In this Briefing, Jon Decker breaks down the latest in U.S. foreign policy as President Trump meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Despite optimism from Trump, no ceasefire agreement was reached. This episode also explores potential security guarantees, the shifting dynamics of America’s role in international diplomacy, and what to expect from the White House’s upcoming talks with European leaders. With global security on the line, these meetings could shape the next phase of U.S.-Russia relations and the future of Ukraine. Listen to the White House Briefing Room weekdays and subscribe on the iHeartRadio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room for Monday, August
the eighteenth. I'm John Decker. Just days after President Trump
and Russian President Vladimir Putin each left Alaska without a
deal to end the war in Ukraine, another pivotal day
on Monday. In just hours, Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelenski and
(00:25):
other European leaders we'll meet with President Trump at the
White House. Despite the lack of a ceasefire agreement being
reached in Alaska, President Trump in Anchorage said he's optimistic
of the possibility of a trilateral summit involving Putin and
Zelenski in the near future.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Mister President, I'd like to thank you very much, and
we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you
again very soon.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thank you very much. Vladimir next time in Moscow. Oh
that's an interesting one.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'll get a little heat on that one, but I
could see it possibly happening.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
After a three hour meeting on Friday at Joint Base
Elmandor Richardson, President Trump summed up what was accomplished and
what was not accomplished during this rare summit.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
But we had to put up with the Russia. Russia
Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I
knew it was a hoax. But what was done was
very criminal. But it made it harder for us to
deal as a country in terms of the business and
all of the things that would.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Like to have dealt with. But we'll have a good
chance when this is over.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
So just to put it very quickly, I'm going to
start making a few phone calls and tell.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Him what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
But we had an extremely productive meeting and many points
were agreed to. There are just a very few that
are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably
the most significant.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Before we get to what will take place at the
White House on Monday, it's important to look back at
what occurred in Alaska on Friday. I was there at
the President's news conference, waiting, like the rest of the world,
to hear whether any progress was made in either a
ceasefire agreement what the President had been seeking, or a
deal to move towards an end to the war now
(02:13):
in its third year. When President Trump touched down on
Air Force One at Joint Base Elmendorf Frichardson in Alaska
on Friday, there was a lot of anticipation. First of all,
we learned upon landing that the one on one meeting
involving President Trump and President Putin and each of their
interpreters was now a three on three meeting. The meeting
(02:35):
would include two advisors for each leader, Secretary of State
Mark or Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. We're going
to be with President Trump and the Kremlin, said Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Farm policy Advisor Yuri Ushikov would
be also in the room representing the Russian side. As
for President Putin, he gave his take about how well
(02:59):
the meeting eating went as both President Trump and President
Putin entered into that room with much anticipation. And here's
what President Putin said regarding his take on this nearly
three hour meeting.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Our negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of
mutual respect. We have very zorough negotiations that were quite useful.
I would like to thank once again my American counterpart
for the proposal to travel out here to a last time.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
President Trump, after a meeting that he had with European
leaders and President Selensky last Wednesday, said that it was
pretty clear that security guarantees offered to Ukraine as part
of any potential peace deal with Russia would not involve NATO,
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He has accepted the idea
that there could be other guarantees to be given jointly
(03:53):
by the US and Europe. And President Putin, again speaking
through an interpreter, had this to say about the vote
Henchil for security guarantees being agreed to for Ukraine. Let's
listen to President Putin right here, again speaking through an interpreter.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Naturally, the security of Ukraine should be insured as well. Naturally,
we're prepared to work on that. I would like to
hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help
us bring close to that goal and will pave the
path towards peace in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
This meeting involving President Trump and President Putin was sought
by Russia in the first place. They are very interested
in resetting relations with the United States, perhaps more so
than trying to end the war in Ukraine. And I
think that was one of the reasons why President Putin
came to the negotiating table sought this meeting with President Trump.
