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Trump Hosts European Leaders & Zelensky At White House. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 18, 2025 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: And it really was the best one, or, sorry, maybe the best one will be in the future. But it was really good. And we spoke about very sensitive points. The first one is security guarantees. And we are very happy, Mr. President, that all the leaders are here. And security in Ukraine depends on the United States and on you and on those leaders who are with us in our hearts. They have been online before yesterday and et cetera.

So, a lot of countries on the side of Ukraine, our people, and all of us want to finish this war, stop Russia, and stop this war. We spoke about it, and we will speak more about security guarantees. This is very important that the United States gives such strong signal and is ready for security guarantees.

The second point, or maybe the first humanitarian direction, very important to exchange all the prisoners. And I think that President will help. And I was very thankful to your wife again, Mr. President, for the letter about our abducted children. And I hope that really it can be historic role for the people to bring kids back to the families and be happy - and the families.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the people back, yes.

ZELENSKYY: Yes, this is so, so important and I'm happy that we discussed it. This track (ph) with President Trump and I hope that we will find decisions. And then, what is very important, that all the sensitive things, territorial and et cetera, we will discuss on the level of leaders during trilateral meeting and President Trump will try to organize such meeting. And he said that he will come or not come. Ukraine will be happy if you will participate.

TRUMP: If you both want me there, I will be there. Yes.

ZELENSKYY: Yes, thank you. And I think this is very important. Yes, so security guarantees, bringing kids back and all our people, not only warriors. First of all, warriors and all the civilians, journalists, a lot of people in prison. So, we need them back. And guarantees, which will work for the years. We spoke about it. And I showed the President a lot of details on the battlefield, on the map. Thank you so much. Thank you for the map, by the way.

TRUMP: Good map.

ZELENSKYY: It was great. I'm thinking how to take it back. TRUMP: Well, we'll give it to you.

ZELENSKYY: No, no, no. I think that we had constructive, specific meeting. And I'm very thankful to all the leaders who are here. And you helped a lot. And so, we are happy that we have such big unity today. Thank you, Mr. President. [INAUDIBLE] thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Mr. President. And I think you'll see that President Putin really would like to do something also. I think when we set that up, when we do, I think it's going to be when, not if. I think you're going to see some very - really positive moves. I know there's over a thousand prisoners, and I know they're going to release them. Maybe they're going to release them very soon, like immediately, which I think is great.

But we will - we're going to set that up today after this meeting. So, very good and great remarks. I appreciate it. Mark, as head of NATO, maybe you could say a few words, please.

MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Yes, I will be very brief. I really want to thank you, President of the United States, dear Donald, for the fact that you - as I said before, broke the deadlock, basically, with President Putin by starting that dialogue. And I think it was in February that you had the first ...

TRUMP: Right.

RUTTE: ... phone call. And from there, we are now where we are today. And that is, I think if we play this well, we could end this. And we have to end this. We have to stop the killing. We have to stop the destruction of Ukraine's infrastructure. It is a terrible war. So, I'm really excited. And let's make the best out of today and make sure that from today onwards, we get this thing to an end as soon as possible. I really want to thank you for your leadership, what you are doing for Volodymyr, but of course also all the European colleagues. It is really crucial.

And the fact that you have said, I'm willing to participate in the security guarantees is a big step. It's really a breakthrough. And it makes all the difference. So also thank you for that.

TRUMP: Well, NATO also has agreed from 2 percent to 5 percent, which is something that is a massive amount of money. And it's 2 percent that wasn't always paid to 5 percent that is paid. That's a big difference. And so, we appreciate that. That was a great move. Thank you very much.

Ursula, maybe on behalf of the Commission, you could say a couple of words.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Yes. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. And it's a very important moment. Indeed, we are here, Europeans, as friends and allies. We had a fantastic NATO summit. Together as the two largest and biggest economies in the world, we had the largest trade deal ever ...

TRUMP: That's right.

VON DER LEYEN: ... agreed. And now, we are here to work together with you on a just and lasting peace for Ukraine, to stop the killing.

[15:05:07]

This is really our common interest. Stop the killing. And indeed, it's very good to hear that we're working on the security guarantees. Article 5 lies security guarantees, so important. But I want to thank you also that you mentioned the thousands of Ukrainian children that have been abducted. And as a mother and grandmother, every single child has to go back to its family. This should be one of our main priorities also in these negotiations, to make sure that the children come back to Ukraine to their families.

TRUMP: Thank you. And we did. I was just thinking we're here for a different reason. But we, just a couple of weeks ago, made the largest trade deal in history, so that's a big thing. And congratulations. That's great. Thank you very much, Ursula.

