Return to Transcripts main page
CNN News Central
Oscar-Winning Actor Gene Hackman, Wife Found Dead In Their Home; President Trump Meets With British Prime Minister In Oval Office. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired February 27, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:31:38]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENE HACKMAN, ACTOR: What do you think I mean?
TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: Well, I don't know. You're the risk taker.
HACKMAN: You think I'm talking about breaking the law?
CRUISE: No, I'm just trying to figure out how far you want it bent.
HACKMAN: As far as you can without breaking it.
CRUISE: In other words, don't risk an IRS audit.
HACKMAN: I don't give a damn about an audit. They just better not win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Oscar-winning actor, Gene Hackman, found dead in his New Mexico home, along with his wife and one of their dogs. The Oscar award-winner was 95 years old.
Deputies discovered the bodies during a welfare check requested by a neighbor. Their causes of death to this point, though, have not been confirmed.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: CNN entertainment correspondent, Elizabeth Wagmeister, is following this for us.
Elizabeth, can you tell us the latest?
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are just getting new details into this investigation into a truly tragic but also truly bizarre set of circumstances.
As you said, the legendary Gene Hackman was found dead alongside his wife and their dog. Now, earlier this morning, we had heard that a gas company was assisting in the investigation.
But now, according to a source -- a search warrant affidavit that we have obtained, authorities in Santa Fe, New Mexico, say that they did not locate any signs of carbon monoxide or a gas leak. So that obviously adds to the mystery here.
Now, I want to read you something directly from the search warrant. Authorities say, quote, "The circumstances surrounding the death of the two deceased individuals is suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation.@"
So obviously, a lot more questions than answers right now. This investigation remains ongoing. But authorities have said that they do not believe that any foul play was involved.
Now we got some more information from this search warrant. Number one, both Gene Hackman and his wife appear to have been deceased for a few days according to this search warrant.
Also, Gene Hackman and his wife were found in different rooms in their household. His wife was found in the bathroom with a bottle of pills, and pills scattered. So again, just a tragic story.
But a legendary, true Hollywood great. And the tributes are pouring in for Gene Hackman this morning.
KEILAR: Yes, understandably so.
Elizabeth, thank you so much for that report.
Let's go now -- moments ago at the White House, U.K. Prime Minister Starmer, visiting President Trump.
TRUMP: Prime Minister Starmer in the Oval Office. It's a very special place, and he's a special man. And the United Kingdom is a -- is a wonderful -- this is a wonderful country that I know very well. I'm there a lot. And I'll be going -- I'll be going there, and we expect to see each other in the near future. We'll be announcing it.
But we're going to be discussing many things today. We'll be discussing Russia, Ukraine. We'll be discussing trade and lots of other items. And I think we can say that we're going to be getting along on every one of them.
We've had a tremendous relationship. And frankly, the prime minister and I have met twice before and we get along very famously, as you would say. And I look forward to it very much. We look forward to the day in the meeting.
We'll be having a luncheon after this and then another work session. And I believe we're going to have a press conference at the end. So I look forward to it. And Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much.
STARMER: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Can I say thank you for your hospitality, for your leadership? We have met a number of times. We've talked a number of times, and we have had a very constructive conversation. I'm sure we will today.
[13:35:00] And of course, our countries have been bound together for a very long
time now. The closest alliance, I think, of any two countries, when it comes to prosperity and security. And I know that together, we will strengthen that even further.
STARMER: And on issues like Ukraine, thank you for changing the conversation to bring about the possibility that now we can have a peace deal. And we want to work with you to make sure that peace deal is enduring, that it lasts, that it's a deal that goes down as a historic deal that nobody breaches and we'll work with you to make sure that that absolutely happens.
And it is my pleasure to bring from his Majesty the King, a letter. He sends his best wishes and his regards, of course. But he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you. So can I present...
TRUMP: Yes.
STARMER: ... a letter from the king?
TRUMP: Thank you very much. Am I supposed to read it right now?
STARMER: Yeah, please do.
TRUMP: I will do.
STARMER: I've got to tell him what your reaction is. I need to know.
TRUMP: He's a great gentleman. A great, great gentleman. Oh, that's well.
