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Donald Trump urged Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy to show some “flexibility” as the US president accelerates his efforts to end the war in Ukraine and encourages the two leaders to hold a bilateral summit.

“I hope President Putin is going to be good, and if he’s not, it’s going to be a rough situation,” Trump said Tuesday in an interview on Fox News. “I hope that Zelenskiy, President Zelenskiy, will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility also.” 

Trump’s comments follow a whirlwind stretch as the US president pushes to bring Russia’s war against Ukraine — now in its fourth year — to an end. Trump held a summit in Alaska with Putin last week and talks at the White House with Zelenskiy and European allies on Monday.

Trump spoke with Putin again on Monday and urged him to begin making plans for a bilateral summit with Zelenskiy — a sitdown that would mark the first time those leaders meet face-to-face since Russia invaded its neighbor in Feb. 2022. Trump said that if that meeting goes well, he’ll look to follow up with a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelenskiy.

Today's show features:

• Bloomberg News Senior Reporter Jen Dlouhy on President Donald Trump urging Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy to show flexibility in pursuit of a deal to end the war in Ukraine
• Bloomberg News Economic Statecraft Reporter Joe Deaux on President Donald Trump's willingness to use the US government to directly intervene in corporate matters
• Abby Roach, Senior Portfolio Analyst for the Empiric LT Equity team at Allspring Global Investments on Home Depot earnings and the US consumer
• Jai Patel, Chief Financial Officer for the MTA, on the state of the agency’s finances

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