Zelensky on Putin:

We can't change the truth. We can't compare me and Putin.

Putin killed children. He is a terrorist.

Q: Do you still believe Trump is an ally of Ukraine?

Zelensky: I hope so.

Zelensky:

If the U.S. supports Putin, I mean, it's unbelievable. It's a tragedy, a historic mistake and a big tragedy.

If the U.S. officially takes the side of Russia, of course we will not prevail. We will not be able to stand.

Zelensky:

We hope that Trump will be on our side, or at least in the middle.

Bessent:

Let's look at what's really happening here: the Europeans have given Russia and Vladimir Putin more money than they have given the Ukrainians.

They continue to gorge on Russian energy.

Bessent:

In the spring, I asked our European allies to join us in putting secondary tariffs on China and India. They refused.

So why should the U.S. bear the burden?

Bessent on Russia:

President Trump sanctioned the two largest Russian energy companies, which dealt a catastrophic blow to the Russian energy industry.

So no one has been tougher on Russian sanctions than President Trump.

Bessent on Russia:

I will point out the UK in May waived its embargo on diesel and jet fuel made with Russian crude.

So, you know, where is the outrage for the rest of the world?

President Zelensky does not criticize his European partners.

Bessent on Russia:

The Europeans are financing the Russian war machine.

The U.S. imports $4 billion of Russian products; $1.8 billion of that is fertilizer. The Europeans import more than ten times that.

Welker: President Zelensky also said there was a break in intelligence sharing as well.

Bessent: President Zelensky should be very careful about making statements like this that aren't true.

Welker: Zelensky says Ukraine will not prevail if the United States sides with Russia. Is the president siding with Russia here?

Bessent: No. Again, that's a false binary. What does the U.S. provide?

The U.S. provides intelligence, Starlink. We allow NATO to buy U.S. armaments and resell them to Ukraine.

Welker: Why lift the sanctions now? What has Putin done to deserve sanctions relief now?

Bessent: That's not true. No sanctions were lifted Friday. No sanctions were lifted.

Welker: There was a law that was supposed to put more sanctions in place, and the president effectively waived that.

Bessent: No sanctions were lifted. There was a 60-day period. Examine what's going on. The only thing that has been lifted is the diesel embargo.

Welker: Does the United States see Ukraine as an ally?

Bessent: We provide things to Ukraine. That's what you do for an ally. We are not providing those to Russia.

Welker: Does that mean the United States sees Ukraine as an ally? Can you say one way or another?

Bessent: I am not the president.

Bessent on Ukraine:

When President Zelensky asks for Patriots, NATO — the European members of NATO — they have plenty of Patriots.

Why aren't they forthcoming with the Patriots? Where is Germany?

Welker: Zelensky said he believes the U.S. slowed the speed of Starlink. President Trump said he had nothing to do with it. Can you say no one in the Trump administration ordered restrictions?

Bessent: Trump and Rubio have said that no one in the Trump administration did that.

And I think it is very reckless for President Zelensky to make such a charge.

BREAKING: Trump has given his "Complete and Total Endorsement" to Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of Israel's October 27 election, warning that the U.S. would have to take on Iran itself if Israel chose another leader.

In a message addressed to Israelis, Trump called Netanyahu a "Great Warrior Prime Minister" and said Iran had been systematically destroyed militarily and financially, adding that unless it changes course, "we will soon finish the job."

He wrote that if Israel elects "anyone other than Bibi," America would have to do this work itself, which he said he is not inclined to do.

The endorsement comes as Netanyahu's Likud trails in polls behind former army chief Gadi Eisenkot's Yashar party.

Trump’s endorsements in foreign elections have a 6–1 record so far, with Viktor Orbán’s defeat in Hungary his only loss, ahead of his newly announced backing of Benjamin Netanyahu.

🇵🇱 Poland: Karol Nawrocki won the 2025 presidential election after Trump administration officials urged Poles to vote for him.

🇦🇷 Argentina: Javier Milei’s party won October 2025 midterms after Trump threatened to withhold aid if it lost and the U.S. finalized a $20 billion currency swap.

🇭🇳 Honduras: Nasry Asfura won after Trump warned the U.S. would not keep funding Honduras if he lost, and pardoned Asfura’s party colleague, former President Juan Orlando Hernández, days before the vote.

🇨🇱 Chile: José Antonio Kast won the presidency after Trump’s endorsement.

🇯🇵 Japan: Sanae Takaichi’s party won a two-thirds supermajority in February’s snap election, three days after Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement,” and Trump later claimed credit.

🇨🇴 Colombia: Abelardo de la Espriella won the June runoff after Trump backed him.

🇭🇺 Hungary: Viktor Orbán lost in April to Péter Magyar’s Tisza party, which won about 53% of the vote and a two-thirds majority, despite a campaign visit by Vice President JD Vance.

🇮🇱 Israel: Netanyahu, endorsed ahead of the October 27 election, is the next test.

BIG: Itamar Ben-Gvir claims Netanyahu’s office has officially assured several European Union countries that he will not be part of the next Israeli government.

The National Security Minister said he received “verified” information that the message was conveyed to EU foreign ministers or higher-level officials, adding that he said it “with deep sorrow.”

Likud rejected the claim as “false political spins,” saying any future government will rest on the current coalition partners and urging voters to back Likud to prevent a left-wing government led by Gadi Eisenkot.

Netanyahu:

If the regime recovers, it will rebuild its nuclear capabilities and its weapons of mass destruction.

If we have to act alone, we will act alone.

We cannot live with enemy states that declare their intention to destroy us, aspire to destroy us, and act to destroy us.

Netanyahu on Iran:

This is not the Netherlands with nuclear weapons — although the Netherlands is starting to become a story too.

I'm joking, I'm joking.