Remarks Prior to a Meeting With President Emmanuel Macron of France and an Exchange With Reporters

President Trump. Well, thank you very much. We very much appreciate the attention.

Today is a big day in that we had a G-7. And President Macron, who is a very special man in my book—we were together. We did it together, and I think a lot of progress has been made. We've had some very good talks with Russia. We've had some very good talks with others, and we're trying to get the war ended with Russia and Ukraine. And I think we've come a long way in a short period of weeks, and the President has been very helpful also.

And we're also talking about trade—various trade deals that we will be doing with France, and we'll be discussing a little bit further.

Then we'll have a press conference later on. You can ask some questions. We'll be having a press conference in a little while.

We're going to have lunch with the entire French staff, and we look forward to it.

And again, the relationship has been very special with France and very special with this gentleman on my right, and we look forward to keeping that going for a long period of time.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

President Macron. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I want to thank Mr. President for his hospitality. We had a good discussion this morning for the G-7 here——

President Trump. Yes.

President Macron. ——and for the third year of war—of this war in Ukraine. And I think our common objective, clearly, is to build peace and a solid and longstanding peace. And this is what we will discuss, obviously, because I have great respect for bravery and the resistance of—of the Ukrainian people. And we do share the objective of peace, but we are very aware of the necessity to have guarantees and a solid peace in order to stabilize the situation.

I'm here as a friend, because through centuries we've been friends. And we are—personal friends, as you mentioned it, because we work very well together.

And I think the U.S. and France always stands on the same side—the right side, I would say—of history.

President Trump. Mm-hmm.

President Macron. And this is exactly what is at stake today.

And this is a very important moment for Europe as well. And I'm here as well, after discussions with all my colleagues, to say that Europe is willing to step up to be a stronger partner, to do more in defense and security for its continent, and as well to be a reliable partner and to be engaged on trade, economy, investment in a lot of topics. So I'm very excited by the discussion we will have, and obviously, we will follow up.

And I want to thank you again, Mr. President, for your presence for Notre-Dame de Paris. It meant a lot for French people, and I want to thank you for that.

President Trump. That's the cathedral.

And they've done a fantastic job. The President has done a great job in bringing it back. That was a terrible thing—like, what?—5 years ago. The——

President Macron. Yes.

President Trump. Watching that burn was a very horrible, horrible sight, and you've done a fantastic job in bringing it back. So I congratulate you.

President Macron. Thank you.

President Trump. Thank you for being here.

President Macron. Thank you, President. Thank you.

President Trump. Thank you very much.

Anybody want to ask a question or two? Or is that a foolish question?

Q. Mr. President——

Ukraine/U.S. Security Assistance

Q. Mr. President, have you reached an agreement with the Ukrainians on the critical mineral, steel, and oil?

President Trump. It looks like we're getting very close. The deal is being worked on. And we're, I think, getting very close to getting an agreement where—we get our money back over a period of time, but it also gives us something where I think it's very beneficial to their economy, to their—to them as a country.

But you know, we're in for $350 billion. How we got there, I don't know, but that's a lot of money—a lot of money—invested. And we had nothing—nothing to show for it, and it was the Biden administration's fault.

The Europeans are in for about $100 billion, and they do it as a form—in the form of a loan. And the Europeans have been great on this issue. They understood it wasn't fair, and we were able to work something out.

But with the Ukrainians, I think I can say that we're very close.

Scott is around here someplace, and I think we can say that we're very——

National Security Adviser Michael G. Waltz. Right here, Mr. President.

President Trump. Hi, Scott. I think that we're very close. Do you have something to say about that Scott?

Secretary of the Treasury Scott K.H. Bessent. We're—we are very close. The——

President Trump. Good.

Secretary Bessent. ——1-yard line.

President Trump. All right, good.

Q. Mr. President——

Critical Minerals Supply

Q. Would that include security guarantees for Ukraine?

President Trump. What?

Q. Would a minerals deal include a security guarantee for Ukraine?

President Trump. Well, it will be—Europe is going to make sure that nothing happens. I don't think it's going to be much of a problem. I think once we settle, there's going to be no more war in Ukraine, and you're not going to have it. It's not going to be a very big problem. That's going to be the least of it.

