[Donald Trump called in to Fox and Friends at 8:02 a.m Eastern. on August 19, 2025 for a 25 1/2 minute interview. The following is the transcript of that interview from Roll Call Factba.se. Video courtesy and copyright Fox News.]
And joining us now on the phone with more details, the President of the United States, the 45th and 47th President, Donald J. Trump. Mr. President, thanks so much for joining --
Thank you.
-- Fox & Friends this morning.
Good morning. That's quite a crew. That's quite a crew. [Laughter]
Well, Mr. President, the whole world was watching yesterday as you got leaders from the European Union, NATO as well, from all o- -- over the world. How did you get them to Washington, to the Oval Office so fast?
Well, I think really they have respect for our country again. A year ago they wouldn't have come, they wouldn't have even thought about it. Now, we've become the hottest country anywhere in the world. Everybody wants to be here. When I made the call, they came and they said there's really never been anything like it. You know, you'd have one president or one prime minister, but there's never been, um, you know, such a group.
And these really represent, uh, the European nations, these people, and they're very good people and they want to end the war, that horrible war with Ukraine and Russia. It's a horrible war.
It was -- it was such a sense of unity and, um, we all enjoyed watching it because America is on top and it was on your turf, on your terms. I know yesterday you talked about arranging a meeting to take place in two weeks between Putin and Zelenskyy. Is there an update there? And do you plan to attend?
No, I thought I'd do, uh, first let him -- Let them meet. You know, they haven't been exactly best friends. They haven't gotten along very well. And I called President Putin yesterday, and I do have a good relationship, but it, you know, only matters if we get things done. Otherwise, I don't care about the relationship.
I do have a good relationship with him, but I want to get things done. You know, I've gotten -- I've solved seven wars. We ended seven wars. I thought this would be one of the easier ones and this has turned out to be the toughest one. India, Pakistan, I mean, we -- These were big ones and, uh, also all big ones and some going for 31, 32 years, one for 35 years.
The Congo, think of that, the Congo and Rwanda for 35 years, I got that one done. I got 'em all done, but this one is the one that is the most difficult and I thought it would be an easy one. So I hope President Putin is gonna be good, and if he's not, it's gonna be a rough situation. And I hope, uh, that Zelenskyy -- President Zelenskyy will do what he has to do. He has -- he has to show some flexibility also.
The thing is a mess. This was started by Joe Biden. This was a war that should've never happened. Millions of people are dead, the country's blown to pieces, Ukraine. And it's a -- it's a shame. You know, my wife wrote -- Melania wrote that beautiful, uh, note to President Putin about children. The children are devastated, they're taken away from their homes, the whole thing.
And this is a war that would've never, ever, ever happened if we had a president, a real president.
So, Mr. President, it's been barely a week since you announced that first meeting in Alaska and it's just been days since that meeting. And then you had the meeting yesterday. Um, in, uh, in the course of having these negotiations, what has surprised you the most between Zelenskyy and Putin in terms of, uh, their strength or weakness of -- of their position right now?
Well, I think the fact that maybe they're getting along a little bit better than I thought. Otherwise, I wouldn't have set up the two meeting, I would've set up a three, a trilat. But, uh, I think they're doing a little bit better. There's been tremendous bad blood. And again, this was all worked out by an administration that didn't have a clue.
And if you remember, they said, "Well, if you made a minor incursion, that would be okay." [Laughter] That was -- that was the end, the whole thing when Biden made that statement. But minor incursion, what does that mean? So, uh, I think they're doing okay. I wouldn't say they are ever gonna be best friends, but they're doing okay.
And we're just gonna see, so we're setting up a meeting. I sort of set it up with Putin and Zelenskyy and you know, they're the ones that have to call the shots. We're -- we're 7,000 miles away in all fairness. You know, we have -- We've spent through the previous administration $350 billion. Europe has spent a lot also, 100 billion, but it should be reversed if we should have been in for anything, but it wouldn't have happened.
So that would've been --
Mm-hmm.
-- much better 'cause so many people died. This is the biggest -- this is the biggest, uh, bad situation since World War II. There's been nothing even close.