Well, that is really nice. I must make sure his signature is on that. Otherwise, it's not quite as meaningful. It is, and that's quite a signature, isn't it? Beautiful. And he's a beautiful man, a wonderful man. And we appreciate it. I've known him, gotten to know him very well, actually. First term and now a second term.
Perhaps you'd like to say what that very important paragraph?
STARMER: Yes. So, this is a letter from His Majesty the King. It's an invitation for a second state visit. This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented. And I think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us.
So, this is a very special letter. I think the last state visit was a tremendous success.
TRUMP: He was.
STARMER: His Majesty the King wants to make this even better than that. So, this is -- this is truly historic. An unprecedented second state visit.
TRUMP: That's a great (inaudible).
STARMER: Talk that through with you. TRUMP: And that says it Windsor. That's -- that's really something.
STARMER: Yes. What I haven't got yet is your answer.
TRUMP: The answer is yes. We have -- our wonderful First Lady Melania and myself the answer is yes, and we look forward to being there and honoring the King and honoring really your country. Your country is a fantastic country and it'll be our honor to be there.
Thank you very much.
STARMER: Well, thank you very much very much, Mr. President. I shall happily take that back to his majesty.
TRUMP: It beautiful.
STARMER: Thank you.
TRUMP: Thank you. I'm going to keep that one.
STARMER: You can keep that one.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: President Trump, Andrew and Tristan Tate landed in Florida today on a private jet after being released from custody in Romania. They are accused rapists, human traffickers, not thought of as good people in many circles. Did your administration pressure the remaining government to release them? And if so (inaudible)...
TRUMP: I don't know nothing about that. I don't know. You're saying he's on a plane right now?
QUESTION: (Inaudible). They're already been.
TRUMP: Yeah. I just know nothing about it. We'll check it out. We'll let you know.
(CROSSTALK)
STARMER: You obviously this involves there's an English element here. So obviously it's important that justice is done and human trafficking is obviously to my mind security risk.
And so, I will catch up with the story and...
TRUMP: You're aware, are you aware?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I didn't know anything about it. Yeah.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (Inaudible) the federal workforce. Are you tracking how many veterans have been fired so far? TRUMP: Yes, we are.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) DOGE to...
TRUMP: We are. And we take good care of our veterans. So, we're watching that very carefully and we hope it's going to be as small a number as possible.
But we are having great success in slimming down our government. It's been really very successful and some took payouts and buyouts and others took other things. And some people were finding out don't even exist. We're finding that we have a lot of people that don't exist that people thought that did.
We will be making a statement in that, but we're taking care of our veterans. We love our veterans. We're going to take good care of them.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: OK. Please.
QUESTION: Mr. President, could you be persuaded as part of a peace settlement in Ukraine to provide (inaudible), a backstop security position to the contributions that Europe might make as well.
TRUMP: Well, so President Zelenskyy is coming to see me on Friday, Friday morning. And we're going to be signing really a very important agreement for both sides because it's really going to get us into that country, we'll be working there, we'll have a lot of people working there.
[13:40:00]
And so, in that sense it's very good, it's a backstop you could say, I don't think anybody's going to play around if we're there with a lot of workers. And having to do with -- with rare earths and other things, which we need for our country, and we appreciate it very much. And I look forward to seeing him. We'll be talking about it, and we'll also be talking about that today with the prime minister.
(CROSSTALK)
STARMER: Yeah, I mean, we -- as you know, we've already indicated that we'll play our full part in making sure that any deal, if there is one -- and I hope there is, and I think this is a historic moment -- to make sure it's a lasting deal, and we are part of a discussion about how we can make that work.
TRUMP: But I have to say this, as I said yesterday. You know, you're talking about a peacekeeping force. We have to make a deal first. Right now, we don't have a deal. We have Russia and we have Ukraine. I think we're very well advanced. I think Russia has been acting very well. We have representatives, Steve Witkoff and Scott and Marco and J.D. -- we're all involved, every one of us, and -- and a lot more. But I think we're very well advanced on a deal, but we have not made a deal yet, so I don't like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal. I like to get things done. I don't want to give it the -- the bad-luck sign. We don't want to do that.
(LAUGHTER)
But we've had very good talks with Russia and we've had very good talks, as you know, with Ukraine.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: Mr. President, does the prime minister have to choose a closer relationship with the E.U., as he is seeking, and a good trade relationship with you? Which one will you go for?
