US President Donald Trump called on his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron to leave in order to begin a conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky before the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican, the newspaper The Sun reports.
Earlier, a video was published that captured the moment of the meeting between Trump and Zelensky before the funeral ceremony of Pope Francis. The footage shows three chairs, one of which is taken away by Vatican officials. Then Macron enters the frame. Then a short dialogue takes place between him and the American president. The video ends with a conversation between Trump and Zelensky, and there is no sound in it.
The publication reported that it used a professional lip reader to decipher the video. This makes it clear that Trump is telling Macron: “I need a favor, you shouldn't be here“, the newspaper quotes the expert as saying.
The specialist also analyzed the video of the conversation between Trump and Zelensky. “I would like you to do it, but not this way“, the expert quoted the Ukrainian president. According to him, Trump responded by calling Zelensky's proposal “a very interesting strategy“.
The meeting between the US president and Zelensky took place on Saturday before the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican. It lasted about 15 minutes and Reuters, quoting White House communications director Stephen Chung, described it as “very productive“.