(04:48):
The other reason, of course, were the possibility of stiff
sanctions harsher tariffs being imposed not only on Russia by
the US, but also secondary tariffs on each of Russia's
trading partners, and the President is held off on that
from now. But as for President Putin, he clearly wants
other issues on the table besides talking about the war
(05:10):
in Ukraine. Let's listen to what President Putin again speaking
through an interpreter once as it relates to these meetings
that he potentially will be having in the plural sense
with President Trump, not only the one that happened on Friday,
but others in the future.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point
not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but
also will help us bring back businesslike and pragmatic relations
between Russia and the US.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Before we get to President Trump's remarks at this press conference,
I want to play what President Putin said during this
press conference, something that he wanted to mention and something
that President Trump has spoken of quite often during the
course of the past few months, and that is, according
to President Trump, the war in Ukraine would not have
(06:01):
happened beginning in February of twenty twenty two if President
Trump had been president at the time, and President Putin,
without any prompting, brought this idea up in addressing those
gathered in that press briefing room. Let's hear what the
president this is President Putin had to say through an
interpreter in regards to what President Trump has been speaking
(06:25):
about four months today.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
When President Trump saying that if he was the president
back then there will be no war, and I'm quite
sure that it would indeed be so, and I can't
confirm that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Now, let's get to President Trump. After nine minutes of
remarks by President Putin, it was time for President Trump
to speak, and he spoke altogether for about four minutes,
and this is his take about how the meeting with
President Putin went. This three on three meeting. Let's hear
from the President in his remarks in that room.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And I will say that I believe we had a
very productive meeting.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
There were many many points that we agreed on, most
of them, I would say, a couple of big ones
that we haven't quite gotten there, but we've made some headway.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So there's no deal until there's a deal.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So what comes next? President Trump explaining what he believes
should come next following this three hour meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, I.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Will call up NATO in a little while, I will
call up the various people that I think are appropriated,
and of course call up President Zelensky and tell him
about today's meeting.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's ultimately up to them.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
President Trump is ever the optimist, and I think that
is one of the traits that I've seen not only
in his first term, but also as it relates to
the second term in so many issues, whether it's about
reaching trade deals, or the state of the US economy,
or in this case, reaching a deal with Russia to
end this war. Let's listen to the President near the
(07:57):
conclusion of his remarks, speaking about how he believes a
deal can get done.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
We're going to try and get this over with. We
really made some great progress today. I've always had a
fantastic relationship with President Putin.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Heading into this meeting with President Putin, President Trump did
an interview with Fox News Radio and that aired on Thursday,
and during that interview, he said he thought that Putin
was going to make a deal. He also said there
was a twenty five percent chance that the talks would fail.
He described their upcoming meeting at the time as a
(08:35):
chess game. At the conclusion of the president's remarks in Anchorage, Alaska,
the President summed up how he believes this three hour
long meeting went for both sides, but specifically for the
United States. Let's listen to the president right here.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I'm going to start making a few phone calls and
tell him what happened. But we had an extremely productive
meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just
a very few that are left, some or not that significant.
One is probably the most significant. But we have a
very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there,
(09:13):
but we have a very good chance of getting there now.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
One of the goals for the President heading into this
summit was getting a ceasefire agreement. That was something that
he said is a priority, and he said if no
ceasefire agreement is reached, then, in the President's words, there
would be severe consequences. We have not heard about any
severe consequences. In fact, it seems as if the goals
(09:37):
for the Trump administration have changed after the meeting that
took place on Friday. Secretary of State Mark or Rubio
was on a number of Sunday morning shows, and he
spoke on NBC's Meet the Press and he was asked
by Kristen Welker, the host of Meet the Press, whether
or not that ceasefire agreement, that ceasefire goal is now
(09:59):
off the table. Let's listen to what Secretary of State
Mark Rubio said in response to that question.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
It was agreed to by all that the best way
to end this conflict is to a full peace deal.
There's no doubt about that. I mean, who would be
against the fact if tomorrow we came to you and
said we have a full peace deal and it's done.
