President Donald Trump did his best to avoid questions about reports that he hopes to talk Russian President Vladimir Putin into a ceasefire in Ukraine by offering up rare earth minerals.
Trump is slated to meet with Putin in Alaska on Friday afternoon. He spoke to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday ahead of his departure.
“We’re going to see what happens with our meeting. We have a big meeting,” Trump said when asked if he hopes to ply Putin with some type of economic partnership. “It’s going to be very important for Russia and very important for us, and important to us since we’re trying to save a lot of lives.”
Trump, staring down a follow-up question on the matter, recounted the natural resources deal he signed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.
“We made that as payment for all of the money that we’ve spent so foolishly in Ukraine. We spent $350 billion now,” he added. “If we can get the war stopped, we’ll be very happy. As far as rare earth, that’s very unimportant relatively.”
Earlier in the day, Trump sought to laugh off his inability thus far to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine.
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“You know, I’ve solved six wars in the last six months, a little more than six months now, and I’m very proud of it. I thought the easiest one would be this one,” he said of the war. “It’s actually the most difficult.”
You can watch Trump’s remarks in full below.