US says it's ready to sign minerals deal 'this afternoon' Donald Trump has just been asked by a reporter in his cabinet meeting about an Ukraine-US minerals deal and whether it could be signed within the next 24 hours. He initially diverts the question to Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who said the Ukrainian side decided to make last minute changes to the deal agreed over the weekend. "We're sure they'll reconsider that. We are ready to sign this afternoon, but they aren't." Trump then takes back over to explain how we got to this point in the first place, complaining that the Biden administration poured "around $350bn" of unsecured money into Ukraine. "I've never seen anything like it," he vents. The president compares this to Europe, who says has sent less money to Ukraine but did this using Russian assets. "Their money is secure," he says. "We gave them money like we're throwing it out the window." (For context: As the piece below from February explains, despite Trump's claims, Europe collectively has given more to Ukraine than the US - but it is complicated...) 'I assume they're going to honour the deal' On the minerals deal itself, Trump says he "didn't want to make a complicated deal" because "Ukraine doesn't have very much money." "We've made a deal where our money is secure where we can start digging and do what we have to do," he says, adding that having a US presence at diggings sites "will keep a lot of bad actors out of the country". "We made a deal and I assume they're going to honour the deal. We haven't really seen the fruits of that deal, I suspect we will."