President Donald Trump blurted out a new revelation Tuesday regarding the United States’ minerals deal with Ukraine while on the phone with Fox News, revealing previously unknown details about the lucrative agreement.
Back in April, Trump reached a deal with Ukraine that would see the United States support reconstruction of the country following the Russo-Ukraine War in exchange for access to the nation’s ample supply of valuable rare earths, including titanium, iron ore and lithium.
The deal came after the United States spent around $175 billion toward aiding Ukraine which continues to fight against Russia’s invasion, though Trump has repeatedly claimed — falsely — that the United States had spent $350 million in supporting the Eastern European nation.
“First of all, I made a deal to take rare earth that's the equivalent of much more than the $350 billion that Biden (gave) away,” Trump said Tuesday in a phone call with Fox News.
“It was so stupid what he did and I was able to make a deal with Ukraine, and they were very nice. They have great rare earth, among the best in the world, and we took much more than the $350 billion, and they were great about it. So we got that handled.”
Initial proposals from the White House demanded Ukraine forfeit $500 billion worth of minerals, an offer that was resoundingly rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump’s claim to Fox News is the first official acknowledgement of the value of the mineral deal with Ukraine.
“Everything worked out well until Biden got involved,” Trump continued. “When Biden gave them $100 billion right up front... I don't give them anything. I don't know if you know it, but since I've been there, we don't pay… they buy through NATO because I got NATO to go from 2% to 5% of GDP (in military spending), so it's trillions of dollars.”
The new revelation comes one day after Trump’s high-stakes meeting with Zelenskyy in Washington, D.C., where the two were joined by several European leaders. The meeting was seen as a significant improvement over the two’s previous meeting in February, which critics had labeled as a disaster due to Trump’s confrontational demeanor.
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