Donald Trump and Zelensky press conference backlash after brutal comment no one was supposed to hear

A European leader has landed themselves in hot water after a comment picked up on a hot mic shortly after the press were departing the tense conference between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Europe's Coalition of the Willing.

The unprecedented meeting of both the U.S. and Ukrainian presidents, with the latter almost being coached by European allies who attended a separate meeting, followed Trump's earlier conversations with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in an attempt to end his invasion of Ukraine.

Leaders from the UK, France, Finland, Germany, and Italy attended the gathering, as well as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission.

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"When it comes to security, there's going to be a lot of help," Trump said of the European contingent. "They are a first line of defence because they're there, but we'll help them out."

Aside from security pledges, some analysts believe Europe's representatives joined to not see a repeat of February's diplomatic disaster, which saw Zelensky ambushed by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who both accused the Ukrainian leader of 'gambling with World War 3'.

The media was invited to sit in on part of the meeting between all parties, but when leaving, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was heard comparing the U.S. press to journalists back in her native country.

"Thank you for being so fair," she told Trump, not realising she was still being recorded, before Finland's Alexander Stubb asked the host, "You go through this every day?"

"But he loves it, he loves it," Meloni answered before adding, "He does it always, I never want to speak with my press."

The remark, which Trump ignored, instead choosing to tell Italy's Prime Minister about how good the Finnish leader is at golf, followed another video of Meloni, which appeared to show her laughing along with President Trump before rolling her eyes at the 79-year-old.

The right-wing Italian leader has been Prime Minister for more than two years, often relying on what supporters call a pragmatic approach both internally and with the European Union, while opponents call it an "autocracy-light" model.

Latest approval ratings from Ipsos put her 42%, while her party remains in first place in terms of voting intentions, with 27.3%.

During his meeting with the allied leaders, Donald Trump made a phone call to Putin to relay the conditions discussed, later saying his Russian counterpart "agreed that Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine," adding, "I think that the European nations are going to take a lot of the burden. We're going to help them, and we're going to make it very secure."

Trump also wrote that he "began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy," and that a trilateral meeting between himself and the other two leaders would take place after.