STORY: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (October 21), when asked why his planned summit in Hungary with Russian President Vladimir Putin was put on hold, said he did not want to have a wasted meeting.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said he had not made a determination about the meeting, which the president had wanted to hold soon in Budapest.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

VIDEO SHOWS: U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP HOLDING A DIWALI EVENT IN THE OVAL OFFICE / SOUNDBITES FROM TRUMP ON MEETING WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE SCRIPT

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 21, 2025) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL AFTER DIWALI CEREMONY / TRUMP WALKING BACK TO DESK

2. TRUMP WALKING BACK TO DESK / JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION (English): “Mr. President, the meeting with Vladimir Putin is cancelled or put on hold. Do you know what happened there? And does that affect your decision whether or not to send Tomahawks to Ukraine?”

3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“No, no, I want to, I don't want to have a wasted meeting. I don't want to have a waste of time. So I'll see what happens. But we did all of these great deals, great peace deals. They're all peace deals, agreements, solid agreements, every one of them. But this one and I said, go to the line. Go to the line of battle, the battlefield lines. And you pull back and you go home and everybody take some time off because you got two countries that are killing each other. Two countries that are losing 5 to 7000 soldiers a week. So we'll see what happens. It's...we haven't made a determination.”

4. JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION (English): “...For a ceasefire and what is Putin asking for? (Trump saying: “Say it again?”) Do you still see a chance for a ceasefire and what is Putin asking for?”

5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT, DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

“I do. It's a vicious war. Look, it's a vicious war. It doesn’t really affect us. We sell equipment to them. We sell equipment to NATO and NATO gives it to Ukraine. But we don't pay anything anymore. Biden spent $350 billion. The war would have never happened if I were president. It would have never, not even a million years. And Putin knows that too. It would have never happened. But it did happen and I came in and I have to see if I can put it out. But it doesn't affect us because we're not losing soldiers there. Although when I first came in, that could have ended…It’s not going to happen, but it could have ended up in World War III. That was really out of control. So now it's, uh, they're shooting and they're killing people and I think Putin wants it to end and I think Zelenskiy wants it to end, and I think it's going to end."

6. JOURNALIST ASKING QUESTION