Transcript: President Trump Meets Zelenskyy at White House – August 18, 2025

Read the full transcript of President Donald Trump hosts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy at White House on August 18, 2025.

Opening Remarks From Both Presidents

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. It’s an honor to have the president of Ukraine with us. We’ve had a lot of good discussions and a lot of good talks, and I think progress is being made. Very, very substantial progress in many ways. We had a good meeting, as you know. Just a short while ago with the president of Russia, and I think there’s a possibility that something could come out of it, and today’s meeting is very important. We have, I guess, the seven very powerful leaders from Europe, and we’re going to be meeting with them right after this meeting. And thank you very much for being here.

PRESIDENT ZELENSKY: Thank you so much, Mr. President. If I can, first of all, thank you for your invitation, and thank you very much for your efforts, personal efforts to stop killings and stop this war. Thank you. And using this opportunity, many thanks to your wife, the first lady of the United States. She sent a letter to Putin about our children, abducted children, and my wife, she’s a first lady of Ukraine. She gave the letter. It’s not to you, to your wife. I won’t. I won’t. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So we are saying this is a sensitive topic, yes, please. And thanks to our partners, and that you supported this format, and after our meeting, we can have leaders who are around us, U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Finland, even Asia. I mean, all partners around Ukraine supporting us. Thanks to them, and thank you very much for the invitation.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much for being here.

Reporter Questions Begin

REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump.

So, President Zelensky, you say in a post on X today, “Russia must end this war, which it itself started.” President Trump, you say “President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately if he wants to,” which isn’t.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I think that’s true. I think, Phil, we’re going to have a meeting. I think if everything works out well today, we’ll have a trilat. And I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that.

REPORTER: And is this the end of the road for American support for Ukraine? Does today’s meeting deal or no deal?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: I can never say that. It’s never the end of the road. People are being killed, and we want to stop that. So, I would not say it’s the end of the road. No, I think we have a good chance of doing it. It’s been almost four years now that a lot of people were killed last week. A lot of people last week. I mean, millions of people killed, but a lot of people last week, for whatever reason, a big number, a lot of soldiers, both, on both sides. And I know the President, I know myself, and I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended.

REPORTER: And you met with Putin on Friday. Today you’ve got President Zelensky here. As you listen to Russia and Ukraine, which side has the better cards right now?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I don’t want to say that. I’m just going to, I’m just here to be. Look, this isn’t my war. This is Joe Biden’s war. He’s the one that had a lot to do with this happening, and we want to get it ended. And we want it to end good for everybody. We want it to end good. The people of Ukraine have suffered incredibly.

Questions About Ukrainian Strategy and Casualties

REPORTER: President Zelensky, President Zelensky, are you prepared to keep sending Ukrainian troops to their deaths for another couple years, or are you going to agree to redraw the maps?

PRESIDENT ZELENSKY: Thank you for your question. So, first of all, you know, we live under each day attacks. You know, that today has been a lot of attacks and a lot of wounded people, and the charge was that small bomb, one year and a half. So we need to stop this war to stop Russia, and we need support American and European partners. And we will do our best for this. So, and I think we show that we are strong people, and we supported the idea of the United States of personally President Trump to stop this war to make diplomatic way of finishing this war, and we are ready for trilateral as President said. It’s a good signal about trilateral. I think this is very good. Thank you.

Discussion of Peacekeeping Forces and Security Guarantees

REPORTER: Mr. President, if the peace deal will be achieved, are you going to be willing to send American peacekeepers to Ukraine?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going to work with Ukraine. We’re going to work with everybody, and we’re going to make sure that if there’s peace, the peace is going to stay long term. This is very long term. We’re not talking about a two-year peace, and then we end up in this mess again. We’re going to make sure that everything’s good. We’re going to work with Russia. We’re going to work with Ukraine. We’re going to make sure it works. And I think if we can get to peace, it’s going to work. I have no doubt about it.