Mr. Chancellor from Germany ...

FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: Yes.

TRUMP: ... a very great leader.

MERZ: Mr. President, Dear Donald, many thanks for having us today. I think this is extremely helpful that we are meeting and hearing that the two of you are having such a good meeting today here in Washington. The next steps ahead are the more complicated ones now. The path is open. You opened it last Friday. But now the way is open for complicated negotiations.

And to be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire, the latest from the next meeting on. I can't imagine that the next meeting would took place without a ceasefire. So, let's work on that. And let's try to put pressure on Russia, because the credibility of these efforts we are undertaking today are depending on at least a ceasefire from the beginning of the serious negotiations from next step on. So, I would like to emphasize this aspect and would like to see a ceasefire from the next meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting wherever it takes place.

TRUMP: Well, we're going to let the President go over and talk to the President. And we'll see how that works out and if we can do that. I will say, and again I say it, in the six wars that I've settled, I haven't had a ceasefire. We just got into negotiations and they - one of the wars was, as you know, in the Congo, was 30 years, 31 years long. Another one that we settled last week with two great countries was 35 years going on, and we had no ceasefire.

So, if we can do the ceasefire, great. And if we don't do a ceasefire, because many other points were given to us. Many, many points were given to us, great points.

Please, Giorgia, go ahead. GIORGIA MELONI, ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Well, thank you very much,

Donald, Mr. President, for hosting us today in this important meeting. And I think it is an important day, a new face, after three years and a half that we didn't see any kind of sign from the Russian side that there was a willing for dialogue. So, something is changing. Something has changed, thanks to you. Thanks also to the stalling in the battlefield, which was achieved with the bravery of Ukrainians and with the unity that we all provided to Ukraine.

And the reason why I mention it is that we also have to remind that if we want to reach peace and if we want to guarantee justice, we have to do it united. So that's why it's a very good day, the one we are in. You can obviously count on Italy, as it was from the beginning. We are on the side of Ukraine, and we do absolutely support your efforts towards peace. We will talk about many important topics.

The first one is security guarantees, how to be sure that it won't happen again, which is the precondition of every kind of peace. I'm happy that we will discuss about that. I'm happy that we will begin from a proposal, which is the, let's say, Article 5 model, which was Italian at the beginning. So, we are always ready to bring our proposals for peace, for dialogue. It's something we have to build together to guarantee peace and to defend the security of our nation. So, thank you, Mr. President, for hosting us.

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Emmanuel?

PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON, FRANCE: Thank you, Mr. President, for organizing this meeting and for your commitment. And everything was said, but I have to - I just have to say here, everybody around this table is in favor of peace. And we work very hard, and we've worked very hard during the past few years to have a peace which is a robust and longstanding peace.

[15:10:05]

This is why the idea of a trilateral meeting is very important, because this is the only way to fix it. And by the way, I think in - as a follow-up, we would need probably a quadrilateral meeting, because when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent. And this is why we are all united here with Ukraine on this matter.

In order to organize such a trilateral meeting, your idea to ask for a truce, or at least to stop the killings as we've discussed, is a necessity. And we all support this idea. And in order to have such a longstanding peace for Ukraine and for the whole continent, we do need the security guarantees.

And the first one is clearly a credible Ukrainian army for the years and decades to come. And the second one is our own commitment, all of us. And we worked very hard during the past few months amongst the Coalition of the Willings with the support of NATO to build the different pillars of security guarantees and our commitments. And you can be sure that Europeans are very lucid about the fact that they have their fair share in the security guarantees for Ukraine. But their own security is clearly at stake in this situation.

So, you can count on us, as we can count on you, in order to deliver this robust peace for both Ukraine and Europe. Thank you.

TRUMP: Thank you very much, Emmanuel. Mr. Prime Minister?

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, Mr. President. And thank you for hosting us here. Can I start where Emmanuel started, which is, we all want peace. The war in Ukraine has had a huge impact, particularly on the Ukrainians who've borne the brunt of it. But it's also had an impact on Europe and on the United Kingdom. There's not a family or community that hasn't been affected.

And when we talk about security, we're talking about the security not just of Ukraine. We're talking about the security of Europe and the United Kingdom as well, which is why this is such an important issue. I think this is such an important meeting. As a group, I think we've had a discussion on the phone a number of times, Mr. President, but be able now to be around the table to take it forward.

