Press gaggle transcript from Air Force One (Aug. 15, 2025) in which President Trump answers reporters about efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the Russia–Ukraine war, his upcoming meeting with President Putin, proposed US security guarantees for Ukraine (not NATO), and planned tariff actions on steel and semiconductors. The President emphasizes stopping the killing, cites a recent casualty figure (~7,011), characterizes the US economy as "the hottest," and says he may impose escalating tariffs to induce foreign factories to build in the US.
Questions this video answers
August 15, 2025
7,011 (he said "7011 were lost")
Chapters
Hello, everybody. I brought a friend of yours, Brett Baer. He's here. Brett, how you doing? How are you? What will make a success of this summit today? I can't tell you that. I don't know. It's. There's nothing set in stone. I want certain things. I want to see a ceasefire. This is not to do with Europe. Europe's not telling me what to do. But they're going to be involved in the process, obviously, as will Zelensky. But I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don't know if it' to be today, but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today, but I'm just saying I want the killing to stop. I'm in this to stop the killing. You know, we're not putting up any money. We're making money. They're buying our weapons and we're sending them to NATO, and NATO is sending us big, beautiful checks. But that I don't care about. That I care about. It was a big factor when Biden spent 350 billion and got nothing. But what I do care about is they lost last. Last week, 7011 were lost. Almost all soldiers. 36 people in a town which got hit by a missile. But 7,000. Over 7,000 soldiers. It's crazy.
Could you describe a little bit, Mr. President? Because I know you've had a lot of phone calls with President Putin. What's the difference in a face to face, in person meeting?
Look, he's a smart guy, been doing it for a long time, but so have I. Been doing it for a long time. And here we are with President. That was much more difficult than what I'm doing today, believe me. So we get along. There's a good respect level on both sides. And I think, you know, something's going to come of it. I noticed he's bringing a lot of business people from Russia. And that's good. I like that. Because they want to do business, but they're not doing business until we get the war settled. We have the hottest country on Earth. We have the hottest economy on Earth. We have the hottest company, the country. We just set a new stock market record again. We have hundreds of billions of dollars flowing in from tariffs. We're the hottest. We were a dead country. A dead, like doornails. A dead country. One year ago, we were dead as a doornail and now we have the hottest country. And he wants a piece of that because his country is not hot economically. In fact, it's the opposite. And China is not doing well economically. But we're all. Look, I want everybody to do well. The war's got to stop and the killing's got to stop.
Mr. Mr. President, what do you mean by. Thank you for coming back to take questions. We saw that Russia continued its violence into Ukraine last night, launching even more drones. What did you make of that?
I think they're trying to negotiate. He's trying to set a stage. I mean, in his mind, that helps him make a better deal. It actually hurts him. But in his mind, that helps him make a better deal. If they can continue the killing. Maybe it's a part of the world, maybe it's just his fabric, his genes, his genetics. But he thinks that makes him, gives him strength in negotiating. I think it hurts him, but I'll be talking to him about it later.
We're on the table for discussions today. Mr. President, are the territorial swaps on the table? Will you be discussing that?
They'll be discussed, but I've got to let Ukraine make that decision, and I think they'll make a proper decision. But I'm not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I'm here to get him at a table. And I think you have two sides. Look, Vladimir Putin wanted to take all of Ukraine. If I wasn't president, he would right now be taking all of Ukraine. But he's not going to do it.
Mr. President, what did you.
Just one thing. What about the possibility, the possibility of the United States providing security guarantees to Ukraine along with Europe and other countries, not in the form of NATO, because that's not going to, you know, there are certain things that aren't going to happen. But, yeah, along with Europe, there's a possibility of that.
The number of business people that President Putin is bringing along. Is that something that you want to discuss with President Putin at this meeting?
If we, if we make progress, I would discuss it, because that's one of the things that they would like. They'd like to get a piece of what I built in terms of the economy. Just so you know, we were a dead country with our economy. He wouldn't be interested. He wouldn't have been interested a year ago with the Biden economy, but he is interested in the Trump economy because we're doing. Wait till you see when those factories start opening up. We have hundreds of factories all over the country, and that includes auto factories, AI factories, and every other. They're all coming in because they want to beat the tariffs, because if they open here, they don't have to pay tariffs. If they don't open here, they have to pay in some cases, 200%, 300%. I haven't even set some of the tariffs yet. I'll be setting tariffs next week and the week after on steel and on, I would say chips. Steel chips and semiconductors will be setting sometime next week. Week after looking at what rate? I'm going to have a rate that is going to be lower at the beginning. Then that gives them a chance to come in and build and very high after a certain period of time. And if they don't build here, they have to pay a very high tariff, which doesn't work. So they'll come and build.
Mr. President. Hi. You had said earlier.
Isn'T he a general?
He's helping me out.
He's a very nice. He's one of the few nice ones. Ye.
You had said earlier this week that Putin would face severe consequences. If you get the sense from him that he's not interested. What do you mean by that?
Economically severe? Yes. It will be very severe. I'm not doing this for my health. Okay. I don't need it. I'd like to focus on our country, but I'm doing this to save a lot of lives. Yeah. Very severe. Thank you very much, everybody.
