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Trump Has a Pull-Aside with the President of the European Commission, Sep. 23, 2025

September 23, 2025 · The White House · 0:04:00

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump held a pull-aside with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in New York on September 23, 2025, carried on the White House channel. Von der Leyen said the conversation would cover Ukraine, missing children, and “the new hybrid threats we are experiencing in Europe.”

Asked how soon Europe could stop buying Russian oil and gas, as the President has demanded, she answered: “President Trump is absolutely right. We’re on it. We have reduced already massively the gas supply from Russia, completely gotten out of Russian coal and massively also reduced the oil supply, but there’s still some coming to the European continent.” She said sanctions were proposed on the remaining flows: “We want to be out earlier. Absolutely… We have to be faster, because every payment is filling Putin’s watches [war chest]. This cannot be.”

Asked what consequences the UN should face for not reaching its potential, the President answered: “They’ve never really reached, not just now, they’ve never reached their potential… I put out seven wars if you think about it. And I’m not the UN, but I wasn’t helped by the UN. I was never even given a phone call.”

Why it matters

This is the European Commission’s phase-out pledge made directly to the President on camera — the commitment against which the administration’s energy-pressure campaign on Russia, and Treasury’s sanctions track, are measured.

Scoreboard watch

This is a candidate item for the weekly scoreboard: the Commission President’s September 23, 2025 pledge of a faster European exit from Russian oil and gas, as stated at this meeting, to be checked against the EU’s adopted phase-out dates.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump has a Pull-Aside with the President of the European Commission” (official upload, embedded above; the upload’s description places the meeting in New York, NY). All characterizations as stated by the participants in the broadcast.