TRUMP: Well, I think we have just a great relationship. We actually had a good relationship before. We've met a couple of times, and I'm very impressed with him. I've been very impressed with his wife, I must say. She's a -- a -- a beautiful, great woman. And she -- I said you're...
STARMER: I second that.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: I said, "You're very lucky." He's very lucky, and no, I -- we've had a very good relationship.
QUESTION: Are you -- are you worried about Britain potentially undoing some of the benefits of Brexit by seeking a closer tie with the E.U., who you said was set up to screw the United States?
TRUMP: No, I don't worry about that. I don't. I -- I thought, you know, frankly, what they did was the right thing at the time, and I think that'll probably prove out over the centuries. You -- you have a long time to go. But I think -- I predicted that was going to happen, and it did happen, and it'll work itself out. It's -- it's -- I think it's already worked itself out.
Yes?
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: On Chagos, Mr. President. Keir Starmer has signed a deal to give away the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Will you approve that deal?
TRUMP: Well, we're going to have some discussions about that very soon, and I have a feeling it's going to work out very well. They're talking about a very long-term...
STARMER: Yeah, (inaudible).
TRUMP: ... powerful lease, a very strong lease, about 140 years, actually. That's a long time, and I think we'll be inclined to go along with your country. Yeah? I think it sounds (inaudible)...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: It's a little bit early. I -- we have to give -- be given the details, but it doesn't sound bad.
Yeah, please?
QUESTION: Mr. President, you obviously can do business with our prime minister, Keir Starmer. You said yesterday that the E.U. was constructed to screw the U.S. when it comes to trade. What can our prime minister say to you to persuade you not to impose tariffs on the United Kingdom?
TRUMP: Yeah, did I use the word that you said? A bad word?
QUESTION: I -- I think so. I saw it in (inaudible)...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Well, I think that the E.U. -- yeah, I've -- I've had problems with the E.U. because -- and we're not talking about -- we happen to have a great relationship with you, but we did have -- and we do have problems with the E.U. because they've tariffed -- tariffed us. They do it in the form of a VAT tax, which is about 20 percent, and many other taxes. They sue our companies. They sued Apple; got $16- or $17 billion, which was, I think, totally a ridiculous decision, and they're suing Google for a lot of money. They're suing a lot of other companies, and we don't like the way they're treating our people. No, we don't like the way they're treating our companies. They sell us cars; we don't sell them cars. They don't take our cars. They don't take our -- much of our agriculture, and we have a deficit with them of about $350 billion.
So I wouldn't say it's been such a great relationship personally, but other people did because it's politically-correct to say that it's been good, but it hasn't been good, and we're going to change that. And we are going to have reciprocal tariffs. We're not going to have tariffs; we're going to have reciprocal. Whatever they charge us, we're going to charge them, which for many years, foolishly -- I would have done that, but then all of a sudden, we had COVID and we had other things to think about. So it took me a little while to get that on, and we...
But we had -- in my first four years, we had the greatest economy in the history of, I think, the world, but certainly, in the history of our country. I think we're going to have that again. But the E.U. was very, very tough on us in -- from the standpoint of trade.
TRUMP: Then you could take it a step further and go into NATO, and that was a very tough situation for us.
[13:45:05]
I mean, that's been a very tough situation because we were paying a disproportionate share, and it wasn't good. So as you know, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars after I got involved, and they evened it out a little bit, but not very much. And then if you look at the war, we're in for $300 billion plus, and they're in for $100 billion. They get their money back, and now we'll get our money back also. But under Biden, you wouldn't have done that. Biden did a terrible job. I have to say. I hate to say that about somebody that sat here just before me, but he did a terrible, terrible job. That war should have never happened -- the war between Russia, Ukraine.
Frankly, October 7th should have never happened. Israel, that should have never happened. What happened there should have never. Inflation should have never happened. Afghanistan should have never happened. The way they got out. Not getting out, but the way they got out, so.
But I can say that as far as we're for a different reason, we're talking about a very different place. And this is some place that I have investments there. I own Turnberry. I own Aberdeen. And I own a great place called Doonbeg in Ireland. So, you know, I have a -- I have a great warm spot for your country.
