WSJ What’s News - Trump, Zelensky, European Leaders Optimistic After White House Talks

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

P.M. Edition for Aug. 18. President Trump appeared optimistic in White House talks with President Zelensky and European leaders on ending the Russia-Ukraine war. WSJ national security reporter Lara Seligman reports on what the leaders discussed. WSJ’s Corinne Ramey explains why a New York court has yet to reach a decision on Trump’s civil fraud appeal. And Chelsey Dulaney, WSJ’s European finance reporter, talks about why some of Europe’s most notable companies are moving to the U.S. Sabrina Siddiqui hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trump, Zelensky, and European leaders discuss how to end the war in Ukraine. Plus, why Europe's stock markets face a crisis of inactivity. It's not just that European markets are failing to keep the young, exciting companies. It's also that it's starting to lose some of its bigger companies. AstraZeneca, Shell, Total energies. They've all reviewed potentially moving their listings to New York as well. And the White House is in talks with Intel for a 10% U.S. government's stake. It's Monday, August 18th. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for the Wall Street Journal,

covering for Alex Oslo. This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House today, along with a group of top European officials on a path to end the war in Ukraine. Trump called the meeting after his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, where the Russian leader rejected a ceasefire and called on Ukraine to cede land in the country's east in exchange for a freeze in the front line elsewhere. Trump signaled greater openness to U.S. security guarantees for any peace deal in Ukraine when asked by a reporter.

We'll let you know that maybe later today. We're meeting with seven great leaders of great countries also, and we'll be talking about that. They'll all be involved, but there'll be a lot of there'll be a lot of help. When it comes to security, there's going to be a lot of help. It's going to be good. They are first line of defense because they're there. They're Europe. But we're going to help them out also.

We'll be involved. Lara Seligman, the Wall Street Journal's reporter covering national security in the Pentagon joins us now with more. Laura, as we just heard, Trump did not rule out U.S. involvement in security guarantees for Ukraine. What more do we know about a possible framework with the Europeans? So the European leaders have said that, security guarantees are going to be a really important part of this moving forward.

There weren't a lot of details that were given during the meeting, but the framework that has been out there is some sort of peacekeeping force, perhaps along the front lines, that would involve potentially British forces and French forces to start. Trump has floated the possibility that the U.S. could be involved in supporting this kind of security guarantee, but he has not said that U.S. troops will be involved in. It seems like Trump is backing away from this idea of a ceasefire as being a crucial next step, so that's significant as well. The tone appeared to be in sharp contrast to Zelensky's last Oval Office visit in February when the Ukrainian leader was berated for not sufficiently thanking American officials for their support. What did you make of how both Trump and Zelensky carried themselves today?

Well, certainly this was not a rerun of the February meeting. Zelensky was much more measured in his comments. He thanked Trump repeatedly, and he even thanked First Lady Melania as well for her letter to Putin, asking him to consider the war's impact on children. So the comments themselves, the substance, as well as the optics, was much warmer, and people came away from it much more optimistic than that last meeting. So in less than one week, Trump has met with Putin and Zelensky. Where do we go from here? In the short term, Trump has said he's going to call Putin directly after the meeting. he's going to try to set up a trilateral meeting between Zelensky, Putin, and Trump himself.

Whether or not Putin agrees to that is really a question. It seems like there was progress made in terms of talking about it. But when it comes down to what happens in the war, whether there's a ceasefire, whether there are territory swaps, that's going to be down to Putin versus Zelensky. and we're fundamentally have not moved the ball at all when it comes to peace in Ukraine. Lara Seligman covers national security and the Pentagon for the Wall Street Journal. Lara, thank you. Thanks for having me. President Trump said he will lead a movement to eliminate mail-in voting ahead of the

2026 midterm elections. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, today, Trump said he will sign an executive order to that effect, arguing that states are merely an agent for the federal government in counting and tabulating the votes. Legal experts say Trump doesn't have the power to ban mail-in voting and that states have traditionally been the administrators of elections held within their boundaries. Trump's latest attack on mail-in voting comes as he pushes his party to do more to prevent Democrats from regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year. Republicans hold a slim majority and if the chamber slips through the party's grip, it would severely curtail the Trump

administration's ability to advance legislation. Democrats who are more widely supportive of voting by mail quickly criticized Trump's comments. Typically, the New York court that is weighing President Trump's appeal in a civil fraud case is known to act quickly and unanimously, but a five-justice panel has yet to deliver a decision nearly a year after taking up the case, leaving Trump and his business in limbo. The case stems from a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James in 2022, alleging that he fraudulently inflated the value of parts of his real estate empire for financial

benefit, primarily lower interest loans. A judge ordered Trump to pay more than $350 million plus interest and imposed a host of other sanctions on his business. Trump quickly appealed the ruling and an appeals court heard arguments last September. So why has the decision been delayed? Wall Street Journal reporter Corinne Ramey joins me now to discuss. Corinne, how unusual is it for a decision to take this long in this particular court? It's fairly unusual. This court is an intermediate appeals court that hears cases from the Bronx and Manhattan, and it typically rules within 30 days, according to its report from last year.

