U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed on Tuesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to visit Washington on Friday to sign what he calls a “very big” minerals deal. The agreement is set to grant the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare minerals, which Trump claims would help American taxpayers recoup the billions they spent on Ukraine’s military effort.
When asked by a reporter about Zelenskyy’s visit and the status of the minerals agreement, Trump responded:
I hear that. I hear that he is coming on Friday. Certainly it’s okay with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that it’s a big deal—a very big deal.
Trump underlined that the transaction may be worth billions of dollars, emphasizing the value of rare earth minerals, which are crucial for the industrial, defence, and technology sectors. He accused the previous Biden administration of spending irresponsibly on Ukraine without guaranteeing a financial return for the United States:
And I think the American people—even if you look at polling—they’re very happy, because, you know, Biden was throwing money around like it’s cotton candy. And it’s a very big deal. It could be a trillion-dollar deal. It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things.
Trump again restated his long-standing position that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would not have happened under his presidency. He criticized the massive U.S. financial aid to Ukraine, arguing that Europe has spent far less and structured its contributions as loans while the U.S. has provided direct financial assistance:
We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine and Russia fighting a war that should have never, ever happened. That’s a war that would have never happened if I were president. And it didn’t happen for four years. People say, how do we know that … it didn’t happen for four years, would have never happened.
Europe has spent 100 billion. We’ve spent 350 billion. Europe gets their money back because they spent it in the form of a loan. And we just gave them, whether it’s 300 or 350 billion, nobody really knows. They can’t even tell me the answer to that, means probably more than that.
Trump framed the minerals agreement as a way to offset these costs, stating that securing Ukraine’s resources would provide a return on the billions the U.S. has invested in the country’s defence. He insisted that the deal would ensure that “the American taxpayer now is going to get their money back.
