President Trump said he would like to keep any future meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, where they were supposed to meet before it was canceled.
“I’d like to keep the meeting in Hungary, Budapest,” Mr. Trump said Friday while having lunch at the White House with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
“It turned out I didn’t want to do that meeting because I didn’t think anything was going to be happening of significance,” he said.
While there is no meeting currently scheduled between the president and Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump said earlier Friday, “There’s always a chance, very good chance.”
Mr. Trump and Mr. Orban were expected to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war, as Mr. Orban is in town to seek exemptions from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil.
“He understands Putin and knows him very well,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Orban. “I think Viktor feels we’re going to get that war ended in the not-too-distant future.”
Mr. Orban said the U.S. and Hungary have a different approach than Brussels and the European Union to ending the war, because the former want to focus on a peace deal, while the latter believe Ukraine can win the war on the battlefield.
But when Mr. Trump asked the Hungarian leader if he thought Ukraine cannot win the war, Mr. Orban said, “Miracles can happen.”
Mr. Trump said the main reason he canceled the Budapest meeting was because Russia doesn’t “want to stop yet.”
The president told reporters he has no last straw when it comes to Mr. Putin refusing to end the war.
“Sometimes you have to let them fight it out,” he said.
