President Donald Trump said Monday that he told First Lady Melania after speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin, “we had a wonderful conversation” — only for Melania to respond, “oh really? Another [Ukrainian] city was just hit."
The president made these remarks while speaking with reporters alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office.
The first lady's comment, as recounted by Trump, highlight the contrast between Putin’s calm assurances and the ongoing devastation in Ukraine.
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Researcher Andreas Backhauswrote on the social platform X: "At least one person in this household still watches actual news.
The Reagan Caucus's X account said: "Thank God for Melania. She's convinced Trump that Putin is a bad hombre."
"Melania Trump I wasn’t familiar with your game," wrote a Ukrainian-American user on the social platform X.
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"It’s crazy that she is updating him on things like that when he has a full team of people who’s job it is to tell him things like that," wrote another user.
"Why is Melania the one briefing him on critical military updates?" asked a user.
"Glad Melania is filling in for the daily intelligence briefing," tweeted another user.
Meanwhile, Trump announced Monday that NATO has struck a deal to send American-made weapons to Ukraine, with European allies footing the bill.
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“We've made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they're going to be paying for them. The United States will not be having any payment made,” Trump said. “We're not buying it but we will manufacture it and they're going to be paying for it.”
Rutte hailed the arrangement as “really big,” and praised it as a sign of “Europeans stepping up.”
“This is the first wave, and there will be more. European countries want to be part of it,” he added.
Watch the video of Trump's remarks below, or by clicking this link.
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