President Donald Trump declined to take a question on foreign policy on the red carpet on Sunday—but swiftly changed his mind just moments later.
Trump, 79, was fielding softball questions about the newly MAGAfied Kennedy Center on Sunday night ahead of the storied arts institution’s annual ceremony honoring big names in performing arts.
“Are you willing to take a foreign policy question? Russia, Ukraine?” one reporter asked.
“Well, I think maybe not. This is about the Kennedy Center,” he responded.
After taking a question about who’s on his “naughty list” for the year, however, Trump couldn’t help himself from bringing up the topic he just declined to discuss.
“Oh, that’s a long list. I better not tell you,” he began, before once again touting the U.S. as the “hottest country anywhere in the world right now.”
“And, as you know, I ended eight wars. We’re trying to end a ninth,” he went on, rehashing the exaggerated claims that he has repeatedly used in his failed bid for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump had more to say after he was asked about his next steps in the ongoing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which once again failed to yield results despite a five-hour meeting in the Kremlin last week and days of talks that concluded this weekend.
“We’ve been speaking to President Putin, and we’ve been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including President Zelensky, and I have to say that I’m a little bit disappointed that President Zelensky hasn’t yet read the proposal—that was as of a few hours ago,” he said.
“His people love it, but he hasn’t—Russia is fine with it. Russia, I guess would rather have the whole country, when you think of it. But Russia is, I believe, fine with it. But I’m not sure that Zelensky is fine with it. His people love it, but he hasn’t read it,” he added.
Trump, who promised to end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day back in office, said his officials had a “reasonably good” meeting with the Russian leader last week—but stopped short of announcing any significant developments.
“I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing,” he admitted. “What comes out of that meeting? I can’t tell you, because it does take two to tango.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, wrote in an X post on Sunday that “there is still work to be done together to ensure that Russia genuinely commits to ending the war.”
