Trump says he would rate Putin meeting as a '10' despite no peace deal

President Donald Trump on Friday appeared confident that his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin went well, stating that he would rate the meeting as a "10," despite the current lack of a peace agreement or ceasefire with Ukraine.

Trump admitted during the press conference that there were still several issues that needed to be resolved in order to actually reach a permanent ceasefire that ends the years-long war in Ukraine. But he said there were also a lot of things the leaders did agree on.

The president repeated the line during an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, and declined to go into specifics on what the agreements and outstanding issues were, but said they made significant progress.

"I think the meeting was a 10 in the sense that we got along great," Trump said. "It's good when you know, two big powers get along, especially when they're nuclear powers. We're number one, they're number two in the world, and it's a big deal.

"We have the greatest military in the world, actually, and they have a big nuclear presence," he continued. "You got to respect it. You never want to use it. If you use that, it could be the end of the world. That's the kind of power we're talking about.”

Trump said that there was no specific item that brought Putin to the negotiating table, but that Putin now respects the United States under his leadership.

"He didn't respect it under Biden. I can tell you that he had no respect for it," Trump said. "All those lives would be saved if we had a competent president ...  It's so sad. You know, I've negotiated [seven] wars to their end and wars that were tough."

The president was referring to seven conflicts that he helped end, some of which prompted nominations for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, including a 12-day war between Israel and Iran. 

Hannity also asked Trump why he would spend political capital on foreign wars when he ran on an "America First" platform, to which Trump responded that his main motivator was to save lives.

"Number one is lives, and number two is everything else," Trump said. "Wars are very bad, and if you can avoid them, and I seem to have an ability to end them, to get people together, I use the power of the United States."

Trump additionally said that it was now up to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to negotiate an end to the war, along with other European leaders, and that he believes the conclusion of the war can be achieved.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.