Donald Trump savages Aussie reporter Latika Bourke after blunt question triggers tense exchange: ‘If you knew anything’

Donald Trump lashed out at an Australian reporter for “knowing nothing” after she questioned why the president couldn’t influence Ukraine’s victory over Russia.

Trump met with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last week to discuss upcoming peace talks with Vladimir Putin.

Kiev has been demanding that America supply long-range Tomahawk missiles, but Trump has refused, believing this would only provoke Russia and undermine negotiations.

Nightly’s Latika Bourke pressed the US president on the issue during his first proper meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Monday.

‘You have the most powerful man in the world, why don’t you let Ukraine end this war tomorrow?’ he asked.

Trump responded to Bourke’s question: ‘If you knew anything about what you were talking about, here’s what you would do…’

“I do,” interrupted Bourke.

Trump responded: ‘Is that so? I really don’t think so. I don’t think so. Because it’s a little more complicated than that, but it sounds easy.’

‘We are in the process of making a deal. If we make a deal that would be great. ‘If we don’t get a deal, a lot of people will pay the price.’

Trump then called for silence while the media talked among themselves.

Trump on Sunday floated the idea of ​​ending the bloody Ukraine conflict by freezing the front lines of the war as the country’s new borders.

“We think what they need to do is just stay where they are, which is on the battle lines,” Trump told reporters, when asked about reports that Zelensky was pressuring Putin to accept ceasefire terms.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to Trump’s offer by pouring cold water on the possibility of allowing Ukraine to retain parts of the Donbas region.

‘This issue has been raised many times in various ways in contacts between Russia and the USA. Each time, the Russian side gave the following answer: The answer is well known: the consistency of Russia’s position does not change.’

Earlier Sunday, Trump emphasized that he never tried to force Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Russia’s demands to end the war.

The Ukrainian president’s meeting with Trump on Friday did not go smoothly. According to information provided by sources to the Financial Times, Trump made an expletive-filled criticism against Zelensky during the meeting held behind closed doors.

Donald Trump attacked an Australian reporter for “knowing nothing” after she questioned why the president did not support Ukraine winning the war against Russia

They claim that Trump repeated talking points from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone call the day before the meeting; this includes a demand that Zelensky hand over the entire Donbas region to Moscow to end the war.

But Trump said on Sunday that he had ‘never discussed’ giving up territory and instead wanted to see an immediate cessation of hostilities and borders drawn on the front lines of the war.

“We think what they need to do is just stay where they are, which is on the battle lines,” Trump told reporters, when asked about reports that Zelensky was pressuring Putin to accept ceasefire terms.

If you say ‘You take this, we will take that’, it is very difficult to negotiate the rest. “There are so many different permutations,” he added. ‘So I say they need to stand on the battle lines right now. ‘Go home, stop killing people and let this be over.’

Bourke is no stranger to tense talks with political leaders, having previously clashed with Albanese in New York in September.

Albanese told Bourke to ‘don’t say anything to me’ after he pressed him about comments he made in April about whether Donald Trump had a personal phone number.

At the time, Albanese said: ‘No. I’m not sure the President of the United States has a cell phone. Or Joe Biden. This is not the way to work with any global leader.’

‘There are people taking notes from both sides, this is not an ordinary relationship,’ he explained.

President Donald Trump said he did not force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept Russia’s terms to end the war, including the surrender of the entire Donbas region

There were reports that Trump repeated Putin’s demands for a ceasefire during his meeting with Zelensky; The president denies these allegations.

‘I don’t have Donald Trump’s number.’

However, French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly called Trump directly when he was stuck in traffic in New York and asked the US President for help in breaking the deadlock.

When the reporter compared the French president’s access to Trump to Albanese’s, citing his earlier claim that Trump did not have a cell phone, the Prime Minister interrupted him.

Albanese said, ‘Don’t say a word to me, don’t say a word to me.’ ‘I didn’t say anything like that, but go ahead anyway. if i did [say it]This is called joke – humour.’

‘Of course he has a mobile phone.

‘What I meant was; You organize phone calls between leaders of nations, you have people taking notes, and you do it in rooms where cell phones are not allowed. That’s what matters.”