Trump to Meet Putin in Hungary Within Two Weeks

On October 16, the presidents of the US and Russia spoke on the phone for about two hours. The White House later described the conversation as productive. What they talked about for about two hours, Trump told reporters at a meeting.

Journalist: You wrote about your conversation with President Putin today. You talked about meeting him in Hungary. Is there a specific timeline or date?

Trump: I would say within two weeks. Pretty quickly. I think it was a very good phone call. I consider it very productive. But I will meet with President Putin, and we will make a decision. Tomorrow I am meeting with President Zelenskyy and I will tell him about the call. We, of course, have a problem. Those two are not very good with each other. They have a terrible relationship. So, I will meet. We will meet in Hungary. Viktor Orbán will lead the event. And that is really important. Last week more than 7,000 people were killed. That is nonsense. And we think we can stop it. We hope we can do it.

Journalist: You said there is great progress. Can you tell us a little about that? Has Putin's tone changed? Did he tell you anything?

Trump: I just feel... you know, I've been doing this my whole life. I've made deals. I understand deals well. I do it well. Frankly, I don't think any president has ever ended a war. And I've ended eight wars, right? I think we'll do this one soon, I hope. But I will most likely meet with him in the next two weeks.

Journalist: What did you tell them about the Tomahawks? Did you discuss the Tomahawk missiles?

Trump: Well, we talked a little about that. I didn't say much. But I'll tell you, we, the United States of America, also need Tomahawks. We have a lot of them. But we need them. We can't use them up for our country. They are very powerful. Very accurate. Very good. But we need them too. So, I don't know what we can do on this issue.

Journalist: Why do you think a second meeting with Putin will now yield different results?

Trump: I didn't start this war. This is Biden's doing. I came in, and it was complete chaos here. This could have led to a Third World War. That won't happen. But it could have. When I was leaving, they weren't even thinking about this. For four years, nobody talked about this. I spoke with President Putin about Ukraine. It was sacred to him. But he was never going to do something like this. And all this happened because of very bad decisions that were made.