I think that's the best way to end the war.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Now.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Whether there needs to be a ceasefire on the way there, well,
we've advocated for that. Unfortunately the Russians as of now
have not agreed to that.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And that brings us to Monday. It is pivotal meeting
taking place in the White House, involving not only President Zelenski,
who's flying over with Germany's Chancellor, but also other European
leaders UK's Prime Minister, France's President, NATO's Secretary General Mark Ruda,
the President of the European Commission. They will all be
(10:49):
at the meeting. They will all represent Europe's point of
view as it relates what the next steps should be
in terms of the war. And they want to be
their by President Zelensky side, to show their support, to
show that their support is unwavering. On Face the Nation,
Mark Rubio the Secretary of State, where he also made
(11:10):
an appearance, he was asked by the host of Face
the Nation, Margaret Brennan, whether European leaders are coming to Washington,
d C. Coming to the White House to prevent President
Zelensky from, in her words, being bullied. And of course
we know what happened back on February the twenty eighth.
That's I think what Margaret Brennan was referring to. That's
(11:33):
when jd Vance in the Oval Office verbally attacked Ukrainian
President Zelensky. It was televised live. It was pretty remarkable
to see that day when that happened. And in fact,
Trump during that meeting said to President Zelensky, you've done
enough talking. You're not winning this. Well, this is the
(11:53):
second time that Zelenski is coming to Washington, d C.
Meeting with the President in the Oval Office. And in
response to that question from Margaret Brennan about whether or
not those European leaders are coming to prevent Zelenski from
being bullied. Let's hear what Secretary Rubio had to say
in regards to that question.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
This is such a stupid media narrative that they're coming
here tomorrow because the Trump is going to bully Zelensky
into a bad deal. We've been working with these people
for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. They're coming here
tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited
them to come.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Now. There is no question this meeting on Monday is important.
It's perhaps the most important meeting that the President may have,
maybe even more important than the meeting that he had
on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This one will
give a sense about where the President stands in supporting Ukraine,
supporting NATO, supporting America's allies in Europe, and whether or
(12:52):
not the ball can be moved forward towards ultimately ending
this particular war now in its third year. I'll be
in the Oval Office on Monday. I'll be a part
of the pool, and I look forward to that. I
look forward to the opportunity to perhaps ask President Trump
some questions, ask some of those other European leaders, including
(13:15):
President Zelenski, questions, and I want to get a sense
from President Zelenski, asked to whether or not he feels
the United States President Trump has Ukraine's back, Does he
feel that in any way after Friday's meeting with President Putin,
that things have changed, that the dynamic has changed in
(13:35):
terms of where the US stands on this war and
whether or not the President is still supportive of sending
weapons to Ukraine through the European allies. And that is
something that the President announced back on July eighth. Back
on July eighth, the President told reporters during a cabinet
meeting I was there, that he wasn't happy with Putin.
(13:57):
And so we'll see on Monday day where things stand
as it relates to this particular negotiation, Where things stand
as it relates to the President's support for Ukraine, and
whether or not there will be a second meeting that
the President is optimistic will occur, a meeting that would
(14:18):
be involving President Trump as the mediator as well as
President Putin and President Zelenski. There is no meeting right
now on the table, but perhaps we could see something
like that in the weeks ahead. I say the weeks
ahead because I don't think something like this is going
to happen very quickly. In fact, Secretary of State Mark
(14:39):
Rubio didn't sound optimistic as he made those various rounds
on television shows on Sunday about the state of trying
to get to a peace deal. Now that ceasefire ideas
off the table, and now the focus is on just
simply ending of the war. That is different than what
(15:00):
the President expressed last week. So things have changed. That
a dynamic seems to have changed, and this meeting on
Monday will be critical in terms of figuring out where
and how this conflict ends. That's the White House Briefing
Room for Monday, August the eighteenth. I'm John Decker. I
look forward to talking to you tomorrow about my time
(15:23):
in the Oval Office, what was discussed, and whether or
not there is an effort to end this war and,
in the President's words, pursue peace. Have a great day,
talk to you Tuesday.