REPORTER: Mr. President, you just talked about security guarantees. Will that involve U.S. troops? Will you roll down U-turns?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’ll let you know that maybe later today. We’re meeting with seven great leaders of great countries also, and we’ll be talking about that. They’ll all be involved. But there’ll be a lot of help. When it comes to security, there’s going to be a lot of help. It’s going to be good. They are first line of defense because they’re there. They’re Europe. But we’re going to help them out also. We’ll be involved.

Root Causes of the War and Previous Conflicts

REPORTER: When you mentioned that the war will not end without addressing the root causes of this war, have you had an understanding of what are the root causes of this war?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, look, the war is going to end. When it ends, I can’t tell you. But the war is going to end, and this gentleman wants it to end, and Vladimir Putin wants it to end. I think the whole world is tired of it, and we’re going to get it ended. You know, I’ve done six wars. I’ve ended six wars, and I thought this maybe would be the easiest one. And it’s not the easiest one. It’s a tough one. A lot of reasons for it, and they’ll be talking about it for a long time, but they’ll be talking about the others. Look, India, Pakistan, we’re talking about big places. When you look at, you just take a look at some of these wars. You go to Africa and take a look at that, Rwanda and the Congo, Republic of the Congo. That’s been going on for 31 years. And so we’ve done a total of six, and we really have six, not including the fact that we obliterated and turned out to be a total obliteration, the nuclear in, as you said, the future nuclear capability of Iran. And this is one I think we’re going to get solved also. I think I feel confident we’re going to get it solved.

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REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Can you tell us about your conversations with European leaders and what they need to see to support an actual war?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, we’re going to be meeting with a great representative group and seven very powerful, very big countries and great people, all friends of mine and friends of yours. And we’re going to have some suggestions made. They want to see peace. They would like to see peace.

Questions About Territorial Concessions and First Lady’s Letter

REPORTER: Mr. President, when is Russia? When is Russia? You said last night. President Trump, do you think it’s fair for Ukraine and for Russia to achieve lasting and durable peace if Ukraine cedes its territories that Russia hasn’t yet conquered? Do you think it’s a fair peace for Ukraine?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: We’re going to have a lasting peace. Just to answer the first part of your question, we’re going to have a lasting peace. I hope it’s going to be immediately. I hope it doesn’t have to go on. And I think people in the whole world is going to be very happy when that’s announced.

REPORTER: You posted on social media, Mr. President, a very touching letter from the First Lady. And the letter was hand-delivered to President Putin. And it calls for an end to the war, essentially, because of the children and the children’s future. Why did the First Lady feel that letter was necessary? Was it because she believes that Mr. Putin is the aggressor in the war? Is a similar letter being hand-delivered to President Zelensky?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: So the First Lady felt very strongly. She’s watched the same thing that you watch and that I watch. I see things that you don’t get to see, and it’s horrible. But when she’s got a great love of children, she has a wonderful son that she loves, probably more than anybody, including me. I hate to say it, but she loves her son. She loves children. And she hates to see something like this happening. And that goes for other wars, too. I mean, she sees the heartbreak, the parents, the funerals that you see on television. Always funerals. We want to see something other than funerals. No, she felt it was a beautiful letter. It was very well received by him. And she did ask me to say, you know, she would love to see this end. She would love to see it end. And she says it very openly, very proudly, and with great sorrow, because so many people have been killed.

Questions on Elections and Media Coverage

REPORTER: Mr. President, last week, Mr. President. Yes, sir, I’ve got a question for each of you. First of all, Mr. President Zelensky, you look fabulous in that suit.

TRUMP: I said the same thing. You look good. I said the same thing. That’s the one that attacked you last time. I remember that. I apologize to you, but you look wonderful.

REPORTER: No, my first question for you, Mr. President Zelensky. And this changed you.

ZELENSKY: Maybe yours is much better than mine.

REPORTER: Real quickly, upon peace, God willing we get peace, are you open to holding an election in your country?

ZELENSKY: Yes, of course. We are open to an election, yes. But we have to do safety circumstances. And a little bit, we need to work in the Parliament, because during the war you can’t have an election. But we can do security. We need, maybe, how to say, we need a truce, yes, everywhere, in the battlefield, in the sky, in the sea, to make possible for people to do democratic, open, legal elections.

