“No, in fact, to be frank, we paid,” Mr. Macron said. As in the case of the United States, he said, there has been a mix of grants, loans and loan guarantees. “We provided real money, to be clear,” he said.
Mr. Trump, smiling, made a skeptical face and waved his hand as if to say that he did not buy it.
Mr. Trump, who failed to broker an end to the war in 24 hours or before his inauguration, as he had promised to do on the campaign trail, said that talks he had started with Mr. Putin could end the war “within weeks, if we’re smart.” He added, “If we’re not smart, it will keep going and we will lose young, beautiful people.”
The president emphasized his demand that Ukraine sign over hundreds of billions of dollars in mineral rights to repay U.S. military aid, which Mr. Zelensky has resisted. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, however, said U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators were “very close” to a deal, at the “one-yard line,” and Mr. Trump said that Mr. Zelensky could come to Washington to sign it as soon as this week or the next.
Mr. Trump’s return to power is convulsing relations with European allies as he threatens to impose tariffs on their consumer goods, demands that they increase military spending even beyond a previous target and breaks with them over Ukraine. Relations were inflamed by a speech in Munich by Vice President JD Vance, who suggested that the biggest security threat to European nations was not Russia or China, but their own political and cultural policies.
Mr. Macron has organized two meetings of European leaders to formulate a plan for dealing with an America that appears to be shifting favor from its traditional allies to Russia. But he then rushed to Washington for a hurriedly organized meeting with Mr. Trump to fortify the president in negotiations over the fate of Ukraine.
