WATCH: Benjamin Hall Joins the Guy Benson Show, Shares What It Means to Be 'RESOLUTE'
Listen to the full interview:
Watch the full interview:
Listen to the full podcast:
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
28 minutes ago
- The Hill
Zelensky gives Trump a golf putter
President Trump is putting a new flat stick in his golf bag, courtesy of a Ukrainian soldier who shares his love for the game and delivered by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky presented Trump with a new blade-style putter during his visit to The White House on Monday. The Ukrainian leader told the president that the club was given to him by Kostiantyn Kartavtsev, a junior sergeant in Ukraine's Armed Forces. The solider lost a leg in the first months of Russia's full-scale invasion, according to the Ukrainian government, noting golf became part of Kartavtsev's rehabilitation and helped him regain balance 'both physically and mentally.' Trump recorded a video for the Ukrainian fighter thanking him for the gift. 'I just watched you swing, I know a lot about golf, and your swing is great. You're going to be a very good golfer soon,' he told the soldier in the clip making the rounds online with Ukrainian subtitles. 'I want to thank you for this putter … is made with real love from you.' The president encouraged the Ukrainian soldier to keep playing golf and said he and Zelensky are working 'very, very hard to bring your country back to health.' 'The putter is beautiful, thank you. Every time I sink a putt I'll be thinking about you,' he quipped. Zelensky traveled to Washington to meet with Trump and European leaders as the U.S. helps to facilitate a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia amid the ongoing war in Eastern Europe. An avid golfer who owns courses and resorts around the world, Trump was in Scotland earlier this month for the grand opening of his newest property at Turnberry. The PGA Tour also announced Tuesday that it would return to the president's Doral resort in Florida next May, marking the first time the sport's premier league has held an event at a Trump property since 2016.
The Hill
28 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump floats air support for Ukraine as part of security guarantees
President Trump is floating providing U.S. pilots and war planes as part of security guarantees for post-war Ukraine as he pushes for an end to Russia's war against the country. Trump has said the U.S. will help Europe craft security guarantees for Ukraine to backstop any peace deal reached with Russia, in lieu of Ukraine joining NATO, a red line for Russia. 'When it comes to security, they are willing to put people on the ground,' Trump said in an interview with Fox News aired Monday evening, referring to Europe. 'We're willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air because nobody has stuff we have.' White House Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump has tasked his national security team to 'come up with a framework for these security guarantees that can be acceptable to help ensure a lasting peace and end this war.' 'I won't, certainly, rule out anything as far as military options that the president has at his disposal, I'll let him do that,' she said, but added that the president has 'definitively' ruled out boots on the ground. NATO chief Mark Rutte on Monday said Trump's willingness to involve the U.S. in security gaurantees for Ukraine was a 'breakthrough' in the peace process, though details on America's potential role remain scarce. Trump's floating the possibility for air support could mean American pilots engaged in defensive operations, guarding against Russian missiles, or simply providing support for other aircraft – such as air-to-air refueling or for transportation of military equipment. Defensive operations could risk a confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, a scenario that both Trump and former President Biden before him have been anxious to avoid. Biden turned down Ukraine's requests for no-fly zone following Russia's invasion, over concerns it could escalate the conflict and lead to a direct confrontation between nuclear powers.
NBC News
29 minutes ago
- NBC News
Trump's Ukraine diplomacy faces a new hurdle: Where can Putin and Zelenskyy meet?
A man wanted for war crimes sitting across the table from the leader of the country he invaded? That is the spectacle that President Donald Trump is pushing to arrange in the next few weeks, convinced he can break the deadlock between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy with a summit that could help forge an end to the Kremlin's war. The plan, however, is tangled from the start. Some European leaders maintain that no such meeting should take place before Russia agrees to a ceasefire. Many analysts doubt that Putin will actually agree to meet with Zelenskyy. And even if he does, there's the fraught subject of where to hold the negotiations, given that Putin faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Kremlin plays it cool Trump revealed Monday that he called the Russian leader 'to begin the arrangements' during his White House meeting with Zelenskyy and a posse of European leaders. The president doubled down Tuesday, telling "Fox & Friends" that he hoped 'Putin is going to be good,' adding: 'I sort of set it up with Putin and Zelenskyy, and you know, they're the ones that have to call the shots. We're 7,000 miles away.' Trump seemed eager to accelerate the timeline of the mooted talks. "I think it will be fairly soon," Finnish President Alexander Stubb told NBC News, adding that he hoped it could happen "within the next two weeks." Moscow, however, poured its customary cold water on the excitement. "We do not reject any formats: neither bilateral nor trilateral," said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. But he warned that any summit would have to be prepared "step by step, gradually, starting with the expert level and then going through all the necessary steps." Lavrov, speaking to State TV channel Rossiya-24, added that "contacts involving top officials must be prepared with the utmost care." Location TBD Zelenskyy said he is "ready" to meet Putin, but it's unclear where such a meeting would take place. Putin faces an arrest warrant, issued by the ICC in 2023, over the alleged war crime of illegally deporting Ukrainian children. That obligates the 125 countries that are party to the court under the Rome Statute to arrest the Russian leader and transfer him to The Hague for trial if he sets foot on their territory. Moscow has repeatedly denied accusations that its forces have committed atrocities in Ukraine, and the Kremlin branded the court decision "null and void." Trump said Monday the location was 'to be determined,' and the search for a neutral venue has already turned into its own diplomatic guessing game. Switzerland, already floated by Stubb and French President Emmanuel Macron as a potential venue, raised its hand. Despite being an ICC signatory, Switzerland could welcome Putin for a summit given that he would be coming for peace purposes, said Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis. 'The goal of receiving Mr. Putin in Switzerland without him being arrested is one hundred percent achievable,' Cassis told Swiss national broadcaster SRF. Austria's leader also offered his country, which stood at the divide of communist Eastern Europe and the capitalist West during the Cold War. "We stand ready to offer our good services," Chancellor Christian Stocker posted on X. Hungary may also be in play. Its parliament voted to quit the ICC in April, which could allow Putin to attend without risk of arrest. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also remained one of the Kremlin's few friends in Europe amid the war, though that may make it less appealing to Kyiv. But obstacles remain: Any Putin flight to Switzerland or Hungary risks passing over countries that might not be so forgiving if his plane had to make an emergency landing. Safer bets could be Turkey, which has hosted past summits between Ukraine and Russia, or Qatar, which is already used to hosting fraught negotiations between warring parties as the venue for talks between Israel and Hamas. Turkey and Qatar are not members of the ICC. Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser, suggested that a summit could take place at the end of August and that Saudi Arabia could play host. The U.S. is also not an ICC signatory, and Putin and Zelenskyy have traveled there in recent days. Whether a venue will even need to be chosen is another matter. While not 'impossible,' a meeting between the two leaders would be 'a big surprise,' Keir Giles, a senior fellow at the London-based think tank Chatham House, told NBC News. Putin has 'carefully avoided' meeting Zelensky until now, he said in a phone interview, 'because doing so conflicts with his narrative of Ukraine not being a proper country and Zelenskyy not being a legitimate leader." Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, a Berlin-based think tank, echoed those doubts. A meeting would be 'pointless' for Putin and will not happen 'under the current circumstances,' she wrote on X. Putin 'has repeatedly stated that such a meeting would only be possible if there were well-prepared grounds, which in practice means Zelenskyy's acceptance of Russia's terms for ending the war,' she said.