So, Mr. president, I know you've been doing deals your entire life, uh, when it comes to real estate's deal, but this was something a little different. The thing that is surprising a lot of people is when it comes to the security guarantees. I know President Putin said no NATO, and you said, "You know, we're just gonna take that off the table." But you did get President Putin to agree to NATO-like protections.
So tell us about that. What does that entail?
Well, the war really started over NATO and Crimea, and they wanted Crimea back, that was given. Not a shot fired by President Obama in perhaps the worst real estate deal I've ever seen. I've, there's been a couple of them. I would say the Gaza Strip was a pretty bad one too, given by Israel, so they'd have peace.
So they gave away a big percentage of their oceanfront property in order to have peace. How did that work out? Not so good.
Mm-hmm.
And, uh, Crimea is the apple of, of Ukraine. I mean, it's so beautiful. And, uh, Obama gave it away. Nobody ever mentions that. If I ever did that, the fake news would be, uh, they would be writing about me day and night for years. He gave it away. He demanded they, that they let it go, and Russia came in and took it. Uh, just took it like from a candy from a baby.
It was really Obama's -- Uh, not really. I mean, that was, pure and simple, Obama's fault. What a terrible thing he did to that country. And so they lost their heart. They lost the, the heart and soul of the Ukraine 14 years ago, whatever it might be, and, uh, it was so unnecessary to do that. And that's when it really began, when Obama gave it away.
And then, uh, you had a lot of other events, but you have, you know, tremendous hostility. The people of Ukraine were mortified when that took place. That really began a lot of hatred when they gave it, and they didn't have to. Not a shot was fired. They, they just took over the most, the most valuable piece and the biggest piece in a sense of, but, and surrounded on four sides by ocean.
Just a little passage to get you back onto the mainland. The most beautiful piece of property you've ever seen. As a real estate developer, I, I look at it. I said, "Why the heck did he do that to them?"
You know --
And so there's, uh, there's great hostility and, uh, maybe rightfully so. But one thing was NATO, they, they went in, they said, "We want you -- You know, we wanna get Crimea back." This was at the beginning. Now Putin, in all fairness to him, he made a good deal. He got it from Obama, but they said, "We want it back." And that was not exactly well received, because it was like 12 years before.
That's where Russia has its submarine base. And, you know, that's been there long before Putin, you know, they've been there for a long time, but long before Putin. And the other thing, uh, they said is, "We want to be a member of NATO." Well, both of those things are impossible because, again, long before Putin, it was a no-no by Russia or the Soviet Union or anything you wanna call it. Uh, sort of a similar thing as it gets larger, but, uh, very similar.
But it was, it was always a no-no. You could not -- Russia said, "We don't want, uh, the so-called opponent or the enemy." Let's use that term. "We don't want 'em on our border." And they were right. They were okay. And, yet, uh, they went in and they asked with the United States, they said, "Put us into NATO." And everybody knew you can't, you just can't do that.
They, they would never have agreed to it. This is before Putin. This is long before Putin. This was a -- It was just a no-no. It was something that was never going to happen. So they asked for it and they shouldn't have asked for it, 'cause it was, you know, very insulting thing to -- Now, they could have asked for many other things, but the other thing they wanted to do is, is getting Crimea back.
And, you know, that was given. Uh, they had built -- Uh, they, they were expanding everything and spending a lot of money, all because Barack Hussein Obama gave it away and one of the dumbest real estate deals I've ever seen.
But Mr. President, you, but you got the Article 5 protections though for Ukraine. So they're not gonna be a part of NATO, but you still got them the same protections.
No, no. That's why we're not -- So, they're not gonna be a part of NATO, but we've got the European nations and they'll front-load it and they'll have some of them, France, and Germany, a couple of them, uh, UK, they wanna have, uh, you know, boots on the ground. Not in, not in -- I don't think it's gonna be a problem, to be honest with you.