STARMER: And our trade, obviously, is fair and balanced. And in fact, you've got a bit of a surplus. So, we're in a different position there. And, obviously, we contributed hugely in relation to Ukraine and taken together with Europe. That's about 50 percent.
TRUMP: It'll work. It'll work.
QUESTION: Thank you. So, does that mean there won't be any sanctions on the U.K. then?
TRUMP: We'll have to take a look. I mean, we're going to have a good discussion today, and we have some very talented people on the other side. And we have some people that probably aren't as talented to them, but they're pretty good.
Marco, what do you think? Our people are pretty good. And no, we're going to have a good discussion and we'll be talking about it.
QUESTION: Mr. Starmer, the Prime Minister has said that he believes that Vladimir Putin would be at risk of invading Ukraine again without a sufficient backstop. Do you think that Vladimir Putin would be likely to invade again?
TRUMP: No. I don't think so. I think when we have a deal, it's going to be the deal. I don't think of -- if I didn't win the election, I don't think we'd be even talking to Putin right now or anybody else. I think it would just, you know, I don't know if you're looking at the stats, but thousands of people are being killed a week -- soldiers mostly, because the towns have been destroyed. Thousands of soldiers. This was a very bad week, by the way. I get -- I get the stats.
STARMER: Several numbers.
TRUMP: And you're talking about a human life. Number one, I want to see that and it doesn't involve American soldiers, but it's Russian and Ukrainian soldiers that I can think -- I think I was speaking for both.
STARMER: Yeah. Yeah. TRUMP: Number one, we want to see that stop. And number two, I want to stop paying the kind of money that we're talking about. You know, we're helping and we're helping NATO, but we're helping a lot more than anybody else by far. And I want that to stop also.
QUESTION: Mr. President...
TRUMP: Go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you, sir. You talked about trade tariffs this morning on your side. Just a question about China. Ten percent tariffs has already been implemented on China. Are you planning to do...
TRUMP: An additional 10 above.
QUESTION: This will be an additional 10 above?
TRUMP: Right.
QUESTION: And is there -- from the talks with Canada and Mexico so far, are you not seeing the progress that you wanted in order...
TRUMP: I don't see it at all. No, not on drugs. We've done a great job. If you look at Tom Homan, he's been incredible and Kristi, they've done a great job in terms of the border. But the drugs continue to pour into our country, killing hundreds of thousands of people.
We're losing substantially more than a hundred thousand people. I mean, dead, they're dead. The families are destroyed after that happened. So, it's, you know, it's not just that. That's the ultimate, but the families are absolutely destroyed.
The drugs come in through Mexico. They come -- a lot of them, not all of them, but a lot of them come from China and that's why we did that. It's 10. It's 10 plus 10. OK.
QUESTION: Ten plus 10?
TRUMP: Was there confusion on that?
QUESTION: There was, sir. Yeah.
TRUMP: OK, 10 plus 10. It's a second 10. And I think you'll -- I think you're going to see, eventually, you're going to see drugs stopping because the country should not be allowing those drugs to come into the United States of America. And we're not going to allow it to happen.
So, that goes on the 4th of March. And then on the 2nd of April, we have a reciprocal tariffs, that's reciprocal where we charge countries what they're charging us, and nobody should have a problem with that.
We have reciprocal -- it's reciprocity. It's something that I think -- everybody I've spoken has said that's fair, and it is. If somebody charges us 25 percent, we charge them 25. If somebody charges us 10 or 15 or 30 or 70, we charge them an exact like amount.
[13:50:03]
And it's pretty simple, but it's reciprocal tariffs because the United States has been taken advantage of by many, many different countries, including our friends -- friend and foe.
And in many cases, our friends took bigger advantage of -- and when -- when you talk about the EU -- we're talking about the EU -- the EU has been really -- a -- a -- very bad to us, in terms of trade.
And I'm a different kind of a President. I can't let that happen. Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yeah? Please, ma'am, go ahead.
QUESTION: Mr. President, what would you be willing to do if Vladimir Putin did not stick to the terms of any deal on Ukraine...
TRUMP: If he -- not -- what?
QUESTION: If he did not stick to the terms of any deal on Ukraine, because he (inaudible) of not sticking to his word when it comes to international agreements.