Greece

Q. Mr. President, we're hearing from the Greek——

Q. Are you going to meet with President Zelensky soon?

Q. ——media reporting that the U.S. has agreed to shut down a military base in Greece that's been a logistical hub for NATO.

President Trump. That it shut down—that who shut down?

Q. That the U.S. has agreed to shut it down at the request of Turkey and Russia. Is that at all true?

President Trump. Marco, do you have anything to say——

Secretary of Defense Peter B. Hegseth. No.

President Trump. ——about it?

President Macron. Greece—

Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio. Greece? I don't—that would be——

Secretary Hegseth. No.

President Trump. Greece?

President Macron. He said—[inaudible]——

National Security Adviser Waltz. No?

Secretary Hegseth. It's a—that's a no.

National Security Adviser Waltz. That's a no, sir.

President Trump. All right.

Q. Mr. President——

President Trump. Is it a no? Did you say?

Secretary Hegseth. It's a no, sir.

President Trump. It's not a correct story.

Q. Thank you.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. Mr. President, how do you react to people in Europe who say that you are abandoning Ukraine and that you are going to sacrifice the security of Ukraine by making a deal with Vladimir Putin?

President Trump. No, we're helping Ukraine like nobody has ever helped Ukraine before. And I can say this: If I didn't become President, Ukraine would, right now, still be at a level where there would be no even thinking about a peace. And it was a—it's a sad thing that this happened. This would have never happened, this war, if I were President. Zero chance.

And it has happened, so my function is to get you out of the war, get them out of the war. Let them live. It's a bloody war. It's a horrible war.

Thousands of people are being killed a week. And I would say, Russia—maybe 700,000 people. I think Ukraine, probably, a similar number. And that's not talking about the towns and the cities that have been blown up. That's talking about soldiers. This has been a horrible bloody mess, and we're going to get it solved. We've got to get it solved.

And you know, we're not talking about America's soldiers—soldiers from this country. We're talking about Russia and Ukraine. But on a humanitarian basis, we have to get this very, very bloody, savage problem solved.

And I will say this also, it could lead to World War III if it's not solved. You know, there'll be a point at which it's not going to stop at those two countries. Already, there's such involvement from other countries, and it could really lead to a very big war—World War III. And we're not going to let that happen either.

Ukraine/European Military Assistance

Q. Will you support the idea to send European troops in Ukraine to back the cease-fire?

President Trump. Yes, European troops may go into Ukraine as peacemakers, so when the agreement is done, they can watch that everything is followed properly. I don't think that's going to be a problem. And a lot of the European countries, I think—I don't want to speak for France, but I know that the President has talked about doing that also.

I think that will be a very good day when we can go in as peacekeepers, as opposed to what's going on right now with everybody being killed. So——

European Military Assistance/Ukraine

Q. Will they have U.S. backing? Those troops going into Ukraine, will they have U.S. backing from U.S. troops?

President Trump. Well, we're going to have a backing of some kind, and obviously the European countries are going to be involved. And I don't think you're going to need much backing. I think that's not going to be a problem.

Once an agreement is signed, Russia is going to get back to its business, and Ukraine and Europe are going to get back to their business. I don't think it's going to be a problem.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine

Q. Mr. President, could——

Q. Can you talk about DOGE?

Q. ——you meet with President Zelenskyy soon?

President Trump. What?

Q. Could you meet with President Zelenskyy soon? With the——

President Trump. I will be meeting with President Zelenskyy. In fact, he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement and—which would be nice, I'd love to meet him. We'd meet at the Oval Office.

So the agreement is being worked on now. They're very close to a final deal. It will be a deal with rare earths and various other things. And he would like to come, as I understand it, here, to sign it, and that would be great with me.

I think they then have to get it approved by their council or whoever might approve it. But I'm sure that will happen.

[At this point, several reporters began asking questions at once.]

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. How soon, Mr. President, are you planning to meet with President Putin?

