President Donald Trump spent a mere “14 hours in Rome,” as his “whirlwind trip to Italy” came against the backdrop of “global discord,” the New York Times reports.
The reason for his quick turnaround?
“He wanted to make it back to his golf resort in New Jersey before the end of the day,” Trump told aides, according to the Times.
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As reporters David Sanger and Motoko Rich report, Trump “flew briefly this weekend into a European continent he has thrown into chaos in recent months, paying respects to Pope Francis at his funeral, but also meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine at a critical moment that may decide both the country’s boundaries and its fate.”
“Trump was on the ground in Rome for about 14 hours, and left immediately after the services for the pope,” the reporters note, describing it as a “startlingly fast turnaround for the first overseas trip of a new president.”
The trip “left no time for discussion of his tariffs on the European Union, his turn toward normalizing relations with Russia or his insistence that Europeans must take far larger responsibility for their own defense,” the reporters add.
According to the report, Trump’s “speedy departure came despite a suggestion from a Ukrainian spokesman that more talks would take place in Rome on Saturday.”
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The Ukrainian spokesman later acknowledged the “very tight schedules of the presidents” after Trump boarded Air Force One to depart back to the United States — and his New Jersey golf resort.
“The spokesman then said a second meeting would not occur,” the Times reports.
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