Скачать или смотреть Trump covers Zelensky call, RFK Jr., NYC mayor race and jobs report at a White House dinner

U.S. President Donald Trump is hosting tech leaders in an event at the White House.

Trump was seated at the center of a long table between first lady Melania Trump and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Melania Trump chaired a meeting of the White House’s new Artificial Intelligence Education task force on Thursday afternoon.

The event was planned to be the first in the newly paved Rose Garden but moved to the White House State Dining Room because of rain.

Trump was asked by a reporter during the tech leaders dinner whether he planned to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin in the “near future” after talking to Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelenskyy earlier Thursday.

He said, “I will be, yeah. We’re having a very good dialogue.”

The president said “no” when he was asked by a reporter if he had encouraged or urged any of the candidates to leave the race for New York Mayor, but he then said he would like to see the field winnowed to a one-on-one matchup with the Democratic nominee for mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Trump called Mamdani a “Communist” and said he didn’t know how he had a lead in the race.

“I would like to see two people drop out and have it be one-on-one, and I think that’s a race that could be won,” Trump said.

Trump says he didn’t have a chance to watch Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Senate hearings on Thursday but heard that he did “very well.”

He said, “He’s a very good person” and “he means very well.” He said the health secretary has got different ideas, but that he likes the fact that he’s different.

The contentious three-hour hearing descended into multiple screaming matches as Kennedy fended off accusations about sweeping changes he’s made to vaccines, health care policy and leadership.

Trump seemed largely dismissive of the impact of Friday’s jobs report and said the “real numbers” will start to make themselves known a year from now.

The president was asked Thursday during a dinner with tech leaders whether he would commit to saying the data was credible for the first job report numbers since he fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics after last month’s revisions.

He says the jobs right now are largely construction jobs, but “you’re going to see job numbers like our country has never seen before.”