Q. Mr. President Macron——

President Trump. At some point, I'll be meeting with President Putin also, yes.

Q. How soon?

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

President Trump. I don't know when. We speak. We're trying to get this thing worked out. But yes, at some point I'll be meeting with President Putin too.

[Several reporters spoke at once. A reporter then spoke in French; no translation was provided.]

Q. Mr. President——

President Trump. Say it.

President Macron. I can say a few words in French.

President Trump. Yes, please.

[President Macron spoke in French.]

President Macron. President Trump——

[Several reporters spoke at once. President Trump then addressed an interpreter as follows.]

President Trump. Yes.

[An interpreter translated President Macron's remarks as follows.]

President Macron. ——has already spoken about this just a moment ago. This is exactly what we want to do. We want to build peace with Ukraine. As President Trump mentioned, there are already 1 million dead and wounded in Ukraine since the war began. We had a cease-fire in the past that was not respected. This was under the Minsk agreements I and II.

President Trump, as he said, will be meeting with President Zelenskyy to sign a deal on rare earths, and we are pleased to see this very strong American involvement.

Europe, of course, also stands ready to support Ukraine in various ways, supporting its military. And we don't want to preempt any sort of discussions that are currently underway, but we do share the same objective of building this lasting peace.

President Trump. I just want to tell you a little story. So we were at the Eiffel Tower having dinner with your wonderful wife and with my wonderful wife, and we came out, and he started speaking the French deal, and we didn't have an interpreter. And he was going on and on and on, and I was just nodding, "Yes, yes, yes." [Laughter] And he really sold me out, because I got back the next day, and I read the papers. I said, "That's not what we said." [Laughter]

He's a smart customer, I will tell you that. Do you remember? That was——

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

——that was—that wasn't exactly what we agreed to.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine/Russian Conflict

Q. Mr. President, you called Zelenskyy a dictator. Would you use the same words regarding Putin?

President Trump. I don't use those words lightly. I think that we're going to see how it all works out. Let's see what happens.

I think we have a chance of a really good settlement between various countries. And, you know, you're talking about Europe, and you're talking about Ukraine as part of that whole situation. The other side has a lot of support also. So let's see how it all works out. It might work out.

Look, you can never make up lives. They're the one thing you can't. You can make up the money, but you can't make up the lives. A lot of lives lost. I think probably a lot more lives than people are talking about. That's been a—it's been a rough war, but I think we're close to getting it solved.

Go ahead.

U.S. DOGE Service/Federal Workforce Reduction Efforts

Q. A question about DOGE, sir. Do you think that DOGE could benefit from more streamlined communications? There was that email telling employees to give five things that they've done last week. Agency heads then told people to ignore it, but Elon Musk——

President Trump. You're talking about the last email that was sent——

Q. Yes.

President Trump. ——where he wanted to know what you did this week? You know why he wanted that, by the way? I thought it was great. Because we have people that don't show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the Government.

So, by asking the question, "Tell us what you did this week," what he's doing is saying, "Are you actually working?" And then, if you don't answer, like, you're sort of semifired or you're fired, because a lot of people are not answering because they don't even exist. They're trying to—that's how badly various parts of our Government were run by—and especially by this last group.

So what they're doing is, they're trying to find out who's working for the Government. Are we paying other people that aren't working? And you know, where is all this—where's the money going?

We have found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud so far, and we've just started. We're actually going to Fort Knox to see if the gold is there, because maybe somebody stole the gold—tons of gold.

Q. Some of the agency heads——

President Trump. So I think it was actually—there was a lot of genius in sending it. We're trying to find out if people are working. And so we're sending a letter to people, "Please tell us what you did last week." If people don't respond, it's very possible that there is no such person or they're not working.

Q. Some of the agency heads instructed their employees not to respond because they're waiting on further guidance, but Elon Musk's tweet said a failure to respond would be taken as a resignation. So there's been a disconnect in communications.

President Trump. Yes.

