VERSAILLES, France—President Donald Trump’s trip to France began with meetings at the G7 in Évian-les-Bains and culminated in a dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles, where nearly 107 years ago a treaty was signed to officially end World War I.
Trump emerged from the dinner at the opulent palace confirming he had indeed physically signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iran to all but end the war between the countries, with some details set to be ironed out over the next 60 days.
“It’s signed. I signed it in Versailles. I just signed it,” Trump told reporters in the travel pool, including Breitbart News, as he departed the palace en route to Air Force One.
The moment was not only historic, but immensely symbolic of the president’s entire trip.
After announcing the MoU had been signed electronically on Sunday, on his 80th birthday, Trump spent Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday on beautiful Lake Geneva in Évian-Les-Bains meeting with other heads of state.
Trump’s deal with Iran and the war in Ukraine were central topics of the G7. Discussions of both took place among leaders, and reporters scarcely asked about anything else when there was press availability during the president’s bilateral meetings.
At his first bilateral meeting with Macron on Monday evening, Trump spoke publicly for the first time about the agreement.
“The deal’s all signed. And the Strait [of Hormuz] is already partially opened, as you know they’re doing a little hunting for a couple of mines that they’ve already found, but it’s essentially ships are starting to go out now; on Friday it will be completely opened,” Trump said.
“We got along very well with Iran. It’s a different set of leaders. As you know, the first set is gone, the second set is gone, and we found the third set to be very smart — strong — very smart, but we ended up making a deal. I felt badly that we had to go back on the attack for two nights, and I thought a third, but we made it before that happened. But I think a lot of great things are going to happen with the Middle East right now, and very importantly the oil is plummeting down, and the stock market is shooting up like a rocket, today, like record kind of numbers,” he added.
The next day, at a bilateral meeting between Trump and the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, both leaders told Breitbart News and other reporters about the economic opportunities ahead for Iran if its leadership continues to trudge down the road to peace.
“I think they’d be good,” Trump responded. “I mean, I can tell you from our standpoint we have a lot of opportunities all over the world, but the Emir lives right next door, and I think you know they have a lot of oil. I think they’ll be good. First, they’re going to have to prove themselves, I think, before any of us go in there, but I hope they do well. I hope they do well.”
Though he spoke positively of Iran’s economic prospects, the Emir stressed that the focus has been on securing an end to the war, not on Iran’s economic potential.
“I think the last couple of months or weeks, I think that wasn’t our — we were not interested in, you know, what are the opportunities, economical opportunities in Iran,” he said. “Our interest, both of us, was to first of all to find a deal to stop this war. This is our main target, but looking at the economy and opportunity, I’m sure there are going to be huge opportunities.”
“And you know… as I said, this is a very important momentum to keep working like that to reach… a final deal,” he added. “After that, Iran will be… of course, open for any kind of investments, and I’m sure there are going to be huge opportunities, but to be honest… our target… is to try to find a deal.”
In a subsequent meeting between Trump and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Trump said he expects an expansion of the Abraham Accords when Breitbart News asked if he has spoken to Arab leaders in the region, who are not in the compact, about joining it, as the UAE did during the accords’ inception in 2020.
The Abraham Accords are a series of bilateral agreements that normalize relations between Arab nations in the region and Israel.
“Well, I’d love to have them. This is a man who’s very advanced. He was early in, and he’s done very well with them… the Abraham Accords… I think they should happen,” Trump said, going on to call the original members, like the UAE and Bahrain, “very smart countries.”
“I think they’re all going to come in now into the Abraham Accords. The only conflict was a place called Iran, and I understand that. It’s a little bit tough when people were afraid of Iran. But I think they’re going to all start coming in. Good question,” he added.
Trump also spent time with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the summit, including a trilateral meeting with Macron and a pull-aside with just Trump and Zelensky during a working session in Évian-les-Bains. However, the press was not present during these meetings.
Breitbart News asked Trump on Wednesday, the last day of his attendance at the G7, what he had discussed with the Ukrainian president, with whom he has met numerous times during his second term, and if he believes he can carry the momentum from the Iran deal into talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“Had very good talks with President Zelensky and with President Putin, and we’d like to see that one end. I ended eight wars, and to be honest with you, I thought this would have been one of the easier ones, but they’re not liking each other too much, and that makes it much more difficult,” he said. “But I had two good conversations with President Zelensky and with President Putin.”
While meeting with the emir a day earlier, Trump urged Russia to reach a deal.
“Look, Russia should make a deal. Russia’s lost tremendous amounts of people, and so has Ukraine,” he said.
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