Welcome to the White House Briefing Room for Monday, August
the eighteenth. I'm John Decker. Just days after President Trump
and Russian President Vladimir Putin each left Alaska without a
deal to end the war in Ukraine, another pivotal day
on Monday. In just hours, Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelenski and
(00:25):
other European leaders we'll meet with President Trump at the
White House. Despite the lack of a ceasefire agreement being
reached in Alaska, President Trump in Anchorage said he's optimistic
of the possibility of a trilateral summit involving Putin and
Zelenski in the near future.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Mister President, I'd like to thank you very much, and
we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you
again very soon.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Thank you very much. Vladimir next time in Moscow. Oh
that's an interesting one.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I'll get a little heat on that one, but I
could see it possibly happening.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
After a three hour meeting on Friday at Joint Base
Elmandor Richardson, President Trump summed up what was accomplished and
what was not accomplished during this rare summit.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
But we had to put up with the Russia. Russia
Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I
knew it was a hoax. But what was done was
very criminal. But it made it harder for us to
deal as a country in terms of the business and
all of the things that would.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Like to have dealt with. But we'll have a good
chance when this is over.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
So just to put it very quickly, I'm going to
start making a few phone calls and tell.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Him what happened.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
But we had an extremely productive meeting and many points
were agreed to. There are just a very few that
are left. Some are not that significant. One is probably
the most significant.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Before we get to what will take place at the
White House on Monday, it's important to look back at
what occurred in Alaska on Friday. I was there at
the President's news conference, waiting, like the rest of the world,
to hear whether any progress was made in either a
ceasefire agreement what the President had been seeking, or a
deal to move towards an end to the war now
(02:13):
in its third year. When President Trump touched down on
Air Force One at Joint Base Elmendorf Frichardson in Alaska
on Friday, there was a lot of anticipation. First of all,
we learned upon landing that the one on one meeting
involving President Trump and President Putin and each of their
interpreters was now a three on three meeting. The meeting
(02:35):
would include two advisors for each leader, Secretary of State
Mark or Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. We're going
to be with President Trump and the Kremlin, said Foreign
Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Farm policy Advisor Yuri Ushikov would
be also in the room representing the Russian side. As
for President Putin, he gave his take about how well
(02:59):
the meeting eating went as both President Trump and President
Putin entered into that room with much anticipation. And here's
what President Putin said regarding his take on this nearly
three hour meeting.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Our negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of
mutual respect. We have very zorough negotiations that were quite useful.
I would like to thank once again my American counterpart
for the proposal to travel out here to a last time.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
President Trump, after a meeting that he had with European
leaders and President Selensky last Wednesday, said that it was
pretty clear that security guarantees offered to Ukraine as part
of any potential peace deal with Russia would not involve NATO,
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He has accepted the idea
that there could be other guarantees to be given jointly
(03:53):
by the US and Europe. And President Putin, again speaking
through an interpreter, had this to say about the vote
Henchil for security guarantees being agreed to for Ukraine. Let's
listen to President Putin right here, again speaking through an interpreter.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
Naturally, the security of Ukraine should be insured as well. Naturally,
we're prepared to work on that. I would like to
hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help
us bring close to that goal and will pave the
path towards peace in Ukraine.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
This meeting involving President Trump and President Putin was sought
by Russia in the first place. They are very interested
in resetting relations with the United States, perhaps more so
than trying to end the war in Ukraine. And I
think that was one of the reasons why President Putin
came to the negotiating table sought this meeting with President Trump.