Q. Are you concerned at all about that?

President Trump. Only—no, no, no. That was done in a friendly manner. Only things such as, perhaps, Marco at State Department, where they have very confidential things, or the FBI, where they're working on confidential things. And they don't mean that in any way combatively with Elon. They're just saying there are some people that you don't want to really have them tell you what they're working on last week.

But other than that, I think everyone thought it was a pretty ingenious idea. We have to find out where these people are. Who are they? And we said, if you don't respond, we assume you're not around.

Q. And that holds? That stands?

President Trump. And you're not getting paid anymore too. So, you know, we're doing a real job.

And we just had a poll come out—I guess, the Harvard poll—saying that it's massively popular what we're doing. So——

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Q. Mr. President, do you still believe in NATO—in the alliance between Europe and America, in NATO?

President Trump. Look, NATO is——

Q. Are you going to go to the summit in June?

President Trump. ——very much involved in this. When I first got elected at the very beginning, first term, I got hundreds of billions of dollars put into NATO. NATO had no money because they hadn't paid for years. And I said: "Look, if you don't pay, we're not going to be a part of NATO. We're not going to protect. We're not going to do what we're supposed to do." And we took in hundreds of billions of dollars into NATO.

No, NATO is a good thing if it's done properly and if it's used properly.

Italy

Q. Mr. President, in these days, you speak—in these days, you speak a lot about tariff in Canada, in Mexico, and in Europe. I want to know if you—what is your idea about Italy, if you want to make the same thing in Italy?

President Trump. About what?

Secretary Rubio. Italy.

President Trump. Can you talk up a little louder?

Q. In these—in these days——

President Trump. No, louder. Can you talk a little louder? You have a beautiful voice, but you're not——

Q. Oh, in these days, you speak a lot——

President Trump. Where are you from?

Q. Italy.

President Trump. From Italy.

Q. Italy.

President Trump. Oh, I love Italy. [Laughter]

Go ahead.

Q. I want to make—I want to know if you have the same idea with Italy about tariff.

President Trump. Well, look, I love Italy, and Italy is a very important nation. We have a wonderful woman as your leader, and she was on the conversation today—the one that we had, the G-7.

And no, I think Italy is doing very well. I think—I think Italy has got very strong leadership with Giorgia.

[A reporter spoke in French; no translation was provided.]

President Trump. Any other questions over here?

Q. Mr. President——

President Trump. Yes, ma'am.

Russia/Critical Minerals Supply

Q. Can you clarify what you meant in your Truth today on the major economic development transactions between the U.S. and Russia? Any more details there?

President Trump. With respect to what? Russia?

Q. In solving a peace deal. You said there would be "major economic development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia."

President Trump. Yes. We're trying to do some economic development deals. They have a lot of things that we want, and we'll see. I mean, I don't know if that will come to fruition, but we'd love to be able to do that, if we could.

You know, they have massive rare earth. It's a very large—it's actually the largest. In terms of land, it's by far the largest country. And they have very valuable things that we could use, and we have things that they could use, and it would be very good. If we could do that, I think it would be a very good thing for world peace and lasting peace.

It will—I mean, our first—by far, our first thing that we want to do or the first element of—of the overall transaction is ending the war. But if—just as we're doing with Ukraine, if we could do some economic development in terms of Russia and getting things that we want, something like that would be possible, yes.

Q. Mr. President—Mr. President——

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Q. Can you explain the rationale, sir, in the U.S. voting——

President Trump. Yes. Go ahead, please.

Ukraine

Q. Can you explain the rationale in having the U.S. vote against the U.N. resolutions that Ukraine proposed and also the U.S. proposed?

President Trump. I would rather not explain it now, but it's sort of self-evident, I think.

European Union/Tariffs

Q. Mr. President, you talked about increasing the tariffs on products from the European Union. Is that still something you want to do today?

President Trump. Well, it's not increasing. It's reciprocal. So, whatever they charge us, we're charging them. So it's not a question of increasing. If they charge us 20 percent, we charge them 20 percent. If they charge us 30 or 40 percent, then we do that too. So that would be on European Union. But that really would be respect—with respect to everybody. It's reciprocity.

