33 posts from Monday, February 24, 2025

[MUSIC] [APPLAUSE]

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France is America's oldest ally. Our cherished partnership has been a force for freedom, prosperity, and peace from the very beginning. We're now working on some very interesting developments, one in particular, as you know, the war between Russia and Ukraine. In the American Revolution, French support helped us to seize our destiny as an independent nation. In the First and Second World Wars, our citizens shed blood together on the battlefields of Europe. And I'll never forget joining President Macron six years ago in the 75th anniversary of D-Day. That was some day. The purpose of our meeting today is to end another battle, a really horrible one, a war, something that we haven't seen since the Second World War, that is ravaging European soil, the deadliest and most destructive conflict that one can imagine. I've seen the pictures. I've seen the satellite photos and lots of other photos, and it's a horrible thing that's happening. Thousands of people are dying a week. This very day is the third anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, which would never have happened if I was president. That was not going to happen. The horrors of this gruesome and bloody war can scarcely be overestimated. Hundreds of thousands of people, Russians and Ukrainians in particular, have needlessly died. An entire generation of Ukrainians and Russian men has been decimated. 1,000-year-old cities have been turned into rubble. Those beautiful spires that you used to see there -- they were most beautiful in the world, they say -- are lying in heaps of rubble, blasted to smithereens. It's time to end this bloodletting and restore peace. And I think we're going to do it. We've had some great conversations, including with Russia. Since my return to the White House, we've made more progress toward that goal in one month than occurred in the past three years. And I've spoken with both President Putin and President Zelensky. And again, a lot of good things toward peace are happening, moving it, I think, pretty quickly. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Walts, and Special Envoy Steve Woodkopf conducted successful talks in Saudi Arabia with the delegation from Russia. And I'd like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the King and Mohammed -- great people -- really working hard to get this done. Our focus is on achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible and ultimately a permanent peace. My meeting with President Macron today was another important step forward in that sphere, because he's been very much involved right from the beginning in trying to get it over, and then we're going to get it done. I believe that Emmanuel agrees with me on many of the most important issues, chief among them, is this is the right time. It may be the only time. You know, that's a very interesting and horrible situation, and that could evolve into a third World War. We're not going to let that happen. Should have never started, but it did. And what a mess. What a horrible, bloody mess. I'm also pleased that President Macron agrees that the cost and burden of securing the peace must be borne by the nations of Europe, not alone by the United States. And Europe must take that central role in assuring long-term security of Ukraine, which they want to do. And that's not a very big step. A big step is what's going to happen over the next few weeks. The United States has put up far more aid for Ukraine than any other nation. Hundreds of billions of dollars. We've spent more than $300 billion, and Europe has spent about $100 billion. That's a big difference. And at some point, we should equalize. But hopefully, we won't have to worry about that. We have other things happening that maybe take that out of the realm of necessity. And while we've given vast amounts of military aid and money in form of grants, much of Europe's contribution has been economic relief structured as loans for which they'll be repaid. Like the Europeans, I believe, that taxpayers in the United States also deserve to recoup the colossal amounts of money that we've sent. The previous administration never even thought of that. They didn't think of a lot of things. Like, why did they let it start in the first place? That is why we must have an agreement with Ukraine on critical minerals and rarists and various other things as security. And I think that that's happening. I think we've made a lot of progress. I had a report just given to me before walking in, and that we've made, Emmanuel, a great deal of progress toward getting that. I've been elected by the American people to restore common sense to Washington and, indeed, to the world. And I believe strongly that it's in the best interest of the United States, the best interest in Europe, the best interest of Ukraine, and, indeed, the best interest of Russia to stop the killing now and bring the world to peace. My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy values of the past administration and, frankly, the past. I ran against a very foolish foreign policy establishment, and their recklessness has led to the death of many, many people. Under our administration, we're forging a new path that promotes peace around the world. And when I left office for the first administration, first term, we had no wars, we had no problems. We didn't have October 7th with Israel. We didn't have Russia and Ukraine going at it. We didn't have the problems in other parts of the Middle East. We didn't have inflation. It was a whole different world. And you know what else? We didn't have millions of people pouring through our borders, many of them criminals released from other nations and put right into our land, murderers and drug dealers, gangs. We didn't have any of that. It's a different time. But now we have it, and we're fixing it. We'll fix it all up, get it done as quickly as possible. And we've made a great deal of progress. People are saying it was the best month for a president in our country's history. I hope that's right, but I feel it's right. We've done a lot of things in a very short period of time, four weeks. As I've said before, it's my hope that my greatest legacy, however, will be as a peacemaker and a unifier. I want to bring peace, not war. I thank President Macron for joining us today in this urgent work we're doing. We have some wonderful people up front right here that have worked so hard. Steve Whitcoff, thank you very much. Michael Walz, thank you. Scott, thank you very much. And JD, thank you. They've really done a -- they've really done a job. They worked very hard. It's like -- it's a real passion to get this war ended.

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I've been elected by the American people to restore common sense to Washington and indeed to the world, and I believe strongly that it's in the best interest of the United States, the best interest in Europe, the best interest of Ukraine, and indeed the best interest of Russia to stop the killing now and bring the world to peace. My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy failures of the past administration and frankly the past. I ran against a very foolish foreign policy establishment and their recklessness has led to the death of many, many people. Under our administration, we're forging a new path that promotes peace around the world.

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-We're helping Ukraine like nobody's ever helped Ukraine before. And I can say this, if I didn't become president, Ukraine would right now still be at a level where there would be no even thinking about a peace. And it's a sad thing that this happened. This would have never happened, this war of our president. Zero chance. And it has happened. So my function is to get you out of the war. Get them out of the war. Let them live. It's a bloody war. It's a horrible war. Thousands of people are being killed a week. And I would say Russia, maybe 700,000 people. I think Ukraine, probably a similar number. And that's not talking about the towns and the cities that have been blown up. That's talking about soldiers. This has been a horrible, bloody mess. And we're going to get it solved. We've got to get it solved. And you know, we're not talking about America's soldiers. Soldiers from this country. We're talking about Russia and Ukraine. But on a humanitarian basis, we have to get this very, very bloody, savage problem solved. And I will say this also. It could lead to World War III if it's not solved. There'll be a point at which it's not going to stop at those two countries. Already there's such involvement from other countries. And it could really lead to a very big war, World War III. And we're not going to let that happen either.

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