And I really feel that we can - I think, with the right approach this afternoon, make real progress, particularly on the security guarantees. And your indication of security guarantees, of some sort of Article 5-style guarantees, fits with what we've been doing with the Coalition of the Willing, which we started some months ago, bringing countries together and showing that we were prepared to step up to the plate when it came to security.

With you coming alongside, the U.S. alongside what we've already developed, I think we could take a really important step forward today. A historic step, actually, could come out of this meeting in terms of security for Ukraine and security in Europe. I also feel that we can make real progress towards a just and lasting outcome. Obviously, that has to involve Ukraine. And a trilateral meeting seems the sensible next step. So, thank you for being prepared to take that forward, because I think if we can ensure that that is the progress out of this meeting, both security guarantees and some sort of progress on trilateral meeting of some sort to bring some of the difficult issues to a head, then I think today will be seen as a very important day in recent years in relation to a conflict which has gone on for three and a bit years, and so far nobody has been able to bring it to this point. So, I thank you for that.

TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. And, you know, it's very interesting because this is the first for the White House. You can't say that very often. It's seen a lot over the years, over the - since 1800, 1799, to be almost exact. But this is the first where we've had so many prime ministers, presidents, the heads of European nations.

And by the way, Alex, I'd like you to say a couple of words, too. You're a young, powerful man. Before I finish up, I want you to say a couple of words. Go ahead.

ALEXANDER STUBB, FINNISH PRESIDENT: I'll take the notion of youth back to my wife and try to convince her. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I think in the past two weeks, we've probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three and a half years. And I think the fact that we're around this table today is very much symbolic in the sense that it's Team Europe and Team United States helping Ukraine. And the progress that we're looking out of this meeting is about the security guarantees, which are a big part of this. And then, of course, moving towards a process with the trilateral meeting with you and President Putin and President Zelenskyy.

[15:14:58]

Some of the international media might wonder, you know, why is the president of Finland here. I think the reason is probably that we might come from a small country, but we have a long border with Russia, over 800 miles. And we, of course, have our own historical experience with Russia from World War II, the Winter War, and the War of Continuation. And if I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944. And I'm sure that we'll be able to find a solution in 2025 to end Russia's war of aggression and find and get a lasting and just peace. The situation is very difficult, but that's why we're here.

TRUMP: Thank you, Alex, very much.

STUBB: Thank you.

TRUMP: Good job. So, we're going to be meeting for a while, and we're going to discuss some of the issues. And I don't think there's any issue that's overly complex. It's at a point now where people want to do things. I do - I really do believe, I've known him for a long time. I've always had a great relationship with him. I think that President Putin wants to find an answer, too. And we'll see. And if - in a certain period of time, not very far from now, a week or two weeks, we're going to know whether or not we're going to solve this or is this horrible fighting going to continue. We'll do the best to get it ended. And I believe you have two willing parties. And usually that's good news, but two willing parties that want to make a deal. And we'll journey together, and we'll go over, and we'll see if it can be done.

And it's possible it might not be able to be done. On the other hand, it's possible it will. And we're going to save thousands and thousands of lives a week. And so, it's something we really have to do and - or at least we have to give it our best. That's all you can do. You can give it your best, but I think we may have a very good outcome.

So, I want to thank you all. And the media, I want to thank you. We're going to be staying here for a little while. Then, we're going to walk over to the Oval Office, and we're going to have another little discussion about similar matters. And then they're going to go home to their great countries and report. And I'm going to remain here and work, and you're going to go and work. We're all going to be working.

We may be in a different location, but that's what we know how to do is work. But I want to thank - the media has been, actually, very fair, generally speaking. Very fair. I think it's important that they're fair because this is a very important - this is a very important subject. We have to get it ended. And so that's all we ask for, is fairness with the media. Thank you all very much. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A meeting between European leaders and President Trump there at the White House. And it was really interesting - multiple leaders saying they all want peace. And what's clear is that they're skeptical that Vladimir Putin actually wants peace because you had at least a couple of them saying they want a ceasefire, which President Trump has abandoned his demand for after coming out of these Alaska talks. They don't trust that Vladimir Putin wants peace. They want a signal that he actually does, so they want the fighting to stop while they are trying to move forward with negotiations.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You heard Germany's Friedrich Merz and France's Emmanuel Macron both saying that a ceasefire is essential and any phase of negotiations after this trilateral meeting that President Trump said is a question of when, not if, has to rely on a ceasefire to ensure that no further life is lost.

Notably, President Trump, during his remarks, said many of us would prefer a ceasefire, seeming to acknowledge that at some point in the conversation that was brought up. You imagine it likely will be brought up again. One last thing, there was also repeated mentions of an Article 5-like agreement. Essentially an agreement that other nations would intervene if, after some securing of peace between Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin were to decide to go back in and take more territory.

