Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump delivered remarks on Tuesday at the Business Roundtable Quarterly Meeting in Washington, D.C., discussing the swift work his administration is doing to assuage Biden-era economic wounds and reacting to today’s announcement that Ukraine had agreed to a ceasefire.
The roundtable – an association of over 200 leading American CEOs – announced onstage that Tuesday’s roundtable was the “largest attendance” in their history.
On the subject of Russia-Ukraine, President Trump reacted to a comment congratulating him and his administration on bringing Ukraine to the table and securing a ceasefire.
“We hope to get Russia…I’ve been saying that Russia has been easier to deal with so far than Ukraine, which is not supposed to be the way it is,” Trump remarked. “…We have a full ceasefire from Ukraine, that’s good.”
On Tuesday, news broke amid peace talks being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that Ukraine was ready to accept a 30-day interim ceasefire agreement – a proposal brought by the United States.
“Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian and American delegations announced in a joint statement.
This is a significant step forward in what has been an otherwise deadlocked war in Eastern Europe, and it remains to be seen how Russia will respond at this time.
President Donald Trump also spoke about the work DOGE is doing in Washington, spearheaded by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. “We have a bloated [and] very dishonest in many cases, federal government and bureaucracy…somebody should have done this a long time ago.”
He praised Musk for doing a “fantastic job” and noted he “suffers a little bit” due to his political involvement.
On Tuesday, preceding the president’s attendance at the business roundtable, Trump met with Musk in front of the press and publicly purchased a Tesla to show his support for his ally’s company amid rising incidents of arson, destruction, and attacks on these products.
“I think they’re paid agitators,” Trump remarked at the roundtable. “…[Musk’s] done a great job, and he shouldn’t be sacrificed or have to suffer because he wants to help government.”
The president estimated that DOGE had thus far brought about $500 billion in savings, with a goal to reach at least $1 trillion in savings soon.
