President Donald Trump conducted a roundtable session at the White House on Wednesday, where he addressed the capture of an oil tanker near Venezuela's coastline and unveiled his Trump gold card initiative.
During the question-and-answer segment, a journalist pressed Trump to expand on remarks he made in yesterday's interview, where he suggested Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should begin "accepting things."
"He has to be realistic, and I do wonder about how long it gonna be until they have an election," Trump responded today. "There haven't had an election in a long time... It's losing a lot of people.
"There was a poll that came out 82% of the [Ukrainian] people are demanding a settlement be made," he claimed. Trump also levelled accusations of "massive corruption." against Ukraine.
Zelensky took to the airwaves on Tuesday to issue his blunt reply to Trump's latest attempts to disparage and undermine him.
"This is a question for the people of Ukraine, not people from other states," he said.
Social media critics also condemned Trump's polling assertions, with one user branding it "a blatant Russian talking point. Ukrainians want a settlement, but not on Russia's terms.
"No doubt got his polling from Putin," another user posted.
"82% of Ukrainian people are demanding a settlement be made. Is an entirely made up statistic," a third user commented.
The specific poll Trump referenced in his statement remains unidentified.
Trump's gold card announcement
Today, Trump and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick unveiled the Trump gold card, a visa scheme offering a fast-track pathway to American residency.
The programme will set back individuals $1 million and companies $2 million, according to Lutnick.
"It's a gift of getting somebody great coming into our country, because we think this would be some tremendous people that wouldn't be allowed to stay.
"They graduate from college, they have to go back to India, they have to go back to China, they have to go back to France, they have to go back to wherever they came from. Very hard to stay, it's a shame it's a ridiculous thing we're taking care of that," Trump said.
Trump suggested the card would prove beneficial for corporations keen to recruit international graduates from prestigious colleges and universities for employment in America.