Let's take you live to the White House with CNN's Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, what stood out to you from what we just heard?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris and Brianna, I mean, that - those comments about a ceasefire were really interesting, particularly given that he seemed to walk away from the idea of a ceasefire after Alaska. Then he said, I would prefer - everyone here would prefer a ceasefire. A ceasefire is better in some ways because it stops the killing.

But then later, after some of the leaders had talked about a ceasefire as well, he went back to this idea of a peace agreement, saying he solved other wars with just a peace agreement. So that was quite interesting there. Now, President Trump said that there was quite a bit of things that they were going to have up for discussion that during these talks today. It was going to include potential land concessions. It was also going to include these security guarantees.

Those security guarantees are incredibly notable, given a couple of things. One, you heard several of the leaders there saying that they were grateful for President Trump to engage in those conversations and to potentially lend U.S. assistance.

[15:20:03] Now, this is after we heard President Trump earlier today, who, not

ruling out the idea of U.S. troops on the ground. Clearly, this is a key item when it comes to Ukraine and to the European leaders, that they want U.S. buy-in when it comes to these security guarantees. Obviously, land concessions were brought up as well.

The other part of this was that President Trump seemed to signal they might be able to actually come to a resolution about these security guarantees today. They seem to want to come out of here with a couple of big things. One, potential security guarantees, as we've said. But the other part of this is that trilateral meeting. We heard several of these various leaders saying that they want to leave here with this trilateral meeting, at least in the works of being set up between Trump and Putin and Zelenskyy.

Another notable thing that stood out to me was when President Trump essentially said that coming to peace and the end of the war was on Zelenskyy, but then he added that it was also on Russian President Vladimir Putin. That is notable, given that earlier today, after he came out of those conversations in Alaska and earlier on Truth Social, he was saying essentially that the ball is all in Zelenskyy's court.

Now, on a ceasefire, one of the things he said, which is not going to, you know, necessarily settle anyone over the issue, is that that could be something that Putin and Zelenskyy talked about. That's clearly not going to happen in terms of Zelenskyy being able to sway Putin into a ceasefire. That's going to have to be something that these larger powers would have to intercede, would have to get involved in, given all that we've seen.

KEILAR: Certainly. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for that report from the White House.

Let's talk about this now with retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton, CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Kim Dozier and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, Evelyn Farkas. She is also the Executive Director of the McCain Institute. And we're also joined by Jim Townsend. He's a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy. He's currently an Adjunct Senior Fellow for the Transatlantic Security Program.

Evelyn, to you first.

It was interesting as we heard, and I don't know that I've seen an Emmanuel Macron as stern as this Emmanuel Macron, whether it was in this family photo or sitting next to President Trump. He had a little wink, I think, for President Zelenskyy after he finished his comments. But otherwise, it was pretty stone cold there.

He's one of the ones - he's one of the leaders who pressed Trump on a ceasefire. And I wonder what you thought about that call from European leaders that may be indicative that behind the scenes, there's even more pressure on that front from them.

EVELYN FARKAS, FORMER U.S. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR RUSSIA, UKRAINE & EURASIA: Yes, I mean, Brianna, first of all, I think it was really interesting to see how unified these leaders are amongst themselves. I mean, they clearly coordinated ahead of time. And, you know, starting with Chancellor Merz, they were very clear that a ceasefire is what they want. And as you said, Emmanuel Macron also was very strong. He was not smiling, he was, you know, sober. And he also called not just for a trilateral meeting, but a quadrilateral meeting. So, he's essentially signaling the Europeans should also be at another meeting after the trilateral meeting. Presumably, I guess the head of the European Union would be the fourth party there. So, Ursula von der Leyen.

But I think they were clear about ceasefire, they were clear about security guarantees. Those two things were kind of the red lines for them almost. So, it will be very interesting to see what comes out of this meeting. The one thing I just want to say quickly is that, you know, we had a Budapest Memorandum, which was a political agreement, the U.S. and the U.K. signed up together with Russia and Ukraine, of course, to guarantee Ukraine's sovereignty when they turned over their nuclear weapons. And this agreement was signed in 1994. Of course, it was violated.

And the United States and U.K. came to the assistance of Ukraine, but not exactly the way Ukraine expected. So, I think Article 5 is really important. These political agreements are not going to hold muster with the Ukrainian people.

