President Donald Trump made some false claims to the press while meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Monday – including a long-debunked claim that the US has given Ukraine more than $300 billion in wartime aid.

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith praised Trump for Russia-Ukraine negotiations, as one of the few prominent figures on the left to praise Trump.

Meetings in Alaska and Washington were high on pomp and low on breakthroughs, but there were two potentially significant developments.

US President Donald Trump has ditched his call for a ceasefire in Ukraine, backing instead Russian President Vladimir Putin’s push for a permanent peace agreement. That has not stopped some European leaders from pushing for a temporary truce first, even though the US president has seemingly decided one is not necessary.

Stephen A. Smith argued that Democratic presidents Biden, Obama and Clinton are responsible for the Russia-Ukraine war breaking out, not Trump, during his podcast on Monday.

Her comments came after special envoy Steve Witkoff said following Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, that Russia had signaled it would agree to some kind of NATO-like Article 5 protections for Ukraine as part of a deal to end the war, but Ukraine could not join the alliance.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he has called Russian President Vladimir Putin and begun to arrange a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a critical step toward bringing a possible end to Russia's war on Ukraine.

German Chancellor Merz broke with the generally optimistic tone at the European leaders meeting at the White House on Monday, stating a ceasefire is necessary for peace.