So, reciprocal: Whatever they charge us, we charge them. Nobody has a problem. Even you. I see you don't have a problem anymore, right? [Laughter] Okay.

The President's Schedule

Q. Mr. President, are you thinking of going to Moscow soon, maybe in May, for the—9th of May for the anniversary?

President Trump. I mean, not soon, but I would be—certainly, if this all gets settled out, which I think it will, sure, I would go there. Sure.

Q. On the 9th of May?

President Trump. And he'd come here too.

Q. On the 9th of May for the—on the Red Square?

President Trump. I don't know the 9th of May. No, I don't—I think that's pretty—that's pretty soon. But no, at the appropriate time, I would go to Moscow.

Ukraine/Russia

Q. When do you think the war would end, Mr. President?

[A reporter spoke in French; no translation was provided.]

President Trump. I think the war could end soon.

Q. How soon?

President Trump. Within weeks.

Q. Weeks?

President Trump. Yes, I think so.

Q. At what price for Ukraine.

President Trump. Right? Don't you think so? I'd like to ask—have you—I think we could end it within weeks if we're smart. If we're not smart, it will keep going, and we'll keep losing young, beautiful people that shouldn't be dying, and we don't want that.

Q. What is the price for Ukraine?

President Trump. And remember what I said: This could escalate into a third world war, and we don't want that either.

Russia/Ukraine

Q. Mr. President, your Envoy, Steve Witkoff, suggested a temporary cease-fire in the conflict, but the Russian Government has denied that out of hand. Are you worried that they're not dealing in good faith?

President Trump. No, I think they, at some point, will agree to that. I think they probably want it too. And I think, once you have a cease-fire, it's going to end because they're not going from a cease-fire back to war. I think people have had their full.

I'm just glad I was able to help, because there was no communication with Russia until I came along. Biden didn't communicate. He couldn't communicate with his own child. So Biden didn't communicate. He couldn't—he—it was terrible. He hadn't spoken to Putin in 3 years.

You're trying to end a war. People are being killed. Every week, thousands of people are being killed—soldiers, in this case, mostly. Also, towns, you know, as missiles go in and back and forth.

No, it's a shame. This should have never happened. This is a very sad—this is going to go down in the history books. This a very sad moment, because that should have been stopped. That should have never started. And if it did start, it should have stopped the first week, not 3 years later. Okay?

Q. What do you think would be the price for Ukraine?

President Macron. [Inaudible]

President Trump. Please.

President Macron. If you'll allow me, because I had just——

[President Macron spoke in French; no translation was provided.]

President Trump. By the way, that is the most——

President Trump. That is the most beautiful language. [Laughter] I have no idea what he's saying, but that is the most——

[President Macron spoke in English as follows.]

President Macron. She will translate.

President Trump. ——elegant, beautiful language.

Go ahead, please.

It's true. It's very——

[An interpreter translated President Macron's remarks as follows.]

President Macron. This is a question that was asked by several. What we need to do is make sure that we are building peace. We have deterrence——

President Trump. Can you speak up, please?

[The interpreter continued her translation as follows.]

President Macron. We have deterrence capabilities that have been restored. As President Trump said, there won't be any more problems. We've seen the U.S. reengagement and the message that that sends to Mr. Putin. We have deterrence, which will allow a truce to take place. Verification of that truce and then a peace agreement can be put in place so that we can start rebuilding Ukraine with security guarantees. And we have a role to play in that.

Again, I'm not preempting any discussions, but we've spoken about Ukraine sovereignty, and that has been a subject of discussion between the U.S. and Ukraine.

We have also been working closely with our British partners this week. We've shared this information with other European countries, and we are ready and willing to provide those security guarantees, which could perhaps include troops, but they would be there to maintain peace. They would not be along the front lines. They would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected.

Our assistance may include other capacity-building, perhaps, for the military. We see U.S. credibility here. We each have our role to play, but it will be done in a united fashion.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Ukraine/Group of Seven (G-7) Nations

Q. Mr. President, do you think that Ukraine should give up on part of its territory?

President Trump. Well, we're going to see. It's a negotiation that's just starting, and, you know, they've been fighting, and there's been a lot of land that's been taken. So we'll have to see how that works out. That's part of the negotiation.