I think, I think Putin is tired of it. I think they're all tired of it, but you never know. We're gonna find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks, that I can tell you, and we're gonna see, uh, where it all goes. Uh --
It --
-- it's possible that he doesn't wanna make a deal. I always said, you know, you interviewed me, Lawrence, and I think Charlie also. Do you know Lawrence, I hate to tell you, Charlie was about the first person -- [Laughter] -- in the world to endorse me. He endorsed me about a year before I ran. [Laughter] And that's why I always -- He called me this morning. "Sir, would you do an interview?" [Laughter] And unlike Biden, I don't need permission from my staff.
Okay? You know -- [Laughter] -- and then only to be told that I'm not doing it. But Charlie endorsed me about a year before, I think. And he puts it up on his site. You know, it's still -- I checked this. It's still in his site. "I endorsed President Trump before he even ran." [Laughter] So I always like a guy --
So --
-- like that, I must tell you, you know.
[Laughs] Well, it's a lo --
Now Lawrence is gonna be a superstar --
It's --
-- but he was a little later to the game [Laughs] you know --
Well -- [Laughter]
-- if I dare to say, Lawrence.
Well, it's a lot more crowded these days than it was back then.
It's pretty crowded.
Uh, but Mr. President, what kind of assurances do you feel like, uh, you have that, uh, going forward? Uh, and, you know, past th- -- this Trump administration, it won't be American boots on the ground defending that border.
Well, you have my assurance and I'm president and I'm, I'm just trying to stop people from being killed, Charlie. Look, they're losing from five to 7,000 people a week in that ridiculous war that should have never happened. If we had a normal pre- -- not even a great president. If we had a normal president, that wouldn't have happened.
But we had a, a guy that didn't have a clue. And they're losing, think of it, five to 7,000 a week. So even these guys, they'll say, "Okay, let's meet next week." I said, "You can't meet next week. Next week, you're gonna have 7,000 more dead people. You can't do that. You gotta get this thing done." One of the things at the table was one of the gentlemen who's a great guy, but he said, uh, I sa- -- I, I hope I didn't insult him.
I, he said, "Well, let's meet in another month or two and let's see if we can start, uh, you know, making some, what -- " I said, "A month or two, you're gonna have another 40,000 people dead in a month or two. You have to do it tonight." And I did actually. I called, uh, President Putin and we're trying to work out a meeting with, uh, President Zelenskyy.
We'll see what happens there. And then if that works out, if it works out, then I'll go to the trilat and close it up.
Oh, that'd be good. Mr. President, did y'all discuss any land swaps yesterday? Because we've talked a lot about the Donbas region? And what was the feeling --
Yeah.
-- in the room? What did the other leaders say about this?
Well, they understand. Look, they, everybody can play cute and this and that, but, you know, Ukraine's gonna get their life back. They're gonna stop having people killed all over the place and they're gonna get a lot of land. But this was a, uh, a war, and Russia is a powerful military nation. You know, whether people like it or not, it's a powerful nation.
It's a much bigger nation. It's not a war that should have been started. You don't do that. You don't take, you don't take on a nation that's 10 times your size and, you know, military experts, look, look, if it wasn't for the greatest military equipment, we make the greatest military equipment in the world, and we gave them --
So --
-- you know, whatever. They took probably a lot of money too. But, uh, they, uh, they had tremendous, you know, they had the Patriot missile, which is the best in the world. All the equipment, w- -- we make the best equipment in the world, by far. Everyone else is like nothing. So we gave them a lot of equipment.
Now with that said, the Ukrainian soldiers were brave as hell --
Right.
-- 'cause it's fighting a force that's much, much bigger --
So --
-- and in theory, much more powerful.
So, s --
And you know, it's not like they've stopped. If you, I -- I assume you've all seen the map. You know --
Yeah.
-- a big chunk of territory is taken and that territory has been taken. Now they're talking about Donbas, but Donbas right now, as you know, is 79% owned and controlled by Russia. So they understand what that means.
But Mr. President, what, what did the other leaders tell you? Because it seemed to be this is unlike the first Trump term. There, there was great unity that was there, and we saw their public comments. But when you got them in the Oval Office, and we have this photo of you sitting at the Resolute desk, and all of these world leaders are sitting in front of you.
