ANIllarionov interview

https://bbb.livejournal.com/4173773.html

July 25, 2025

Press Gaggle: Donald Trump Speaks to Reporters Before Marine One Departure
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-press-gaggle-before-marine-one-departure-july-25-2025

- Have you considered secondary sanctions sooner on Russia? Are you closer today to secondary sanctions?

- We're looking at that whole situation. It could be that we'll have to put secondary sanctions on them.

- Sooner than 50 days?

- Maybe, yeah.

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July 28, 2025

Remarks: Donald Trump Welcomes Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom to Trump Turnberry
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-welcome-keir-starmer-united-kingdom-july-28-2025

- Mr. President, what about Russia and Ukraine. You're talking about ceasefires. What's the latest?

- I would have said five times we would have had a deal. I've spoken to President Putin a lot. I always got along with him very well, but five times and every time - four times maybe. But we've had discussions. You and I have had discussions. We thought we had that settled numerous times and then President Putin goes out and starts launching rockets into some city, like Kyiv, and kills a lot of people in a nursing home or whatever. You have bodies lying all over the street. And I say that's not the way to do it. So we'll see what happens with that. I'm very disappointed. I'm disappointed in President Putin. I'm very disappointed in him. So we're going to have to look and I'm going to reduce that 50 days that I gave him to a lesser number because I think I already know the answer, what's going to happen.

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July 28, 2025

Remarks: Donald Trump Holds a Bilateral with Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-bilat-starmer-united-kingdom-july-28-2025

- Mr. President, you moved up the deadline. It's now 10 or 12 days. Is the sanction the same, that you're going to slap a 100 percent tariff on anybody who does business with Russia? And what's -

- So, what I'm doing is we're going to do secondary sanctions unless we make a deal. And we might make a deal. I don't know. I don't know. You don't know. It's - we've done so many peace deals. This is the one I started out with. And, you know, this is - I know President Putin called me. He wanted to know if I could help him with Iran. I said, no, I don't need your help with Iran, I need your help with Russia. And so that's the one deal that continues to linger. And you know, we're losing 5,000 - they're losing. I'm not losing, you're not losing, but 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian kids a week are dying and that's not mentioning the people that are dying also in towns where you know he's lobbing missiles into certain towns, like Kyiv. And he's got to make a deal. <...> So you have 7,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers dying every single week for no reason whatsoever. So you would think based on common sense, you would think he'd want to make a deal. We'll find out.

- [Inaudible] publicly, have you had any other trade conversations with the Russians reiterating this?

- In what?

- Reiterating this new pressure and deadline?

- You know, we're going to have a - yeah. I mean, well, you're the press, I'm reiterating it to you. Yeah, I'd say 10 to 12 days. I'll announce it probably tonight or tomorrow, but there's no reason to wait. If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs. You know what a secondary tariff is. And look, the Russian economy - I don't want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people. They're great people. I don't want to do that to Russia. But this thing - they're losing a lot of Russians. They've lost a million Russians and that's the, you know, sons. That's the sons and daughters of uh, Russian families. They leave the house, they go, bye, mom, bye, dad and then they get blown away. And Ukrainian too. Look what - look at Ukraine, it's a disaster what's happened there, but it continues to go on. As you know, we made a deal where the European Union is essentially involved, but it's NATO and we're - we're supplying weapons to NATO. NATO's now paying, because the United States, because of Biden's in for $350 billion, the European nations were in for about $100 billion. Should be the opposite way, by the way, because we have a big ocean in between, should be the opposite way. But I think that eventually something's going to happen. It should happen fast. So many people are dying. You know, when I settled out with Congo and Rwanda, they lost almost eight million people, and it just made so much sense. And if I didn't get involved, they wouldn't have done it. They weren't even thinking about settling it. It was just going on forever. And nobody could go into those territories because they'd get killed. They'd get killed. And now they have a - I hear it's a whole different ball game. We settled it. This is one that should be settled, Russia, Ukraine, this is one that really should be settled.

<...>

- You talked during the campaign about President Putin respecting you and that helping you to have a relationship with him. Do you still feel that way, that he respects you, considering the conversations you've had that have been really nice?

- Yeah, I've always gotten along with President Putin. I have had a great relationship with him. And he went through the Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax too. You know, I mean, it was - we used to talk about it. We used to say, you know, it's too bad we really can't do anything between our countries, because if we did, they'd say, oh, it's, you know, some - look, I was tough on Putin because I was the one that closed up Nord Stream and Biden came along and opened it up. I was very tough on Putin in - in one way, but we got along very well. And I never - you know, I never really thought this would happen. I thought we'd be able to negotiate something. And maybe that'll still happen, but it's - it's very late down the process. So, I'm disappointed. And, you know, the funny thing is that their economy isn't that big. And it's having a hard time right now, but it's a relatively small economy. A strong military but strong economy. And it used to be a strong economy, now it's not. He's going through a lot economically. It's not easy. But it's pretty small, you know, compared to that magnificent size of that land. The land is massive. It's got, I guess, nine time zones or something. It's a massive piece of land. Russia could be so rich. It could be so rich. It could be thriving like practically no other country. And they're holding that back because we can't - he wants to do trade deals with us. He talks about it all the time. He wanted to. And I envisioned that, a lot of trade with Russia. They have a lot of valuable things. When you talk about rare earth, they have serious rare earth, right? They have just about every form you can have. So, you know, Russia could be such - so rich right now. Instead they spend all their money on war. They spend everything on war and killing people, and it doesn't make sense to me. I thought he would want to end this thing quickly. I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it's going to end, he - he kills people.

- Could a meeting help? And are you considering - that's been proposed, a meeting?

- I don't know. I'm - I'm not - you know, I'm not so interested in talking anymore. He's a - he talks. We have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night in a - with a missile going into a town and hitting - I mean, recently I guess the nursing home, but they hit other things. Whatever they hit people die. So, I don't - we'll see what happens.

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July 29, 2025
Press Gaggle: Donald Trump Speaks to Reporters On Board Air Force One
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-press-gaggle-air-force-one-july-29-2025

- Mr. President, yesterday, you mentioned that you would change the Russia deadline to 10 to 12 days. Is that - has that started yet? Or when can we see the official statement that that is the new deadline?

- I'll give it to you now. Do you want a big scoop? Everybody else, close your ears, OK? You ready?

- I'm ready.

- Ten days from today. <...> And then, we're going to put on tariffs and stuff, and I don't know if it's going to affect Russia because he wants to obviously probably keep the war going. But we're going to put on tariffs and the various things that you put on. It may or may not affect them, but it could.

<...>

- Back to Russia, sir. Since you made the announcement of the 10 to 12 days, have you gotten any feedback or any officials gotten any feedback that had a response that Russia is going to do something -

- No, I haven't gotten - I haven't had any response. It's a shame. So I used to say to you, 5,000 people die a week, now it's 7,000 people are dying a week, mostly Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, but people also from having bombs dropped on their head. It's a disgusting war.

- How worried are you on the oil markets if you were to put sanctions on Russia?

- I don't worry about it. We have so much oil in our country. We'll just step it up even further. I mean, oil is down pretty low right now. We'll step it up even further.

https://bbb.livejournal.com/4173773.html