I will say there was great unity in that room today. You know, we were via Skype or whatever. But it was great—tremendous unity today in that room with the other countries. I was—

Q. Ukraine wants their territory——

Q. Is France going to——

President Trump. I was very impressed by it.

Q. ——territories back. Can they take it back, what they lost in the past years?

President Trump. That's not an easy thing to do, is it? Right? It's not an easy—you know, he's asking whether or not you can take back the land that they lost. And I say that, yes, perhaps some of it, yes. I hope so. But that's not an easy thing to do.

Q. But not everything?

Q. For Macron, on the frozen Russian——

President Trump. It's going to be something we're talking about.

Q. Mr. President, on the frozen——

President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia

Q. Will you convince Vladimir Putin to accept the European troops as peacekeeper? What do you think——

President Trump. Yes, he will accept that.

Q. He will accept them?

President Trump. I've asked him that question.

Q. You talked to him about it?

President Trump. I've asked him that question.

Q. He said yes?

Q. Is France going to lift the block on the $300 billion——

President Trump. Because he's not—look, if we do this deal, he's not looking for more war. He doesn't mind.

But I've specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it.

Q. Is France going to lift the block on the $300 billion in frozen Russian assets in Belgium? France has opposed unfreezing it to pay Ukraine and compensate the U.S. for its support. Is France going to lift its opposition to that?

President Macron. This is frozen—I mean, we speak about frozen assets? We already used them to backs precisely the loans negotiated at the G-7. And it's part of the sanctions, so it will depend on the follow-up of the discussions.

But clearly, we respect international law. It's just frozen assets now. You can take the proceeds of the frozen assets, but you cannot take the assets themselves, because it's not respecting international law, and we want to respect international law.

Q. How is one different than the other? If you can take the proceeds from it, how can you not take the assets?

President Macron. Because it's very different. You keep the assets. You take the proceeds, because they are paralyzed in a certain way. You take the proceeds during the war time, but you keep the assets, and it's part of the negotiation at the end of the war. Because, I mean, this war costed all of us a lot of money, and this is the responsibility of Russia, because the aggressor is Russia. So——

Q. Should the U.S. be compensated?

President Macron. So, at the end of the day, this frozen asset should be part of the negotiation, all in all.

Ukraine/International Security Assistance

Q. Will France support the U.S. being compensated?

President Macron. I support the idea to have Ukraine first being compensated, because they are the one to have lose a lot of their fellow citizens and are being destroyed by these attacks.

Second, all of those who paid for could be compensated, but not by Ukraine, by Russia, because they were the one to aggress.

President Trump. Again, just so you understand.

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Just so you understand, Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back.

President Macron. No, in fact, to be frank, we paid—we paid 60 percent of the total defaults.

President Trump. Okay.

President Macron. And it was through, like the U.S., loans, guarantee, grants, and we provided real money, to be clear.

President Trump. Yes, okay.

President Macron. We have $230 billion frozen assets in Europe—Russian assets—but this is not as a collateral of a loan, because this is not our belonging. So they are frozen.

If, at the end of the day in the negotiation, we will have with Russia, they're ready to give—to give it to us, super. It will be loan at the end of the day, and Russia will have paid for that. This is my wish.

President Trump. If you believe that, it's okay with me.

Q. Mr. President, do you——

President Trump. But they get their money back. We don't, and now we do. But you know, that's only fair.

President Macron. Well, we fight—[inaudible].

[Several reporters spoke at once.]

Russia/Ukraine

Q. Mr. President, do you think Russia should be the one that pays everybody back? Are they the aggressors?

President Trump. Well, we're all—we're negotiating everything, and everything is on the table. And we'll see if we can get some land back, and we'll see about a lot of different things.

And we're going to be making a little speech and say a few words in a little while. We're going to have another meeting, a luncheon meeting. And we'll see you in about 2 hours. Okay?

Thank you very much, everybody.

President Macron. Thank you.

President Trump. Thank you. Thank you very much.