What did they say to you privately? Because it looked like they -- they're on the same page as you, sir.
Yeah, they are. They, they're very good people, they're very good leaders of their countries, and they wanna get back to leading their country. You know, they're consumed far more with this than we are because they're right there. You know, we have an ocean that's separating us, right? Thing called an ocean, a big o- -- a big, beautiful ocean, and, uh, they don't, you know, they're right there.
So they have to, they have to, you know, it's a different kind of a thing for them. Uh, when it comes to security, they're willing to put people on the ground. We're willing to help them with things, especially, uh, probably if you could talk about by air, because there's nobody has the kind of stuff we have.
Really, they don't have. But I don't think it's gonna be a problem. I think if a deal is made that, you know, famous last words, right? But I think if a deal is made, I think Russia's had it, they've all had it, and for a very extended period of time, I don't think there'll be a problem. But --
So --
-- there'll be some form of security. It can't be NATO because that was a, uh, that's just not something that would ever, ever happen. He couldn't, they couldn't do that.
So Mr. --
Who would want that? I mean, if you were Russia, who would want to have your, your enemy, your opponent sitting on your line. You don't do that. So it was always thought that -- that, uh, Ukraine was, uh, sort of a buffer between Russia and the rest of Europe. And it was, it was a big wide buffer. Everything worked out well until Biden got involved, you know, when Biden gave them $100 billion dollars right up front.
I don't give them anything. You know, I don't know if you know it, but since I've been there, we -- we don't pay. First of all, I made a deal to take rare earth. That's the equivalent of much more than the 350 billion that Biden, uh, got away because I felt so foolish. It was so stupid what he did. And I was able to make a deal with Ukraine, and they were very nice.
They have great rare earth among the best in the world, and we took much more than the 350 billion. And they -- they were great about it. So we got that, you know -- you know handled. But now we don't pay any money to Ukraine. They buy through the -- through NATO, because I got NATO to go from 2% to 5%. 2% when they didn't pay, 2% of GDP, 2% when they didn't pay and 5% now they do pay.
So it's trillions of dollars. So what we do is we make, uh, the equipment, the military equipment, and sell it at a full price. We sell it to the NATO. We sell it to NATO and NATO pays us immediately. And that's the way it's working. And then NATO takes it and does what they want with it because they really have the right to do what they want with it. But for the most part, they give it to Ukraine to fight --
So President Trump, uh -- uh --
So we're not losing. We don't -- we're not like we were with Biden where we are paying --
Right.
-- hundreds of billions of dollars out.
Right.
We're paying nothing.
President Trump, uh, during the meeting yesterday, when, uh, you decided to call Vladimir Putin, what was the reaction among, uh, the other people in the room? And what was -- uh, what was President Putin's reaction to, like, being brought into a phone call in the middle of your meeting?
Well, I think they expect it. I didn't do it in front of them. I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I -- you know, I wouldn't do that because they have not had the warmest relations. And -- and actually President Putin wouldn't talk to the people from Europe. I mean, that was part of the problem.
He -- he -- they -- they had not communi- --
So you stepped out of the Oval Office to make the call?
They had no communication. They had no communication with the White House for year, as people died, years with Biden and -- and his people. No communication. Putin told me years, it was years that he -- that he didn't speak to anybody from the White House. And it was a long time that he didn't speak to anybody from Europe.
No, it's a fractured relationship. And when I came in, I always had, despite the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax, which truly was a very dangerous thing for our country. But despite that, I maintained a very good relationship. I mean, you saw that when he got off his plane, I got off my plane. There's a warmth there that you can't, you know -- There's a -- there's a decent feeling.
And it's a good thing, not a bad thing. People would say, "Oh, that's such a terrible thing." It's not a terrible thing. You know what? We've got the most nuclear weapons in the world.
Right.
And the most powerful. He's got second, okay.
So can you describe for us how that happened? Did you just announced that you were gonna go into the other room to make the phone call?
Yeah.
And then you -- you -- you got up and left and then came back?
I think I sort of knew. I was -- at the end of the meeting, I was gonna call President Putin. And President Putin expected it. And he was there. Now, by the time I called him, it was one o'clock in the morning in Russia. Russia's a big place. You know, they have 11 time zones, I believe.
