Source: CSPAN

Transcript was generated using OpenAI Whisper and then cleaned up using ChatGPT o1 pro. All errors are mine.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Do you, and now I’m talking with my friends in Poland, and they are worried that you align yourself too much with Putin.
What’s your message for them?

Donald Trump
Well, if I didn’t align myself with both of them, you’d never have a deal.
You want me to say really terrible things about Putin and then say, “Hi Vladimir, how are we doing on the deal?”
That doesn’t work that way.
I’m not aligned with Putin, and I’m not aligned with anybody.
I’m aligned with the United States of America and for the good of the world.
I’m aligned with the world, and I want to get this thing over with.
You see the hatred he’s got for Putin.
It’s very tough for me to make a deal with that kind of thing.
He’s got tremendous hatred, and I understand that, but I can tell you the other side isn’t exactly in love with him either.
So it’s not a question of alignment.
I’m aligned with the world.
I want to get the things that—I’m aligned with Europe.
I want to see if we can get this thing done.
You want me to be tough? I could be tougher than any human being you’ve ever seen.
I’d be so tough, but you’re never going to get a deal that way.
So that’s the way it goes. One more question.

JD Vance
I want to respond to this.
For four years in the United States of America, we had a president who stood up at press conferences and talked tough about Vladimir Putin, and then Putin invaded Ukraine and destroyed a significant chunk of the country.
The path to peace and the path to prosperity is maybe engaging in diplomacy.
We tried the pathway of Joe Biden of thumping our chest and pretending that the president of the United States’ words mattered more than the president’s actions.
What makes America a good country is America engaging in diplomacy.
That’s what President Trump is doing.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Can I ask you?

JD Vance
Sure.
Yeah?
Yeah.

Volodymyr Zelensky
He occupied our parts, big parts of Ukraine—parts of the east and Crimea—in 2014.
For a lot of years, I’m not speaking just about Biden, but during that time it was President Obama, then President Trump, then President Biden, and now President Trump again.
God bless, now President Trump will stop him.
But during 2014, nobody stopped him.
He just occupied and took.
He killed people.
You know what the contact line is? 2014, 2015.
During 2014 till 2022, people have been dying on the contact line, and nobody stopped him.
We had a lot of conversations with him—my bilateral conversations—and when I was a new president in 2019, I signed with him, Macron, and Merkel a ceasefire.
All of them told me that he would never go.
We also signed a gas contract.
Yes, but after that, he broke the ceasefire.
He killed our people, and he didn’t exchange prisoners.
We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn’t do it.
What kind of diplomacy are you speaking about?
What do you mean?

JD Vance
I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country.
Mr. President, with respect, I think it’s disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office and try to litigate this in front of the American media.
Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems.
You should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to this conflict.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Have you ever been to Ukraine?
Do you see what problems we have? Then come once.

JD Vance
I have actually watched and seen the stories, and I know what happens is you bring people on a propaganda tour, Mr. President.
Do you disagree that you’ve had problems bringing people into your military?
And do you think that it’s respectful to come to the Oval Office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country?

Volodymyr Zelensky
A lot of questions. Let’s start from the beginning.
First of all, during the war, everybody has problems.
Even you, but you have a nice ocean and don’t feel it now, but you will feel it in the future.
You don’t know that. You don’t know that.
You’re trying to solve a problem—don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.

JD Vance
I’m not telling you, but you’re in no position to dictate that.
You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel.

Volodymyr Zelensky
That’s exactly what you are.

Donald Trump
We’re going to feel very good and very strong.

Volodymyr Zelensky
You will feel influenced.

Donald Trump
You’re right now not in a very good position.
You’ve allowed yourself to be in a very bad position from the very beginning of the war.
You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you don’t have the cards.
You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people.
You’re gambling with World War III.
You’re gambling with World War III, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country.
This country has backed you far more than a lot of people said they should have.
Have you said thank you once in this entire meeting?

JD Vance
You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October.
Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who’s trying to save your country.
Please.

Volodymyr Zelensky
You think that if you speak very loudly about the war…
My country is in big trouble, but we are staying strong from the beginning of the war.
We’ve been alone, and we are thankful.
I said thanks in this cabinet.

Donald Trump
You haven’t been alone.
We gave you, through your stupid president, 350 billion dollars.
We gave you military equipment, and your men are brave, but they had to use our military equipment.
If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks—maybe three days, maybe less.
It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.
Just say thank you.

Volodymyr Zelensky
I said it at all times, except that there are disagreements.

JD Vance
Except that there are disagreements, and let’s go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out in the American media when you’re wrong.
We know that you’re wrong.

Donald Trump
But you see, I think it’s good for the American people to see what’s going on.
I think it’s very important.
That’s why I kept this going so long.
You have to be thankful.
You don’t have the cards.
You’re buried there. You have people who died.
You’re running low on soldiers. You’re running low on soldiers.
Then you tell us, “I don’t want a ceasefire.”
Look, if you could get a ceasefire right now, I’d tell you to take it so the bullets would stop flying and your men would stop getting killed.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Of course, we want to stop the war.
But I said to you, I want a ceasefire with guarantees, because you’ll get a ceasefire faster than an agreement.
Ask our people about a ceasefire—what they think.
It doesn’t matter to you what they think.

Donald Trump
That wasn’t with me. It wasn’t with you.
That was with a guy named Biden who was not a smart person.
That was with Obama, who gave you sheets, while I gave you Javelins.
I gave you Javelins to take out all those tanks. Obama gave you sheets.
“Obama gave sheets, and Trump gave Javelins.”
You’ve got to be more thankful, because let me tell you, you don’t have the cards.
With us, you have the cards, but without us, you don’t have any cards.

Volodymyr Zelensky
One more question to the Vice President…

Donald Trump
I’m sorry. It’s going to be a tough deal to make because the attitudes have to change.

Volodymyr Zelensky
What if Russia breaks this fire?
What if Russia breaks these talks?
What if the bomb drops on your head right now?

Donald Trump
Okay, what if they broke it? I don’t know.
They broke it with Biden because Biden didn’t respect him.
They didn’t respect Obama. They respect me.
Putin went through a hell of a lot with me.
He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him in “Russia, Russia, Russia.”
You ever hear of that deal?
That was a phony Hunter Biden, Joe Biden scam—Hillary Clinton, shifty Adam Schiff.
It was a Democrat scam, and he had to go through that.
We didn’t end up in a war. He was accused of all that stuff. He had nothing to do with it.
It came out of Hunter Biden’s bathroom, out of Hunter Biden’s bedroom. It was disgusting.
Then they said, “Oh, the laptop from hell was made by Russia,” the 51 agents.
The whole thing was a scam.
Maybe he broke deals with Obama and Bush, and maybe he broke them with Biden—he did, maybe. Maybe he didn’t. I don’t know.
He’s not breaking with me. He wants to make a deal. I don’t know if you can make a deal.
The problem is I’ve empowered you to be a tough guy, and I don’t think you’d be a tough guy without the United States.
Your people are very brave, but you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out.
If we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out.
You don’t have the cards. Once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position.
But you’re not acting at all thankful, and that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest—that’s not a nice thing.

JD Vance
All right, I think we’ve seen enough.
What do you think? This is going to be great television.
We’ll see what we can do about putting it together.
Thanks, sir.

Volodymyr Zelensky
Thanks, sir.

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