'That's not true': Reporter busts Trump in blatant lie as he tries to bulldoze Zelensky
CNN's chief international correspondent busted president Donald Trump in an easily disproven lie as he tries to bully Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy into handing over half of his country's resources.
Nick Paton Walsh, reporting from Kyiv, said Ukrainians are disoriented by Trump's abandonment of their country as they fight back against Russia's full-scale invasion, which was launched just short of three years ago, and he added that Trump had been lying about Zelensky and negotiations on a deal to end the war.
"Over the past two days, really, just to speak to Ukrainians who are oftentimes struggling to catch up with the things they're hearing from the Trump administration," Walsh said. "We've understood from various sources familiar with the proposal offer that indeed, it wasn't just payback for future aid. It was essentially the Trump administration saying, well, you owe us for the stuff that the Biden administration gave you, give us access to your rare earth minerals."
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Trump claims that Zelenskyy slept through a meeting with treasury secretary Scott Bessent and that other Ukrainian officials refused to sign an agreement that would give the U.S. control over – in perpetuity – 50 percent of Ukraine's rare earth minerals, oil and gas, and other natural resources, as well as a highly detailed list of infrastructure.
"That document, 16 pages long, two or three pages of legalese, and then a dozen pages of specific places and assets that they had in mind," Walsh said. "So quite specific, [but] the notion that Zelensky was asleep, that president Donald Trump said there and didn't meet Bessent – well, that's not true. There was a joint press conference, they gave an extensive one. I'm sure at some point during the time Bessent was here, Zelenskyy went to sleep, and I'm sure Bessent did, too, but it's an extraordinary comment to make suggesting that essentially, Zelenskyy himself has rejected that deal."
"He has said, 'Yes, I wouldn't sign it, I have to guarantee Ukraine's interest,'" Walsh added. "It wasn't a legal document. They haven't rejected it outright, but I'm sure they want to see better terms there, and they've said publicly they want to see security guarantees as part of that. Zelenskyy said to me yesterday, 'Look, if you don't give us boots on the ground, you won't give us more military aid necessarily to fight, then give us air defenses to defend our skies.' Ukraine hit constantly at the moment."
Trump has repeated verbatim Russian talking points about Zelenskyy and has demanded new elections as a condition of a peace agreement.
"There's growing concern here about the phrase 'dictator' being used around Zelenskyy, about how he's refusing elections," Walsh said. "Yes, Ukraine has not had elections during wartime. That isn't far from abnormal in European history, when countries have indeed been attacked, and we've seen European leaders come to his aid, essentially the British suggesting that they didn't have elections throughout World War II because they were under bombardment. and we've heard European leaders to come forward and say they do not believe that Ukraine is run by a dictator, and some suggesting that's in fact, Vladimir Putin, the one man who Trump is very eager to not criticize, it seems at the moment. So a startling turn in foreign policy for the United States here."
"A lot of bewildering rhetoric, the future of Ukraine's mineral resources on the table here, essentially," Walsh added. "I think they're arm twisted – if they want to keep the aid, that will keep them fighting. But above all, you know, you heard at the start there ordinary Ukrainians – people are dying, as I'm talking to you now here, hundreds a day on the front lines. That is often missing from the discussion here, the sort of Twitter burns we're seeing between world leaders and statements at press conferences, and I think that is going to hove more clearly into view as we see western support here, particularly from the Trump administration, falter."
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