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 visits to meet Mr Trump, the US President has risked a fresh outbreak of tensions with Paris and London 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.’
He added: ‘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.’
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
Elsewhere in the interview, Mr Trump also renewed his attack on Mr Zelensky 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 earlier this week.
And he suggested the Russian President ‘doesn’t have to make a deal’ because he could complete an 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.
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