Donald Trump has said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” after Vladimir Putin criticised the credibility of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a phone call with Sky News’ US partner network, NBC News.
Mr Trump said the Russian president’s recent comments, calling for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine in a move that could effectively push out Mr Zelenskyy, were “not going in the right direction”.
It is a rare move by Mr Trump to criticise Mr Putin, who he has generally spoken positively about during discussions to end the war in Ukraine.
Last month, he also released a barrage of critical comments about Mr Zelenskyy’s leadership, falsely claiming that he had “poor approval” ratings in Ukraine.
The US leader added that if Russia is unable to make a deal on “stopping bloodshed in Ukraine” then he would put secondary tariffs on “all oil coming out of Russia”.
“That would be that if you buy oil from Russia, you can’t do business in the United States. There will be a 25% tariff on all oil, a 25 to 50-point tariff on all oil,” he said.
Mr Trump said Mr Putin knows he is angry, but added that he has “a very good relationship with him” and “the anger dissipates quickly… if he does the right thing.”
He said he plans to speak with the Russian president again this week.
His comments directed towards Mr Putin come after he said in a separate phone call on Saturday that no one will be fired over a national security blunder, which saw a journalist mistakenly added to a Signal chat group discussing planned strikes on Yemen.
This week it was revealed national security adviser Michael Waltz accidentally added The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat with senior members of the Trump administration who were discussing plans to strike Houthi militants earlier this month.
The White House sought to downplay the incident, with Mr Trump repeatedly branding it “fake news” throughout an interview with Sky’s network partner NBC News.
The president said on Saturday: “I don’t fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts.”
Mr Trump said he still had confidence in Mr Waltz and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was also in the Signal chat and sent a detailed timeline of the planned strikes before they happened.
The president added: “I think it’s just a witch hunt and the fake news, like you, talk about it all the time, but it’s just a witch hunt, and it shouldn’t be talked [about].
“We had a tremendously successful strike. We struck very hard and very lethal. And nobody wants to talk about that. All they want to talk about is nonsense. It’s fake news.”
Mr Trump’s comments come amid calls – including from his allies – to fire Mr Waltz after Mr Goldberg wrote on Monday that he had been added to a chat group on a private messaging app.
The Trump administration has since repeatedly claimed the Yemen plans were not classified.
“I have no idea what Signal is. I don’t care what Signal is,” Mr Trump said.
“All I can tell you is it’s just a witch hunt, and it’s the only thing the press wants to talk about, because you have nothing else to talk about. Because it’s been the greatest 100-day presidency in the history of our country.”
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The incident led to a tense exchange between hard-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Green and Sky News’ US correspondent Martha Kelner.
When questioned whether the details shared in the group chat amounted to classified information, the representative from Georgia snapped back: “We don’t give a crap about your opinion and your reporting.
“Why don’t you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem.”
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Marjorie Taylor Greene lashing out at Sky’s Martha Kelner
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JD Vance felt the cold in Greenland – and it wasn’t just the weather
During the phone interview with NBC News, Mr Trump also discussed his commitment to annexing Greenland – which is currently a semi-autonomous Danish territory – and reiterated that a military option was not off the table.
“We’ll get Greenland. Yeah, 100%,” the president said.
He said there’s a “good possibility that we could do it without military force” but added: “I don’t take anything off the table.”
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance visited Greenland with his wife, Usha, and spoke to service members at Pituffik Space Base, a US Space Force base on the northwestern coast.
Mr Vance said: “Our message to Denmark is very simple – you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland.”
Asked what message acquiring Greenland would send to Russia and the rest of the world, Mr Trump said: “I don’t really think about that. I don’t really care. Greenland’s a very separate subject, very different. It’s international peace. It’s international security and strength.
“You have ships sailing outside Greenland from Russia, from China and from many other places. And we’re not going to allow things to happen that are going to be – that are going to hurt the world or the United States.”