WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he is not ready to give Ukraine the United States Tomahawk missiles as he spoke publicly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
Zelensky came once again to Washington to speak with the president following Trump’s highly discussed call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. Trump announced on Thursday that he and Putin will soon meet in Budapest, Hungary, to hammer out details on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.
On Friday, he suggested that the meeting will only be between him and Putin, pointing to the “tremendous bad blood” between Putin and Zelensky.
“They have tremendous bad blood,” Trump said. “It really is what is holding up, I think, a settlement. I think we are going to get it done, and we have to make it long-lasting, as I said, in the Middle East, everlasting.”
“The Middle East is a much more complicated situation,” the president noted, referring to the peace deal he struck between Israel and Hamas. “You know, we had 59 countries involved, and every one of them agreed. And it’s, you know, it’s sort of amazing. Most people didn’t think that was doable. This is going to be something I really believe that’s going to get done. I had a very good talk yesterday with President Putin. I think he wants to get it done.”
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One notable conversation on Friday dealt with the Tomahawk missiles that the president of Ukraine wants to obtain from the United States. These missiles could allow Ukraine to attack deep inside Russia, particularly Russia’s oil industry, which has thus far helped Putin fund the war. But Trump did not commit to such a deal.
“We need Tomahawks, we need a lot of other weapons that we are sending to Ukraine,” the U.S. president said. “One of the reasons we want to get this war over is exactly that. It’s not easy for us to give … you’re talking about massive numbers of very powerful weapons, so that’s one of the things we’ll be talking about it. Hopefully they won’t need it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks. I think we’re fairly close to that.”
Zelensky argued that of course everyone wants to finish the war, but he added that Ukraine has thousands of drones, but not Tomahawks, which the United States has.
“They can have our thousands of drones, that’s where we can work together,” he insisted.
“Just so I understand, you’re suggesting kind of a trade,” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy. “If President Trump okays Tomahawk missiles to help you … then would authorize some kind of an exchange … President Trump … is that something you would be interested in?”
US President Donald Trump, center left, during a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, not pictured, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
Trump responded that the U.S. is, in fact, interested in the Ukrainian drones, saying, “They make a really good drone. Drone warfare has really come to the fore over the last couple of years because of this war.”
But the president added: “We have a lot of different weapons. I have an obligation also, though, to make sure we are completely stocked up as a country because you never know what is going to happen, in war and peace, right? You never know what is going to happen. So we are going to be talking about Tomahawks. And we’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks. Would much rather have the war be over, to be honest.”
Trump emphasized that the United States is “in it to get the war over,” noting that the U.S. is selling a lot of different types of weapons to the European Union, but arguing: “We’re not in it for that, we’re in it to get it over.”
At another point during the Zelensky meeting, the Ukrainian president was asked to distinguish the biggest difference in diplomacy between Trump and former President Joe Biden.
“President Trump has a big chance now to finish this war,” Zelensky responded. “President Biden now is not the president, so he doesn’t have a chance to finish this war. And President Trump is really showed for the world that he can manage ceasefire in the Middle East. And that’s why I hope that he will do this. And we will also have such big success. For Ukraine, it’s a big chance, and I hope that President Trump can manage it.”
Trump, on the other hand, told reporters: “I would say the biggest difference is one is extremely competent and the other one is grossly incompetent.”
