Donald Trump has claimed Sir Keir Starmer ‘didn’t do anything’ to end the Ukraine war – just days before he is due to welcome the Prime Minister to the White House.
The US President lashed out at Sir Keir and France’s Emmanuel Macron amid a transatlantic spat over Mr Trump branding Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘dictator’.
Those comments riled both the PM and French President, who hit back at Mr Trump’s attack on the Ukrainian President and doubled down on their support for Kyiv.
Mr Macron also warned Mr Trump against being ‘weak’ with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, amid fears the US President has sided with Moscow during nascent peace talks.
The French President has beaten Sir Keir in a diplomatic race for a meeting with Mr Trump in Washington DC, following his return to the White House last month.
Mr Macron is expected to fly to America for talks with the US President on Monday, while the PM is set to head to the US later in the week.
But, ahead of their trips to meet Mr Trump, the US President risked a fresh outbreak of tensions with Sir Keir and Mr Macron by slating their approach to Ukraine.
In an interview with Fox News, he said: ‘They didn’t do anything either [to end the war]. The war’s going on, no meetings with Russia, no nothing.
‘They haven’t done anything. Macron is a friend of mine, and I’ve met with the Prime Minister, he’s a very nice guy… [but] nobody’s done anything.
‘I’ve been watching this go on for years and I’m doing it for one reason, I hate the killing. I hate to see those young people killed.’
Donald Trump has claimed Sir Keir Starmer ‘didn’t do anything’ to end the Ukraine war – just days before he is due to welcome the Prime Minister to the White House
The US President lashed out at Sir Keir and France’s Emmanuel Macron amid a transatlantic spat over Mr Trump branding Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘dictator’
Mr Macron is expected to fly to America for talks with the US President on Monday, while the PM is set to head to the US later in the week
Mr Trump also renewed his attack on Mr Zelensky – who is furious at being sidelined from US talks with Russia – and claimed Ukraine was negotiating with ‘no cards’.
‘I’ve been watching for years, and I’ve been watching him negotiate with no cards,’ the US President said.
‘He has no cards. And you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I’ve had it. He’s been at a meeting for three years, and nothing got done.
‘So, I don’t think it’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you. He makes it very hard to make deals.’
Mr Trump also claimed Mr Putin ‘wants to make a deal’ after US and Russian officials met for talks in Saudi Arabia – without Ukraine’s involvement – earlier this week.
But he suggested the Russian President ‘doesn’t have to make a deal’ because he could complete a total invasion of Ukraine ‘if he wanted’.
‘He wants to make a deal. And he doesn’t have to make a deal, because if he wanted, he’d get the whole country,’ the US President added.
Mr Trump boasted that Russia ‘did not attack’ Ukraine during his first spell in power and repeated his claim that the conflict ‘shouldn’t have started’.
‘If I won the election, which I did, it’s a war that never, ever would have started,’ he said of Mr Putin renewing his invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Joe Biden was US President.
He added that war-torn Ukraine was ‘sort of like Gaza’ following the ‘demolition of so many of those cities’.
Mr Trump said Russia would ‘continue to march through Ukraine’ had he not returned to power, and claimed Mr Putin ‘hates’ Mr Zelensky ‘with a tremendous passion’.
The US President lashed out at Sir Keir and France ‘s Emmanuel Macron amid a transatlantic spat over Mr Trump branding Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘dictator’
The US President added he would take a call from Mr Zelensky despite the recent angry exchanges between them.
He also appeared to move away from his previous astonishing remarks in which he blamed Kyiv for having ‘started’ the conflict.
‘Russia attacked, but there was no reason for them to attack.’ Mr Trump said. ‘There was no reason that he [Mr Putin] should have attacked.
‘That whole thing was was going on for years. There was no reason he was going in. It should have never happened, that war should have never happened.’
He added: ‘Every time I say, ‘oh, it’s not Russia’s fault’, I always get slammed by the fake news. But I’m telling you, Biden said the wrong things.
‘Zelensky said the wrong things. They got attacked by somebody that’s much bigger and much stronger, which is a bad thing to do, and you don’t do that.
‘But Russia could have been talked out of that so easily, that should never have been a war. All those dead people shouldn’t be dead.
‘And all those cities shouldn’t be demolished right now.’
Mr Trump astounded European capitals earlier this week with his claims that Ukraine was to blame for the war and Mr Zelensky is a ‘dictator without elections’.
In the wake of those comments, Sir Keir rushed to offer his support to the Ukrainian President with a phone call on Wednesday.
The PM gave his backing to Mr Zelensky as ‘Ukraine’s democratically elected leader’.
Sir Keir also said it was ‘perfectly reasonable’ for Ukraine to suspend elections ‘during war time as the UK did during World War Two’.
Defence Secretary John Healey also compared Mr Zelensky to Britain’s war-time leader Winston Churchill.
‘This was a man who, stuck in his country, led his country, and still does. He was elected,’ he said.
‘He’s the elected leader of Ukraine, and he’s done what Winston Churchill did in Britain in the Second World War, suspended elections while at war.
‘And our job is to stand with the Ukrainians, support the Ukrainians, support them in their fight. And if they choose to talk, support them in the negotiations as well.’
Mr Macron this week warned Mr Trump not to be ‘weak in the face of President Putin’.
‘It’s not you, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest,’ he added. ‘How can you then be credible in the face of China if you’re weak in the face of Putin?’
Mr Macron also claimed that ‘uncertainty’ in Russia about Mr Trump’s actions was ‘good for us and for Ukraine’.
Ahead of his trip to the White House, the French President said he would seek to persuade Mr Trump that US interests and Europeans’ interests are the same.
He said he would tell the US President: ‘If you let Russia take over Ukraine, it would be unstoppable.’