SANCHEZ: Jim, what did you hear from these European leaders? It seemed like they were trying to push Trump in the direction of a ceasefire, even though he failed to secure one in Alaska.

JIM TOWNSEND, ADJUNCT SENIOR FELLOW, TRANSATLANTIC SECURITY PROGRAM: That's right. And I - it seems to me Trump is not going to go with a ceasefire. I think he really does feel that it's a waste of time. But I'm very interested in the trilateral meeting, because one thing that's been a problem is that whether it was Alaska or this Monday meeting, these have been developed very quickly, put together very quickly. Not a lot of thought being given to the strategic points and some of the thorny issues they're going to have to deal with, too.

So, I'm hoping there's going to be some time between now and a trilateral meeting where some work is done on things like return of the children. How's that going to work?

[15:25:01]

Or the Coalition of the Willing, what will that look like in terms of boots on the ground from the Europeans?

There's a lot of things that, you know, reconstruction that they're going to have to deal with before they have a trilat. But that trilat gives them a forcing mechanism that makes them deal with these thorny issues and not just kick them down the road. So, I hope we can get to some nuts and bolts pretty soon.

KEILAR: Jim, what indications do you see that Putin is actually serious about wanting to negotiate in any kind of good faith? And that there is pressure in a real way, in an effective way coming from the U.S. to get him to move in that position. Are you seeing that?

TOWNSEND: You know, that's a great question. And I'm not really seeing it. And I was hoping that we could really use the, you know, the tariffs and the destruction of the oil installations that Zelenskyy is doing to really put a lot of pressure on Putin through, you know, making his oil exportation and importation, you know, to try to hold that back so there's not the funding going in to Putin and that's going to help dry things up, but he's not doing that.

The only thing that gives me a little bit of hope is he seems to be allowing this Coalition of the Willing to involve non-Article 5 rules of engagement by that the U.S. is going to have a role to play. This is something that Putin was against. He seems to be softening on that. And this is a big thing for Zelenskyy is to have something rock solid. So maybe there's some progress there as we leave this meeting.

SANCHEZ: The counter argument from the administration, Evelyn, at least from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is that President Trump didn't push for sanctions against Putin after not securing a ceasefire, in part because if he did, that's where the conversation with Russia would end. I wonder what you make of that justification.

FARKAS: I mean, I think that leaders will talk to one another when they feel that it's in their national interest. So, if President Putin gets pressured by us through sanctions, then, you know, he may very well believe, as he did, because he met in Alaska with President Trump under the threat of sanctions. If we actually impose sanctions, I think that kind of pressure is exactly the thing that gets Putin to talk, and not just talk, but actually deal.

KEILAR: Kim, what did you think as you were watching this round robin, I guess, in a way? This was - it was pretty interesting to have each of these leaders have a chance to speak their mind for a few moments.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I feel like it was fascinating to watch them tag team Donald Trump. It's like they've called each other up and figured out who was going to bring up what ugly point that Trump didn't want to talk about, so that Zelenskyy emerges as the good cop, and they were all sort of the medium troublesome cops. Two of them brought up - we really did want a ceasefire, we really need a ceasefire. Several of them made the point to say Article 5-like security guarantees.

Now, let's remind everybody what Article 5 is. It's the part of NATO that says an attack on one is an attack on all, and the only country that's ever used it is the U.S. when the U.S. was attacked on 9/11. So, this is to say in public and have Trump agree to it that yes, we're going to give Ukraine some really strong security guarantees backed up by boots on the ground, and maybe it's just going to be U.S. intelligence and U.S. air support and continued U.S. weapons supplies that the U.S. would be paid for, but they're - they don't want him to get talked out of this by Putin.

SANCHEZ: Notably, Colonel, one of the moments that stood out to me during Trump's remarks was that he specifically asked Zelenskyy whether he would want him at this trilateral meeting. He said that I would be there if you both want me there. Zelenskyy said immediately, yes, definitely I would want you there. Is there a reason Vladimir Putin would not?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Oh, I think there are several reasons, Boris, that he wouldn't. First of all, he doesn't recognize Zelenskyy as a legitimate head of state, and that is - he doesn't recognize Ukraine as a legitimate country, and so it would be essential for Trump to be there, you know? Even if Trump doesn't want to be there, he has an obligation to be there because he needs to be - he's in a position now where he's basically the one, along with the Europeans, that can protect Zelenskyy.

I mean, basically, if there was a one-on-one meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin, Putin would probably want to eliminate Zelenskyy one way or the other, and that's the kind of thing that you actually have to consider in this situation.

[15:30:03]

There have been several assassination attempts against Zelenskyy.