Donald Trump was caught on a hot mic whispering to Emmanuel Macron about the situation with Vladimir Putin at a recent summit at the White House.
Trump met with Putin for the first time in years last week in Alaska to discuss possible ways the Russian invasion of Ukraine could be brought to an end, and yesterday (18 August) welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House along with a cohort of European leaders.
Putin apparently wants Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, including territory his armies have failed to capture more than three years after the start of his invasion, to end the war.
Ukrainians are understandably unwilling to hand over part of their country to Russia and Zelenskyy has returned to the building where he had previously been berated by Trump.
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This time he's got backup in the form of several other world leaders, and Trump was caught whispering his opinion on the situation to one of them.
Per The Independent, Trump was nattering to French President Emmanuel Macron when a nearby microphone picked up what he was talking about.
As the two presidents were waiting for others to take their seats for a discussion in the White House, Trump was heard telling Macron he thinks that Putin 'wants to make a deal for me'. Take a look:
"I think he wants to make a deal," Trump was heard on the hot mic. "I think he wants to make a deal for me. Do you understand? As crazy as it sounds."
The US president had previously said he thought his Alaskan talks with Putin had been positive, even if no such deal on an end to the invasion of Ukraine had been secured.
Following yesterday's meeting at the White House, Trump declared that he would get Putin and Zelenskyy to meet in a setting where he would also be present.
He said: "At the conclusion of the meetings, I called President Putin and began arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelensky.
"After the meeting takes place, we will have a trilat which would be the two presidents plus myself."
Trump also said they would 'need to discuss the possible exchanges of territory', and claimed Moscow will 'accept' efforts from several countries to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, though this does not mean that the country would join NATO.
While everyone is making positive sounds about the recent rounds of talks it still all depends on whether or not there is a peace deal which both the Russians and the Ukrainians would accept, considering Putin's invasion has been going on for over three years with no end in sight.
Topics: Donald Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Vladimir Putin, Ukraine, Russia
Joe Harker