TRUMP: I think he'll keep his word. I think -- I think he's -- I've spoken to him, I've known him for a long time now, you know? Known him -- we had -- we had to go through the Russian hoax together. That was not a good thing, that was not fair. That was a rigged deal and had nothing to do with Russia. It was a rigged deal with -- inside the country. And they had to put up with that too. They put up with a lot. It wasn't just us. They had to put up with it -- with a phony story that was made up.
I've known him for a long time now, and I think he will -- I don't believe he is going to violate his word. I don't think he'll be back -- when we make a deal, I think the deal is going to hold.
No, they're going to have security -- you're going to have security, you're going to have soldiers. I know France wants to be there. He's -- the President has -- has said he wants to have soldiers there. I don't think we're going to even be necessary.
But I don't think there'll be any problem with keeping the deal with the security.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: ... you want to say something?
STARMER: No, I was just going to say, I mean, the -- the deal, if we get it, is going to be hugely important. I don't think it would have happened if the space hadn't been created for it by yourself. But if there's a deal in, we've got to make sure it's a deal that lasts, that is not temporary, that lasts, and that's why we need to make sure that it's secure.
And we've leant in and said we'll play out part, and we've talked and we will talk about how we work with yourself, Mr. President, to ensure that this deal is something which is not violated, because it's very important, if there is a deal, we keep it.
TRUMP: And that will be...
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: And -- and I think I could say that will be the easy part. That's the part we look forward to, because putting security there, that's the part we all look forward to. That's easy. The difficult part is getting the deal made. So...
STARMER: Yeah.
TRUMP: ... but I think we've come a long way.
Did you have something? You have such a -- he's got such a nice face.
(LAUGHTER)
No, he's smiling and -- but watch, he'll ask a total killer question.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: ... they're the ones that get you. No, he looks like a nice guy.
QUESTION: ... on a personal level, Mr. President, what do you get on most -- what's your common ground with Sir Keir Starmer? Because you're both from different political backgrounds.
TRUMP: That's true. I think I can say this because we've known each other now really for a little while -- this is not our first meeting, as you know. He loves his country and so do I. That's our common -- our common theme. He loves his country and I love our country.
And we also have two countries that have gotten along for the longest period of time, right? No -- number one ally on each side. And we have good -- France and Australia, we have a lot of good ones. But we've had a -- a long time relationship, a long time, hundreds of years.
And we like each other, frankly, and we like each other's country, and we love our country. I think that's our common thread, OK?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yeah, please?
QUESTION: On -- on tariffs, you -- you just said with...
TRUMP: Who are you with? QUESTION: I -- I'm with The Independent.
TRUMP: Oh, that's good.
QUESTION: It's an -- on tariffs, you just said...
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Thank you. We charge them -- we charge them, as in we charge China, but the tariffs are -- are paid eventually by American importers and consumers.
TRUMP: No, they're not. No. I think they're paid for by the country. But, you know, the -- look, we can get into that.
I had -- I put a lot of tariffs on in my first term, and we made tremendous amounts of progress because of those tariffs. China paid us hundreds of billions of dollars -- billions. We never had a -- because they took advantage. And President Xi's a friend of mine but he know -- he knows better than anybody he took advantage of our country. He took advantage of presidents who didn't know what they were doing.
And they expect them -- they actually expect them -- the smart countries expect them from me because they know me and they know our country. But they got away with -- they got away with murder for -- for decades, and we just can't let that happen anymore.
Behind you, please?
QUESTION: ... Mr. President. It sounds as though one of you completely trusts President Putin and one of you doesn't trust him an inch. Have I got that right? And why do you trust him?
TRUMP: No, look, you know, it's a -- trust and verify, let's call it that. And -- and I think we both can be that way. It's -- you have to verify cause you never know what's going to happen, right? No -- I know a lot of people that you would say no chance that they would ever deceive you, and they're the worst people in the world. I know others that you would guarantee they would deceive you and you know what? They're 100 percent honorable. So you never know what you're getting.
[13:55:00]
No, I have confidence that if we make a deal, it's going to hold.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: On fentanyl, Mr. President, less than one percent of all fentanyl that comes into the U.S. is apprehended at the Canadian border. So why use fentanyl as a reason...