Yeah.
Nine or 11, but I think it's 11.
But Mr. President, what --
Think of it, 11 time zones, that's a lot of time zones. So it was late. It was, uh, like one o'clock in the morning. But he was -- he picked it up very happily. I'm sure he works very hard like we all do. And, uh, we had a very good call and I told him that, uh, we're gonna set up a meeting with President Zelenskyy and you and he will meet.
And then after that meeting, if everything works out okay, I'll wa- -- I'll be -- I'll meet and we'll wrap it up. But, you know, it takes, uh, in this case, two to tango. They have to have somewhat of a relationship, otherwise we're just wasting a lot of time. I don't wanna be doing that for -- I just want to end it. I wanna end it. You know, we're not losing American lives.
We're not losing American soldiers. We're losing Russian and Ukrainian mostly soldiers. Some people as missiles hit wrong spots or get lobbed into cities like Kiev and towns. But, uh, you know, when, if I can save 7,000 people a week from being killed, I think that's a pretty -- I want try and get to heaven, if possible.
I, I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I hear --
Did, did --
I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole.
Did the fir --
But if I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons. Well, I think I saved a lot of lives with India, Pakistan. They were going at it, they was, the planes were being shot down. That was gonna be maybe a nuclear war if I let that go. And I did that through trade. I was negotiating with both of 'em. I said, "I'm not gonna make a trade deal with you guys." You fight em' until you get peace, and I got 'em on the phone.
I made a, I made a peace deal. And, uh, many, many deals. You know, six, actually seven. And then we took out the nuclear capability from Iran. That was a big one and those pilots and those planes, when people saw -- you know, we had the B-2 fly right over President Putin -- [Laughter] -- as he left this plane [Laughs] --
Mm.
And he looked up, he said, "What the hell is that? --
So --
That's a hell of a noise."
So did --
They, we didn't make it environmentally friendly. Okay.
So did the fir --
If that's okay with you guys?
Did the First Lady let you read the letter that Mrs. Zelenskyy wrote to her?
I purposely didn't. Uh, I, I did not do it purposely. It was given to me sealed. And, uh, I'm sure it would've been fine. But, uh, she gave a letter to Melania, and Melania told me it was absolutely a beautiful letter. So I'm gonna see it, she's sending me a copy. But I gave it to her yesterday sealed. It's nice when you give something sealed. [Laughter]
I don't like when things are open. I don't like it. So anyway --
Mr. President.
If you, it, it was a beautiful letter. I'm sure.
Mr. President, there was a lot of talk yesterday when we were watching this, about what happens at the, after your presidency, how can we ensure that this conflict that Putin doesn't, um, inch in closer or more into the Ukraine territory? Is there anything that we can do? Can our, can our congressmen and women pass any laws, um, that would --
Yeah.
That would involve Article, Article V? How, how would that be handled?
All you can do is make sure you get a good president. Not one of these wackos like in California, but it can't, can't, it runs the worst state anybody's seen it at. [Laughter]
Or that that guy in, uh, Illinois, who his family threw him out of the business 'cause he was no good. Now he is running Illinois and he wants to run for pres- -- he's got zero chance. Maybe, maybe Newsom has a little bit of a chance. I don't know. But it's hard to believe, 'cause his record's bad. But what you all you can do is hope you don't get that as president.
We have a great bench as you know, that we have great talent. And JD and Marco and, uh, Scott. Scott, Scott Bessent's been great and Howard have been grea- -- they're all, I mean, we have, uh, such superstars. Remember this, take a look at, uh, take a look at the border. The border was a disaster. Millions of people were pouring through open border.
Within two months, it was perfect. And within now, every week they, every, uh, every month they say zero people, zero people are coming in illegally. We were taking people from prisons all over the world, gang members, insane asylum, mental patients from the worst insane asylums in the world that dopped, uh, dropped in to our, to our place.
So now we have a very secure border, beautiful border. I built hundreds of miles of wall, without that, we couldn't have a --
Right.
