President Trump Says Vladimir Putin Has Let Him Down
2 min read
President Trump said Vladimir Putin has "let me down" for not showing leadership to end the war in Ukraine.
On Thursday Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted Trump at Chequers as part of the US state visit.
During a press conference, Trump said the Russian president was failing to compromise with Western powers to end the killing in Ukraine.
Trump told reporters: “[Putin] has let me down, he’s killing many people and he’s losing more people than he’s killing.
“I mean frankly Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers. But he’s let me down... It doesn’t affect the United States unless you end up [in] a world war over this thing... you could."
Keir Starmer and President Trump in the Great Hall taking questions from UK and US reporters during the state visit
Prime Minister Keir Starmer also told the Great Hall – inside Chequers – that the coalition of the willing must exert "extra pressure" on Putin to force the Russian president to come to a ceasefire agreement.
"We have to put extra pressure on Putin and it’s only when the president has put pressure on Putin that he’s actually shown any inclination to move," Starmer added.
Prior to the conference, both leaders signed a technology prosperity deal to increase the development of AI, quantum computing and nuclear energy.
Leading companies Microsoft, NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI and CoreWeave will commit to spending £31billion to boost the UK’s AI intelligence.
Trump avoided a question about the departure of former US ambassador Peter Mandelson, who had close links to Jeffrey Epstein. The US President brushed it off and asked Starmer to answer it. The Prime Minister said it was a "straightforward" decision to dismiss Mandelson.
The US President was also heavily pressed on the war in Gaza and whether he would demand Israel to come to a ceasefire agreement. Trump said many commentators and political figures had forgotten about October 7, where Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and abducted a further 251 hostages.
“People forget about Oct 7, I can’t forget about it. And I want it to end but I want the hostages back, I don’t want the hostages used as human shields which is what Hamas is threatening to do.”
Trump said it was a priority to get the 48 hostages out of Gaza, who have been held in the strip for more than 700 days. The US president added that the UK's decision to recognise a Palestinian state marked one of the few disagreements they have.