(04:48):
The other reason, of course, were the possibility of stiff
sanctions harsher tariffs being imposed not only on Russia by
the US, but also secondary tariffs on each of Russia's
trading partners, and the President is held off on that
from now. But as for President Putin, he clearly wants
other issues on the table besides talking about the war
(05:10):
in Ukraine. Let's listen to what President Putin again speaking
through an interpreter once as it relates to these meetings
that he potentially will be having in the plural sense
with President Trump, not only the one that happened on Friday,
but others in the future.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point
not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but
also will help us bring back businesslike and pragmatic relations
between Russia and the US.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Before we get to President Trump's remarks at this press conference,
I want to play what President Putin said during this
press conference, something that he wanted to mention and something
that President Trump has spoken of quite often during the
course of the past few months, and that is, according
to President Trump, the war in Ukraine would not have
(06:01):
happened beginning in February of twenty twenty two if President
Trump had been president at the time, and President Putin,
without any prompting, brought this idea up in addressing those
gathered in that press briefing room. Let's hear what the
president this is President Putin had to say through an
interpreter in regards to what President Trump has been speaking
(06:25):
about four months today.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
When President Trump saying that if he was the president
back then there will be no war, and I'm quite
sure that it would indeed be so, and I can't
confirm that.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Now, let's get to President Trump. After nine minutes of
remarks by President Putin, it was time for President Trump
to speak, and he spoke altogether for about four minutes,
and this is his take about how the meeting with
President Putin went. This three on three meeting. Let's hear
from the President in his remarks in that room.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And I will say that I believe we had a
very productive meeting.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
There were many many points that we agreed on, most
of them, I would say, a couple of big ones
that we haven't quite gotten there, but we've made some headway.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
So there's no deal until there's a deal.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
So what comes next? President Trump explaining what he believes
should come next following this three hour meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, I.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Will call up NATO in a little while, I will
call up the various people that I think are appropriated,
and of course call up President Zelensky and tell him
about today's meeting.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
It's ultimately up to them.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
President Trump is ever the optimist, and I think that
is one of the traits that I've seen not only
in his first term, but also as it relates to
the second term in so many issues, whether it's about
reaching trade deals, or the state of the US economy,
or in this case, reaching a deal with Russia to
end this war. Let's listen to the President near the
(07:57):
conclusion of his remarks, speaking about how he believes a
deal can get done.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
We're going to try and get this over with. We
really made some great progress today. I've always had a
fantastic relationship with President Putin.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Heading into this meeting with President Putin, President Trump did
an interview with Fox News Radio and that aired on Thursday,
and during that interview, he said he thought that Putin
was going to make a deal. He also said there
was a twenty five percent chance that the talks would fail.
He described their upcoming meeting at the time as a
(08:35):
chess game. At the conclusion of the president's remarks in Anchorage, Alaska,
the President summed up how he believes this three hour
long meeting went for both sides, but specifically for the
United States. Let's listen to the president right here.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I'm going to start making a few phone calls and
tell him what happened. But we had an extremely productive
meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just
a very few that are left, some or not that significant.
One is probably the most significant. But we have a
very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there,
(09:13):
but we have a very good chance of getting there now.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
One of the goals for the President heading into this
summit was getting a ceasefire agreement. That was something that
he said is a priority, and he said if no
ceasefire agreement is reached, then, in the President's words, there
would be severe consequences. We have not heard about any
severe consequences. In fact, it seems as if the goals
(09:37):
for the Trump administration have changed after the meeting that
took place on Friday. Secretary of State Mark or Rubio
was on a number of Sunday morning shows, and he
spoke on NBC's Meet the Press and he was asked
by Kristen Welker, the host of Meet the Press, whether
or not that ceasefire agreement, that ceasefire goal is now
(09:59):
off the table. Let's listen to what Secretary of State
Mark Rubio said in response to that question.
Speaker 5 (10:05):
It was agreed to by all that the best way
to end this conflict is to a full peace deal.
There's no doubt about that. I mean, who would be
against the fact if tomorrow we came to you and
said we have a full peace deal and it's done.