-- secure border.
Mr. President, you, it -- it -- it's clear that you have operational control of the board. I mean, when the numbers hit zero --
Yeah.
-- that is clear for the whole world to see. I'm curious --
Three months.
D --
Three months --
D --
-- in a row.
Right. Without new laws even having to be passed. But Mr. President --
But now, I'm doing something that I'm having such fun with, because --
I --
-- I'm helping people. I'm -- I've made Washington, DC --
Mm-hmm.
-- a, just an incredible, just an incredible place in, in literally four days. I have friends that say they're going out to dinner. Did you see what's happening with the restaurants? They're --
Yes, sir.
-- bursting. They were all closing and going bankrupt. I mean, it would be, uh, I mean, it would be great. There's a guy named Sean Hannity. [Laughter] He might take a very lovely young lady that he knows -- [Laughter] -- very, very well to dinner in Washington, and they don't have to, uh, they don't have to -- And she's sitting right next to you by the way. [Laughter]
That's right. [Laughter]
But --
I, I, I do --
-- but Mr. President --
-- I don't wanna get him in trouble, so I better explain exactly. We don't want any secrets here. But, uh --
That's exactly right.
-- he's got -- That's the greatest relationship. I hope I'm not breaking any news.
Hmm, no.
This could be the biggest -- Hey, this could be the most important --
No.
-- thing I said. But let me tell you, those are two great, Ainsley and Sean, great people. And when they go out to dinner, I don't want to see them get mugged. [Laughter] Now, they can go out. They can hold hands. They can walk down the street. They're both superstars. I wanna know who makes more money --
W- -- w- -- we're so --
-- because she's gotta be making a lot.
Mister --
You know?
Mr. President, we're so happy for them. But, uh, but, but on a serious note, Mr. President, when you had those world leaders, because this is the topic of conversation for the whole world. When you had them sitting in front of you, did they express concerns about the next president, that they're not gonna get the same type of treatment, security guarantees.
Part of the de- -- deterrent of future attacks is your peace through strength. So did --
Yeah.
-- they say to you, Mr. President, "We're concerned about the next leader"?
They did. We talked about it. You know, it is what it is. I could say the same thing about them. I said, supposing you get a terrible leader in, uh, UK, or France, or, you know. We had, uh, Ursula there, who runs the, uh, who runs the, the whole gamut. You know, we just made the biggest trade deal in the world.
And she was, she's in charge of the commission, the European Commission, and she's the boss. She was there too, was the -- I mean, that was really an incredible array of, of people. But, you know, they say that actually maybe even more with regard to the economy, we have $17 trillion being invested in the United States and committed -- And, and numbers that nobody's ever seen.
For AI plants and for this and for that. And we're taking in trillions and trillions of dollars. That's why we're doing so well. Plants are being built all over the country. Our country has gone from a dead country one year ago. We're the hottest country in the world. And every one of those people said it yesterday.
They said, in six months, you made this the hottest country in the world that we are. We have $17 trillion coming in. And they said, "Well, what happens if you're no longer president, and somebody comes in and cancels the tariffs that we've invested hundreds of billions of dollars on building these plants, and now you have some anti-business person come in?" I said, "Well, life is full of nasty little surprises, but I don't think it's gonna happen." We have a great bench, and the bench is really talented.
You see a lot --
W --
-- of the people, and I think you're gonna get --
W --
-- great people in government.
Well, President Trump, we want to thank you so much for joining us this morning. We know that you have, uh, lots of other wars around the world that you need to end, and, uh, that's more important, uh, than anything. So, we appreciate you joining us this morning.
No, thank you very much, Charles.
Thank you, Mr. President.
And thank you --
Thank you so much.
Thank you. And Ainsley, thank you. I hope I didn't get you in trouble with Sean.
No, yeah. [Laughter]
No --
[Crosstalk]
We appreciate your support.
-- a great couple.
Thank you.
I'll say it. Uh, you know, I like this. It's a great couple. We love them. Have a good time, everybody.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Congratulations for yesterday.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you, Mr. Trump.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you all very much.
The 45th and 47th president of the United States.