TRUMP: Because they should be apprehending much more. They're only apprehending one percent. You're right about that. It's a little more than that. But they should be apprehending much more cause a lot comes through Canada. And as Mexico gets stronger in terms of the border, it goes up to Canada. And a lot of drugs are coming through Canada. We can't have that.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yeah, go ahead, please, in the back.
QUESTION: Is there anything you can say to more -- to what -- President Zelenskyy to reassure him that his country's war hasn't been in vain and its sovereignty is not going to be threatened by any deal with Russia?
TRUMP: Well, you know, he's coming. Perhaps he's already on his way. And we're going to be signing the deal together probably in front of the media. And we're going to be having a good conversation. No, we want to work with him, President Zelenskyy -- Zelenskyy, she said before. We want to work with him, and we will work with him.
And I think the President and I actually have had a very good relationship. It maybe got a little bit testy because we wanted to have a little bit of what the European nations had. You know, they -- they get their money back by giving money. We don't get the money back.
Biden made a deal. He put in $350 billion, and I thought it was a very unfair situation.
STARMER: We're not getting all of ours. I mean, some -- quite a bit of ours was -- was -- was gifted, it was given over some lengths (ph), but maybe it was gifted actually.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... the Europeans want a -- an -- Ukraine to be part of NATO as part of this deal. Are you willing to budge on that at all or is it a firm...
TRUMP: Well, I could be very nice and say, "Oh, well, we're work to it." Look, it's not going to happen. It's just not going to happen. That's what started this whole thing.
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Biden -- Biden said that, and -- and all of a sudden, the guns started. That was one of the primary reasons this started. And this was long before President Putin. They -- they never said -- it -- it -- it was an impossibility. So we can say, "Oh, gee, well, we'll try," but it -- that's something that's just not going to happen.
And then the other question you ask is about the land. Will you get your land back? Well, they've fought long and hard on the land, and you and I will be discussing that. And we're going to certainly try and get as much as we can back.
But on the -- NATO, I -- it's just not -- that's not going to happen. Yeah, please?
QUESTION: Mr. President, you talked about having common ground with Keir Starmer, but there are things you disagree on as well. You described Zelenskyy as a dictator. He describes President Putin as a dictator. Do you see that as a problem?
TRUMP: The relationship between President Zelenskyy and President Putin is not a good one. You've noticed, right? It's not a good one. It's not a good relationship. And we're going to have to try and work something out. Sometimes that happens. I get along with both. I have a very good relationship with President Putin. I think I have a very good relationship with President Zelenskyy.
And now, we're -- you know, we're doing the deal and we're going to be in there. We're going to be actually in there digging -- digging our hearts out. And hopefully -- you know, we need the rare earth, and we have some here but we don't have enough. We're -- our -- our economy is very strong, and we need a lot of things that, in some cases, we don't have here.
So I think we're going to have a very good relationship (inaudible) but the relationship between them is not the best.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: Mr. President, do you still think that Mr. Zelenskyy is a dictator?
TRUMP: Did I say that? I can't believe I said that. Next question?
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: Yeah, please, go ahead.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... Financial Times. Can you see any situation where U.S. forces could be deployed as a backstop in the peacekeeping operation, in direct confrontation with Russian forces?
TRUMP: Well, there is a backstop (inaudible). You know, first, you've got to have European countries cause they're right there. We're very far away. We have an ocean between us. But we want to make sure it works. So I don't know, when you say backstop, you mean a backstop psychologically or militarily or what?
But we are a backstop because we'll be over there, we'll be working in the country. We're going to be -- that's a great thing economically for them because, you know, when you talk about economic development, we're going to have a lot of people over there. So we'll be working in the country.
So I don't -- I don't -- I just don't think you're going to have a problem. I think when we have an agreement -- you can say whatever you want about security, who's going to do it, and on -- and that's going to be a very pleasant conversation.
The hard conversation is will we have an agreement? And I think the answer is yes. I think Russia will agree and I think that -- I really believe Ukraine will agree also.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: ... just -- just in following up on that, if British troops are in Ukraine keeping the peace and get attacked by Russia, will you come to their aid?
[14:00:00]
TRUMP: If the British people are in Ukraine and they get attacked --
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: You know, I've always found about the British, they don't need much help. They can take care of themselves very well.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: You know what? No, it sounds like --
