President Donald Trump appeared to deny he'd made a previous, controversial claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is a "dictator" at a press conference following his White House meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — a claim that triggered widespread outrage from U.S. allies given the united front NATO countries have shown up to this point in supporting Ukraine against Vladimir Putin and the Russian invasion.
Trump also continued to reiterate his stated belief Ukraine cannot join NATO — a security goal Ukraine has sought so desperately that Zelensky even offered to resign in exchange for his country's accession to the alliance.
"Mr. President, you talked about having common ground with Keir Starmer, but there are things you disagree on as well," said a British reporter. "You described Zelensky as a dictator. He describes President Putin as a dictator. Do you see that as a problem?"
"The relationship between President Zelensky and President Putin is not a good one," said Trump. "You've noticed, right? It's not a good one. It's not a good relationship. And we'll have to try and work something out. Sometimes that happens. I get along with both. I have a very good relationship with President Putin. I think I have a very good relationship with President Zelensky."
Trump then pivoted to bragging about his proposed deal to extract minerals from Ukraine in order to pay for the war costs.
"And now we're, you know, we're doing the deal, and we're going to be in there," he said. "We're going to be actually in there and digging, digging our hearts out. And hopefully, you know, we need the rare earth and we have some here, but we don't have enough. We're, our economy is very strong, and we need a lot of things that in some cases we don't have here. So I think we're going to have a very good relationship. But the relationship between them is not the best."
"Mr. President, do you still think that Mr. Zelensky is a dictator?" another British reporter followed up.
"Um, did I say that?" said Trump. "I can't believe I said that. Next question."
"A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left," Trump had posted earlier this month.
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