TRUMP: So you say during the war you can’t have elections. So let me just say, three and a half years from now, so you mean if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections. Oh, this is, I wonder what the fate is. You like this idea.

Trump Criticizes Media Coverage of Peace Efforts

REPORTER: Speaking of news, I got a question for you. This sounds insane for me even to ask this, but do you think the American media really doesn’t even want a peace deal? Because they seem, they’ve been so critical of you, every step of the way as you lead the charge for peace.

TRUMP: It’s an amazing phenomenon. I said that if in the settlement you got Moscow, St. Petersburg, and thousands of miles around them, they would say I made a bad deal. The level of hatred and animosity is incredible. Not with all. I mean, we have great people up here. We also have terrible people up there that I think are told what to say. But, you know, in solving all of these wars, they don’t even write about it.

You know, I saw major wars. I saw wars that have been going on to 31, 35, and 37, and a couple quicker ones. One that was going to go into a full-blown deal very quickly, you know, with the one I’m talking about. It was a big one. But they don’t even write about that. No matter what I do, no matter what, and, you know, this is not anything to do with you. It’s probably to your advantage in a certain way. But no matter what I do, no matter what deal I make, from my standpoint, you’ll come out good. Maybe President Putin will come out good. But they’ll say Trump was absolutely horrible.

It’s just that, and I’ve lived with that for a long time. I’ve lived with it since just before the first election. I used to get great publicity. Now I get the worst publicity anyone’s ever gotten in office. I wanted to lancelot so that people understand they’re the only ones that count, ultimately. But I’ve also had great reporters. I’ve had journalists that are very good. But it’s very sad when you do the right thing.

As an example, they said, because of the fact that Vladimir Putin came to American soil, this was a tremendous defeat for Donald Trump. No, it was really wonderful that he did it. It was a hard thing for him to do, to be honest with you. It was the opposite of what they said. But they said it. Now, if he didn’t come, they’d say, that was also bad for Trump. There’s no way. And it’s just a great dishonesty of the president. I think that’s why it’s lost its credibility. Its credibility is at an all-time low.

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Trump Highlights D.C. Safety Improvements

TRUMP: We have a thing going on right now in D.C. We went from the most unsafe place anywhere to a place that now people, friends are calling me up, Democrats are calling me up, and they’re saying, “Sir, I want to thank you. My wife and I went out to dinner last night for the first time in four years. And Washington, D.C. is safe. And you did that in four days.” I’ll tell you, it’s safe.

I had another friend of mine. He has a son who’s a great golfer. He’s on tour. And he came in fourth yesterday in the big tournament where Scottie Scheffler made the great shot. And he said his son is going to dinner in Washington, D.C. tonight. I said, “Would you allow that to happen a year ago?” He said, “No way. No way.” He said, “What you’ve done is incredible.” And I think the people realize it. But the press says, “He’s a dictator. He’s trying to take over.” Now, all I want is security for our people.

But people that haven’t gone out to dinner in Washington, D.C. in two years are going out to dinner. And the restaurants, the last two days, were busier than they’ve been in a long time. I walked around yesterday with MTG. If you can walk around D.C. with MTG and not be attacked, the city is safe.

Discussion of Ceasefire and Peace Negotiations

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr. President. Last week, you warned of what you call severe consequences if a 30-day ceasefire or any type of ceasefire were not agreed to by Russia. Will there be severe consequences? Does that change because of the meeting?

TRUMP: If you look at the six deals that I settled this year, they were all at war. I didn’t do any ceasefires, and I know that it might be good to have, but I can also understand strategically why one country or the other wouldn’t want it. You have a ceasefire, and they rebuild and rebuild and rebuild, and maybe they don’t want that. But if you look at the six deals that we made peace, long-term, long-running wars, I didn’t do any ceasefires.

Would I like? I like the concept. You know, I like the concept of a ceasefire for one reason, because you’d stop killing people immediately, as opposed to in two weeks or one week or whatever it takes. But we can work a deal where we’re working on a peace deal while they’re fighting. They have to fight. I wish they could stop. I’d like them to stop, but strategically that could be a disadvantage for one side or the other. But all of these deals I made without even the mention of the words ceasefire.

