Trump vs Zelensky In The Oval Office (The Sequel)
Newscast
BBC
4.4 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Straight off the back of the Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump hosted Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House as he pushes for an end to the war in Ukraine.
The last time they met in the Oval Office, it ended in an argument in front of the world's media. It was a friendlier encounter this time, with Zelensky handing a letter to Donald Trump from his wife to the First Lady, Melania Trump.
It was soon followed by a meeting of major European leaders, all of whom travelled to Washington in solidarity with the Ukrainian president. Beyond the smiles and warm words, how much was actually agreed at today's meetings, and are we any closer to a trilateral summit between Russia, Ukraine and the U.S?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.9 | Hello, so much has changed since we did that episode of newscast on Saturday morning, |
| 0:10.7 | rounding up what had happened in the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska. |
| 0:15.6 | Basically, the vibe from that was that it was all about the optics, |
| 0:18.6 | with Trump, Putin, Putin on the same level as him, |
| 0:22.6 | which some people found quite offensive. However, actually quite a lot has changed substantially |
| 0:28.1 | as a result of that summit. Gone is the idea of a temporary ceasefire between Russia and |
| 0:34.3 | Ukraine as a precondition for negotiations. |
| 0:38.0 | Donald Trump is now going straight to an ultimate peace settlement. |
| 0:43.1 | But back in play is these much-wanted security guarantees, |
| 0:48.4 | the idea of kind of international backup for Ukraine to prevent any further Russian aggression. |
| 0:53.6 | The Americans seem to be quite up for |
| 0:55.9 | providing something that looks a bit like Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which is the collective |
| 1:01.7 | defence clause in the NATO treaty, which means if one NATO member gets attacked, all the others |
| 1:06.5 | have to consider defending it. It sounds like the Americans are up for providing something like |
| 1:10.4 | that for Ukraine. And then we just had this, I don't want to use the word spectacle, but it kind of was a |
| 1:16.7 | bit of a diplomatic spectacle in Washington on Monday where Vladimir Zelensky went there for a meeting |
| 1:22.5 | with Donald Trump. And then after that, he was joined by loads of leaders from Europe, including Kier Starrmer, for this quite bizarre round table. |
| 1:31.4 | But it really felt like a big momentous moment after another momentous moment. |
| 1:36.1 | So that is what we will discuss on this episode of Newscast, which is a collaboration with the Mericast, and which is being recorded very late on Monday evening. |
| 1:43.8 | But we wanted to wait until we had some actual substantive stuff to bring you. Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. He has just compared me to the fat controller. Did I say that? I can't believe I said that. Next Wednesday? This is R for the benefit of Earth. I'm not personally a huge Sabrina Carpenter fan. I don't think I'm being rude. I like landscapes. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it's Adam from Newscast here in the BBC's HQ in Salford. Hello, it is Sarah here. I'm in the BBC's Washington Bureau. And it's Anthony next to Sarah. We're both back from Alaska after our late night |
| 2:21.1 | flights on Sunday. Right, Sarah, just before we get into details, just give me a really |
... |
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