NBC Reporter Grills Karoline Leavitt Over Trump-Putin Hot Mic Moment

Ahmad Austin Jr. Aug 19th, 2025, 2:14 pm

NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell pressed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on President Donald Trump’s comments caught on a hot mic on Monday.

The president on Monday met with a number of European leaders — including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — to discuss Ukraine’s war with Russia and finding a way to end the conflict. Those meetings came days after a high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

Moments before Monday’s meeting with the European leaders, a hot mic caught Trump telling one of them that Putin “wants to make a deal” with him .

“I think he wants to make a deal with me,” Trump said. “I don’t understand that, as craz

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