Three days after meeting with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the Oval Office of the White House, Donald Trump said on Friday that he is not sure whether to grant the European country licenses to build Patriot missile systems on its territory to protect itself from Russian attacks. “These weapons are incredible. You have to be very careful when allowing someone to manufacture them,” he said during a cabinet meeting. “You have to be very cautious, but also very careful: it is difficult to hand over that kind of technology and, although I don’t think it will ever happen, if we give them that technology someday they could use it against us.”
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This is a setback for Zelensky, to whom Trump promised at the beginning of the month in Ankara (Turkey), during the NATO summit, the issuance of these licenses. On Tuesday, after his meeting with the president in Washington, where he traveled to attend the funeral of his ally, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, he said that both leaders had made progress on this concession, which the Ukrainian has been seeking from the White House for years. “I am grateful to the U.S. for its firm support,” he said via X, before also meeting with representatives of Lockheed Martin, producer of the Patriot systems, to finalize the “joint production and technology exchange.”
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The President of the United States held his monthly cabinet meeting outside the White House for the first time since returning to power last year. Amid a new escalation in the Iran war and after agreeing with Hamas on the delivery of its armament in Gaza, the president chose to gather his government at Camp David, a military facility in Maryland that serves as a presidential retreat. Trump, who already met once at this refuge during his first term, tried again in May to use Camp David, with enhanced security measures, but ultimately canceled due to bad weather.
This Friday, from that military facility, the president expressed frustration with his inability to end the war in Iran, which he referred to as a “military operation” to downplay it. “They are behaving very badly, they have been very dishonest in the negotiations, but that no longer matters,” since “our goal is to win” the war, he said.
Trump now says Iran will not be able to have ballistic missiles or drones after the war
The president signed a memorandum of understanding with Tehran last month, in which both countries committed to a ceasefire and lifting their respective naval blockades in the Middle East. However, Iran interpreted that it had the right to attack ships in Hormuz that deviated from their established route, and the U.S. responded with intense waves of bombings that lasted two consecutive weeks.
Last week, they paused the attacks for five days, claiming progress in negotiations, but Iran’s attack on a U.S. base in Jordan, as well as pro-Iranian militias’ attacks on oil facilities in Saudi Arabia, have led to the resumption of bombings and the direct involvement, for the first time, of Riyadh, with a joint attack on Iranian targets in Iraq.
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Trump, who promised in February that the war would last two weeks and then asked the American people for more time to achieve the “final victory,” has assured that victory is near. “They don’t have a navy, it has been destroyed. Their air force has been eliminated, they have no planes. Their missile arsenal has been largely destroyed. They have some left, yes, but far fewer than they had four or five months ago. Their production capacity is almost destroyed,” the president celebrated, followed by praise from his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, present at the meeting.
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During his speech, Trump indicated a change of stance regarding the possibility of allowing Iran to keep armament after the war. If after signing the ceasefire he said it should have the right to ballistic missiles, like any country, “because its neighbors also have them,” this morning he said that the fact that Tehran even keeps a drone “is too much, as far as I’m concerned.”
Regarding the agreement announced yesterday for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas, in line with the 20-point plan announced last October, Trump downplayed the skepticism from the Islamist organization and Israel about its fulfillment. Hamas demands that Tel Aviv withdraw its troops to begin disarmament, while Israel doubts that the group will hand over its weapons.
“We have an understanding with Israel, which is very satisfied with it,” Trump concluded. “It helped us and has been a great ally. Many people said that agreement was impossible to achieve. Now, will it go forward? There are advances and setbacks. It is a very complex situation. The people there are very complex and difficult,” he added. Then, he contradicted members of his own administration by stating that when Hamas hands over its weapons, the Peace Council will take possession of them. Last night, his government said those weapons would be handed over to the Palestinian authorities.
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