REPORTER: Are you disappointed that there’s no ceasefire? Are you disappointed that there’s no ceasefire? Are you disappointed that there’s no ceasefire? There’s no decision to offer Ukraine Article 5 life security guarantees. Let’s stop sort of pushing for their full membership.

TRUMP: Well we haven’t done anything on that yet. If you look back and you go back long before President Putin, it was always the statement that they would never allow Ukraine into NATO. So that was the statement that was made, but we haven’t discussed any of that yet. We’re going to be discussing it today. But we will give them very good protection, very good security. That’s part of it. And the people that are waiting for us, they are, I think they’re very like-minded. They want to help out also.

Questions About U.S. Financial Support

REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, President Trump. The United States has already given hundreds of billions of dollars to this war effort in Ukraine. At best, it is a stalemate and the killing continues. So President Trump, how much more is the United States willing to give Ukraine? And President Zelensky, how much more do you want?

TRUMP: Well, I’ll start off just by saying we’re not giving anything. Now we’re selling weapons. This is something before, I guess the numbers well over $300 billion that was under Joe Biden, a corrupt politician, not a smart man, never was. By the way, go back 40 years. He was not a smart man 40 years ago either. But now he’s in particular bad. This was done by a corrupt administration that shouldn’t have been in. And frankly, if the right results of the election were

DONALD TRUMP: Given, if I were president, this war would have never taken place. And he would have been very happy because he would have liked to have seen. I mean, they went through hell. He went through hell. This war would have never happened. And the people that were killed, a couple of million people, a lot of people with soldiers and everything else. And the people that have been displaced and forced into other areas and other countries because of what’s happened, none of that would have happened. And I’m just saying that he was a horrible president, whether it was the borders or this. He was just a horrible, corrupt president.

Zelensky on Weapons Procurement and Defense Capabilities

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY: Thank you so much. First of all, we have the ability now to buy weapons from the United States. We are thankful for this program and this opportunity. We are thankful for Europe. They pay for this. And through NATO program, for example, and et cetera, we have some programs where we can have some money to finance this. And this is a part, I think, it’s not a part for the war and to defend us. It also will be a part for security guarantees, to strengthen our army, to rearm Ukrainian army. This is very, very important.

And it depends how much money we need to rearm. For example, the question of air defense, we spoke about it with President Trump. And I’m happy that we have now bilateral decisions and we’ll work on it with production, American production. Nobody in Europe has so many air defense, like Patriots, for example. We need it very much. And this is also about defending.

DONALD TRUMP: And I think, you know, I think the good news, we make the best military equipment in the world by far. You mentioned the Patriots. How good are they? Yeah, systems. We have systems. They’re literally a hundred percent foolproof. And it’s really like shooting two bullets, you know, two bullets hitting each other in the air in a space like this that chances a hundred percent. It’s 99 to 100 percent.

So we sell the equipment to NATO. And NATO does what I don’t know what the arrangement is that you have with. But I know that they want you to have the equipment. And we’re getting the best equipment in the world. But they pay us for the equipment. Under Biden, it was just crazy what was going on. I believe the number is over 300. I think it could be $350 billion worth of equipment and money and everything else. And we’ve made more progress in settling this war in the last two months than they made in four years. This should have been settled a long time ago, but it should have never happened.

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Trump on Mail-In Ballots and Election Security

REPORTER: You pushed out on social media about doing away with mail-in ballots and potentially electronic voting machines. Can you explain on that?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, that’s a very off topic. Just mail-in ballots are corrupt. Mail-in ballots. You could never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots. And we, as a Republican Party, are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots. We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt. And you know that we’re the only country in the world, I believe, I may be wrong, but just about the only country in the world that uses it because of what’s happened. Massive fraud all over the place.

