Wałkuski asked why the president had voiced frustration with Putin yet imposed no direct measures against him. Trump pushed back, pointing to US tariffs on India over its purchases of Russian oil as evidence of action, the US news outlet The Hill reported.
“How do you know there’s no action?” Trump said. “Would you say that putting secondary sanctions on India — the largest purchaser outside of China — is no action? That cost Russia hundreds of billions of dollars. You call that no action? … When you say there’s no action, I think you ought to get yourself a new job.”
Wałkuski later told The Hill he appreciated the president’s advice but stood by his question.
“I got a newsworthy answer from the president of the United States, and that’s my job as a journalist. But I’m grateful for his advice,” he said.
Wałkuski, a longtime member of the White House press corps and former head of the White House Foreign Press Group, has clashed with Trump before.
In February, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he asked Trump to address perceptions in Poland that he was aligning too closely with Putin.
That exchange triggered a tense confrontation between Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Zelensky, with the American leaders shouting down the Ukrainian president after he dismissed the prospect of diplomacy with Moscow.
Photo owned by Marek Wałkuski
(gs)
Source: The Hill