I think that's the best way to end the war.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Now.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Whether there needs to be a ceasefire on the way there, well,
we've advocated for that. Unfortunately the Russians as of now
have not agreed to that.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
And that brings us to Monday. It is pivotal meeting
taking place in the White House, involving not only President Zelenski,
who's flying over with Germany's Chancellor, but also other European
leaders UK's Prime Minister, France's President, NATO's Secretary General Mark Ruda,
the President of the European Commission. They will all be
(10:49):
at the meeting. They will all represent Europe's point of
view as it relates what the next steps should be
in terms of the war. And they want to be
their by President Zelensky side, to show their support, to
show that their support is unwavering. On Face the Nation,
Mark Rubio the Secretary of State, where he also made
(11:10):
an appearance, he was asked by the host of Face
the Nation, Margaret Brennan, whether European leaders are coming to Washington,
d C. Coming to the White House to prevent President
Zelensky from, in her words, being bullied. And of course
we know what happened back on February the twenty eighth.
That's I think what Margaret Brennan was referring to. That's
(11:33):
when jd Vance in the Oval Office verbally attacked Ukrainian
President Zelensky. It was televised live. It was pretty remarkable
to see that day when that happened. And in fact,
Trump during that meeting said to President Zelensky, you've done
enough talking. You're not winning this. Well, this is the
(11:53):
second time that Zelenski is coming to Washington, d C.
Meeting with the President in the Oval Office. And in
response to that question from Margaret Brennan about whether or
not those European leaders are coming to prevent Zelenski from
being bullied. Let's hear what Secretary Rubio had to say
in regards to that question.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
This is such a stupid media narrative that they're coming
here tomorrow because the Trump is going to bully Zelensky
into a bad deal. We've been working with these people
for weeks, for weeks on this stuff. They're coming here
tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited
them to come.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Now. There is no question this meeting on Monday is important.
It's perhaps the most important meeting that the President may have,
maybe even more important than the meeting that he had
on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This one will
give a sense about where the President stands in supporting Ukraine,
supporting NATO, supporting America's allies in Europe, and whether or
(12:52):
not the ball can be moved forward towards ultimately ending
this particular war now in its third year. I'll be
in the Oval Office on Monday. I'll be a part
of the pool, and I look forward to that. I
look forward to the opportunity to perhaps ask President Trump
some questions, ask some of those other European leaders, including
(13:15):
President Zelenski, questions, and I want to get a sense
from President Zelenski, asked to whether or not he feels
the United States President Trump has Ukraine's back, Does he
feel that in any way after Friday's meeting with President Putin,
that things have changed, that the dynamic has changed in
(13:35):
terms of where the US stands on this war and
whether or not the President is still supportive of sending
weapons to Ukraine through the European allies. And that is
something that the President announced back on July eighth. Back
on July eighth, the President told reporters during a cabinet
meeting I was there, that he wasn't happy with Putin.
(13:57):
And so we'll see on Monday day where things stand
as it relates to this particular negotiation, Where things stand
as it relates to the President's support for Ukraine, and
whether or not there will be a second meeting that
the President is optimistic will occur, a meeting that would
(14:18):
be involving President Trump as the mediator as well as
President Putin and President Zelenski. There is no meeting right
now on the table, but perhaps we could see something
like that in the weeks ahead. I say the weeks
ahead because I don't think something like this is going
to happen very quickly. In fact, Secretary of State Mark
(14:39):
Rubio didn't sound optimistic as he made those various rounds
on television shows on Sunday about the state of trying
to get to a peace deal. Now that ceasefire ideas
off the table, and now the focus is on just
simply ending of the war. That is different than what
(15:00):
the President expressed last week. So things have changed. That
a dynamic seems to have changed, and this meeting on
Monday will be critical in terms of figuring out where
and how this conflict ends. That's the White House Briefing
Room for Monday, August the eighteenth. I'm John Decker. I
look forward to talking to you tomorrow about my time
(15:23):
in the Oval Office, what was discussed, and whether or
not there is an effort to end this war and,
in the President's words, pursue peace. Have a great day,
talk to you Tuesday.
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