Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on Trump-Zelenskyy meeting and what the polls are saying after Donald Trump's first 100 days in office

US President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at the Pope's funeral to discuss next steps in Russia-Ukraine peace effort. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that this week Trump will decide whether to continue the process. 

It comes as Trump said in a post to truth social last week, "Vladimir, STOP!" after Russia carried out the deadliest attack in months on Ukraine. 

US Correspondent Richard Arnold talks to Mike Hosking about the meeting and what the polls are saying after Trump's first 100 days in office. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Radio Stateside. Richard Donald, Very good morning to you, Mordan, Mike.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Speaking of way Mo, someone told me the other day
they saw one of these things running around in San
Francisco and the only thing on board was a dog.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
There's no dogs have credit cards, but.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
What do we make of the photo the two cheers
and the funeral. I mean, is this leading anyway?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Nice cheers, weren't they? Yeah? No, This could be a
significant few days intertwnity whether the Russia Ukraine peace effort
is getting anywhere. Micro Rubio, the US Secretary of State,
says that Trump this week will decide whether to continue
the process. Is Rubio?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
This week is going to be a really important week
in which we have to make a determination about whether
this is an endeavor that we are wanting to continue
to be involved in. But we wanted to do it happen.
There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons
to be realistic of course as well. We're close, but
we're not close enough.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
So that's a diplomatic talk for you. Trump just came
away from those private talks with Ukraine Zelenski at the
Vatican where both, of course we're attending funeral services for
Le Pope Francis Zalencia was cheered by the crowd when
he arrived. Trump walked into that stony silence as they
were shown all over here and standing out as the
only person because wearing a blue suit instead of the
black suit the Vatican had advised. These talks were the

(01:10):
first between the two since the debacle at the White
House back in February, when Trump accused Lensky of gambling
with World War three potentially and Zelensky left without signing
that rare earth minerals deal that they had mapped out.
This time, the two were leaning in, and Zelenski said
it was a good, perhaps even quite a very symbolic
meeting with the potential to become historic if results or achieved.

(01:32):
Zolensky has said a little beyond that, except saying it wasting.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
I didn't want to go to Ploto details if it's possible,
because the questions were sens to psionals on of course,
totally it's a wild how to bring this.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
What we do see is some atmospheric changes. Russia's foreigners.
De Lavrov gave a rare interview to an American network
today CBS, asserting that Russia is ready to talk and
to reach some deal. Trump, of course, has opened the
indoors even before there's any direct negotiation, seating CRIMEA and
all recently taken Ukrainian territory over to Russia and a
nine Ukraine NATO membership. So that's the art of the deal.

(02:12):
Is it surrendering before you even negotiate si. Trump for
the first time has posted on social media as some
costic criticism of Putin's attack on Ukrainian civilians last week,
The Deadliest Sense of July of last year. Trump wrote quick,
maybe maybe Putin doesn't want to stop the war and
is just tapping the Americans along. Huh. Former US National
Security advisor under Biden, Jack Sullivan says of the Trump post.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
It gives me the first fliver of hope I've had
in a while.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
But again, are we heading for a breakthrough or a breakdown?
So far up? Of course we do not know.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
No, we do not, But we do know. Come Wednesday,
our time to say you'll turn it. One hundred days,
big day.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, there's a sewer of polls out now in advance
of that one hundred day marker. Most showed Trump underwater.
Several give Trump the worst favorability of any US president
at this one hundred day point in eighty years. In
the ab Trump has thirty nine percent approval. That is
down by six points since February. On Trump's signature issues,
the poll has seventy two percent thinking it is very

(03:10):
or somewhat likely that Trump policies will lead to a recession.
Seventy three percent in this poll say the economy is
in bad shape. Fifty two percent say it is worse
since Trump took office. On immigration, of course, another signature
trump issued, fifty three percent in that pols say they disapprove.
Sixty two percent say they do not think Trump respects
the rule of law. So that's one survey. Fox News

(03:32):
also has a poll out which Trump is attacking as
you've been noting. They ask you, is the Trump team
competent at managing the federal government?

Speaker 1 (03:38):
Know?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Is the response? By a nine point margin. Do they
approve of his handling of the economy? No, by an
eighteen point margin. Do you approve of what Elon Musk
has been up to in terms of federal government cutbacks?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
No?

Speaker 2 (03:50):
By a seventeen point margin. Are the Trump tariffs helping
the US economy No, by a twenty three point margin.
Do you approve of the way the Trump team is
dealing with inflation? No, by a twenty six point margin.
Can Trump ignore the courts when it comes to immigration issues? No,
by a forty nine percent margin. And all the poles
are done are similar the NBC, CBS pure economists poles

(04:13):
or put Trump underwater? The Trump says, actual consumer spending
US up, but a lot of that, as we've been
staying in recent days, is fueled by panic buying before
car prices and other big ticket prices go up. Meantime,
Trump team says, only the media puts faith in poles.
And as for the media, typically on this day, we'd
be talking, wouldn't we about comedy sketches and jokes from
the annual Correspondent's dinner last night? But this year, with

(04:35):
Trump threats to the media, they canceled the comedian at
the dinner, with President Trump refusing also to attend, So
apparently no time for jokes.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Good on your mom, catch up on a couple of days,
Richard Arnold state side for us just also this s
morning out of that same part of the world. The
Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, government's preparing to cut a deal
for American farmers with China, so they're bleeding because of China.
They've also got this understanding that nobody seems to be
able to explain. Certainly, Rolins couldn't the claim from Trump

(05:03):
and Time magazine that he's made two hundred deals in
the wave of wake up sweeping teriff reforms. He's made
two hundred trade deals. Bessent Scott Bessent was Treasury Secretary,
was asked about it as well. He goes, well, they
could be sub deals, whatever the hell that means. And
the real story that no one seems to have picked
up on that, I cannot believe that somebody hasn't been arrested.

(05:25):
So the Trump Meme coin, they announced last week that
if you're one of the top wallet holders, you get
to have dinner with the president. So everyone starts buying
Trump memes and guess what happens to the price? Oh gosh,
it goes up. So you go on the twenty second
of May to the dinner special reception for the twenty
five wallet holders, a VIP White House tour. The following day,

(05:47):
market caps at two point seven billions down, seventy percent
since its peak in January. But the President saying, the
people who buy the most number of coins get to
come to dinner with me and have a White House tour,
and no one from the feed anywhere is looking for handcuffs.
Do you remember how angsty we got when one of
our prime ministers signed a picture once exactly And this

(06:08):
was before Trump said it's a good time to buy. Somehow,
the rules don't seem to apply in America.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
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