The other thing we want changed are the machines. For all of the money they spend, it’s approximately ten times more expensive than paper ballots. And paper ballots are very sophisticated with the watermark paper and everything else. We would get secure elections. We’d get much faster results. But machines, I mean, they say we’re going to have the results in two weeks. With paper ballots, you have the results that night. Most people, almost, but most people, many countries use paper ballots. It’s the most secure form.

So between paper ballots, very, very important, paper ballots, and I think maybe even more important, the mail-in voting. We’re going to end mail-in voting. It’s a fraud. If you have mail-in, even Jimmy Carter with his commission, they set it up. He said the one thing about mail-in voting, “you will never have an honest election if you have mail-in.” And it’s time that the Republicans get tough and stop it. Because the Democrats want it. It’s the only way they can get elected.

Because with men and women’s sports, and with transgender for everybody, and open borders, and all of the horrible things, and now the new thing is, they love crime. They’re fighting me on the fact that I’ve made Washington, D.C. safe. We’re not going to get mugged, beaten up, or killed like all the people you’ve been watching get so badly hurt. I’m glad, I hate to take your time with this, but I’m glad you asked me that question.

We’re going to stop mail-in ballots because it’s corrupt. You know, when you go to a voting booth, and you do it the right way, and you go to a state that runs it properly, you go in. They even asked me. They asked me for my license plate. I said, I don’t know if I have it. They said, “sir, you have to have it.” I was very impressed, actually. But it’s very hard to cheat with mail-in voting. As you know, what happens in California is so corrupt, where some people get five, six, seven ballots delivered to them.

Now, we’ve got to stop mail-in voting, and the Republicans have to lead the charge. The Democrats want it because they have horrible policy. If you have mail-in voting, you’re not going to have many Democrats get elected. That’s bigger than anything having to do with redistricting, believe me. And the Republicans have to get smart. You’re not going to have a country. I said for a long time in rallies, you need borders, and you need free and fair elections. Those two things. Otherwise, you don’t have them.

We have strong borders now. In 90 days, Mr. President, we didn’t have one, zero, zero, three months. Not one person came in illegally into our country. In fact, even I find that hard to believe. But it’s run by a little bit of a liberal group that put out the numbers. I guess it’s zero, zero, and zero. You go back a year ago, two years ago, three, millions of people poured into our country. It was terrible.

Discussion on Security Guarantees

REPORTER: Thank you very much. What security guarantees do you need for President Trump to be able to make a deal with American troops, intelligence, equipment? What is it?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY: Everything. Everything. Really, it includes two parts. First, strong Ukrainian army. That’s what I began to discuss with your colleagues. And it’s a lot about weapon and people and training missions and intelligence. And second, we will discuss with our partners. It depends on the big countries, on the United States, on a lot of our friends.

REPORTER: What do you need for President Trump to make American troops do that NATO-like protection in order to get President Zelensky to a deal today?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I don’t know if you define it that way, but NATO-like. I mean, we have people waiting in another room right now. They’re all here from Europe, biggest people in Europe. And they want to give protection. They feel very strongly about it. And we’ll help them out with that. I think it’s very important. I think it’s very important to get the deal done.

Messages to Ukrainian People and Putin Communications

REPORTER: Mr. President, you were getting involved in the peacekeeping in Ukraine since your first day in the administration. What would you say to the Ukrainian people right now who are suffering under the Russian attacks and hoping that the American people will stand with them?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I know Ukrainian people. I’ve known many over the years. They’re great people. They’re smart. They’re energetic. They love their country. I mean, they love their country. I want to get this war ended. That’s all I can do. I love the Ukrainian people, but I love all people. I love the Russian people. I love them all. I want to get the war stopped. It’s very important.

REPORTER: Mr. President, was there any aspect of your discussion with Vladimir Putin that left you disappointed?

DONALD TRUMP: Look, we just spoke to, I was just telling the President, I just spoke to President Putin indirectly. And we’re going to have a phone call right after these meetings today. And we may or may not have a trilat. If we don’t have a trilat, then the fighting continues. And if we do, we have a good chance. I think if we have a trilat, there’s a good chance of maybe ending it. But he’s expecting my call when we’re finished with this meeting. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much.