Trump Arranges Meeting with NATO Secretary General Amid Plan to Sell Weapons to Ukraine
Prior to the meeting, Trump said he reached an agreement with NATO to send weapons to Ukraine and the organization will pay for those weapons 100%.
President Trump will meet this week with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte shortly after the US leader announced plans to sell weapons to NATO allies that can be passed on to Ukraine.
In a statement, NATO said Rutte will be in Washington on Monday and Tuesday and will also meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and members of Congress.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina argued Sunday that the conflict is nearing a tipping point as Trump shows growing interest in helping Ukraine fight Russia.
“In the coming days, you're going to see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend itself,” Graham said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” He added: "One of the biggest miscalculations that Putin has made is playing Trump. And you're going to see, in the coming days and weeks, there's going to be a massive effort to bring Putin to the negotiating table."
“The idea of the US selling weapons to help Ukraine is very much on the radar,” Graham said. "We've given a lot to Ukraine. We give them money, we give them military aid. Now we have a minerals deal with Ukraine that's worth trillions of dollars. So, I don't want to get ahead of the president, but watch out for confiscated assets. The Europeans want to limit the interest on assets that go to Ukraine."
This meeting comes a year after Trump's incendiary comments against NATO, when he was a Republican presidential candidate and warned NATO allies that he would “encourage” Russia “to do whatever it wants” to countries that are “delinquent.”
Trump threatened not to defend alliance members that failed to meet their defense spending quotas.

