Trump says he will end aid to Ukraine if he wins election
Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "perhaps the greatest salesman of any politician who has ever lived."
Former US President and presidential candidate Donald Trump has said that he will stop financial aid to Ukraine. He said this at a Turning Point USA campaign event in Detroit.
I think Zelensky is probably the best salesman of any politician who has ever lived. Every time he comes to our country, he leaves with $60 billion [...] He just went four days ago with $60 billion, comes home and announces he needs another $60 billion. It's never going to end. I'll solve that before I even take the White House," Trump said.
Trump has previously repeatedly criticised the White House for providing financial aid to Ukraine. In April, he said Republicans were considering giving Kiev loans instead of aid.
A month earlier, the former president rebuked the Europeans for spending about $100bn less than the US on aid to Ukraine. At the time, Trump claimed it was unfair.
At the same time, Trump said he sympathised with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky because the latter did not claim Trump threatened him in 2019 when he personally called Zelensky and pressured Zelensky to have Ukraine investigate Joe Biden's son and the Burisma company where he once worked.
In the US, this was qualified as pressure on the leader of a foreign country to interfere in an election campaign, and thus an impermissible abuse of presidential powers. And this was the reason for Trump's first impeachment.