ago?\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris has attacked Trump for turning Republicans in Congress against a bipartisan border security bill that she and Biden supported.<\/p>\n
The border could be an even more important issue for Trump in the final stretch of the election as Harris has narrowed the former president\u2019s advantage on another top issue: the economy.<\/p>\n
Toward the end of Trump\u2019s remarks, a reporter asked if he would pull his endorsement of Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor in North Carolina.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know the situation,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Robinson was conspicuously absent from Trump\u2019s North Carolina rally this past weekend after news reports tied Robinson to a porn site user who called himself a \u201cblack NAZI,\u201d praised Adolf Hitler\u2019s \u201cMein Kampf,\u201d detailed extramarital sex with his wife\u2019s sister and made other inflammatory comments.<\/p>\n
Robinson denied writing the posts, but the news has tanked his campaign and led to awkward questions for fellow Republicans.<\/p>\n
Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
NEW YORK \u2014 Donald Trump said he will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday as the foreign leader appeals to U.S. politicians for continued American aid against Russia\u2019s invasion. Trump said at a New York news conference that he plans to meet with Zelensky around 9:45 a.m. at Trump Tower. A person familiar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":10216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}