What appears to be causing the delay? So we can't know everything. Court deliberations are secret, but what we do know is that the judges are writing three. opinions. And what this means is that there's some sort of split. It might be on outcome. It might be on legal reasoning. But when more judges are writing, this can slow things down. If this is a very high profile case, what kind of impact could its outcome have on Trump and his business? It's a lot of money. It's at this point with interest more than half a billion dollars. And so obviously this hits his pocketbook. If the appeals court were to uphold the trial judge's decision, There could also be restrictions on his two eldest son's abilities to serve as an officer of a New York business for two years and also lending restrictions for the company. One of the legal issues at play here is the Attorney General's authority to investigate under a broad fraud statute. And one thing the court may decide to look at is whether the Attorney General exceeded the scope of her authority here in bringing this case. against Trump? And where do we go from here? Well, at some point, this court will rule. And then

what may come next is the losing side can appeal to the Court of Appeals, which is our highest court in the state. In most cases, that court is not required to take up the case, but it could. And if so, then that is the ruling that would ultimately stand. Corinne Ramey covers federal law enforcement for the Wall Street Journal. Corinne, thank you. Thank you. Roaring cheers from supporters greeted Texas House Democrats as they returned to the capital midday today after a two-week walkout. Their return all but ensures the passage of a Republican-backed redistricting plan sought by President Trump.

Coming up, a look at the U.S. markets today and why some of Europe's most notable companies are moving to the U.S. That's after the break. Let's have a look at the U.S. markets today. The summer stock rally is losing some momentum ahead of another big week for economic news with earnings updates from major retailers and a key Federal Reserve speech at the annual Jackson Hole Symposium later this week. Major U.S. stock indexes finished mixed. The Dow was down 0.08%, the S&P 500 was down 0.01%, and the NW.

NASDAQ ended up 0.03%. Last year, the London Stock Exchange overhauled the ceremony for welcoming new companies to its ranks, adding confetti cannons, slick videos, and cinematic music. But so far this year, according to Deal Logic, only six companies have gone public in the UK, the lowest level in three decades of data. It isn't much better across the English Channel despite surging stock markets. Initial public offerings in continental Europe have nearly halved in value compared with last year. Fundraising in the U.S., meanwhile, has jumped 38% to around $40 billion, while IPOs more than doubled in value in Hong Kong after a slow patch. And some of Europe's most notable companies are moving to the U.S., deepening the region's economic woes. Chelsea Delaney, European finance reporter

at the Wall Street Journal in London, has the story. Chelsea, as we said, stock markets are surging in Europe. So what is driving the slowdown? Yeah, it's an interesting contradiction because by a lot of measures, it's been a really good year for European stock markets after this long period of really malaise. But if you look at what matters for the future of these markets, the things like which companies want to list on them who's going public, it's been pretty dismal. As you said, there has been a pretty big drop-off in new listings in London and in Europe and in Frankfurt. And this is also part of another trend where we're seeing a lot of companies move their listings from these stock exchanges to New York, where there's a lot more activity going on. And so it's leading into the situation

where these stock exchanges are shrinking. And that's definitely a big concern for European officials. Where does all of this leave the European economy? It's a huge problem for Europe. If you can't keep your fastest growing companies here, that really isn't good for your economy. You lose the growth potential. And so Europeans and the UK is very concerned about this. A lot of the things they're talking about right now or things like deregulation, a lot want to try and find ways to maybe replicate the 401K system that the U.S. has. So a lot of pensions in Europe don't invest a lot in stocks. But it is a project that a lot of European leaders have been talking about for over a decade now,

and there hasn't been a lot of progress. The jury is still out on whether this is the moment where Europe is really able to fix some of these fundamental problems that have been holding back the stock markets here. Chelsea Delaney is the Wall Street Journal's European finance reporter. Chelsea, thank you. Thanks so much. Trump administration officials are discussing taking a 10% stake in Intel as part of a government effort to rescue the embattled chipmaker and bolstered. semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. According to people briefed on the talks, the structure and terms of the equity investment

haven't been finalized. The exact value of the 10% stake in Intel is still under discussion. Intel has a market value of about $100 billion. A 10% stake would make the government one of the company's largest shareholders. The conversations add to a dramatic saga unfolding for Intel in Washington. Talks between the company and the White House intensified earlier this month when presidential Trump called for the company's chief executive Lip Bhutan to resign over his ties to China. Tan visited the president last Monday in the White House and the two men discussed the idea

of a government stake during their meeting. And that's what's news for this Monday afternoon. Today's show was produced by Pierre Bienname with supervising producer Michael Cosmitas. I'm Sabrina Siddiqui for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening. Thank you.