The president, who earlier said he’d give Kyiv a licence, now says the US must be ‘very careful’ about letting someone make the interceptors
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 2:35am, 1 Aug 2026President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States has not agreed to Ukraine building Patriot missiles but that talks are ongoing, adding that the US must be “very careful about letting somebody build them”.
Trump said during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Turkey this month that he was going to give Ukraine a licence to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors to help defend against Russian strikes, but has since backed away from that pledge despite hosting Zelensky at the White House this week.
Asked about the Patriot missiles during a cabinet meeting at the Camp David retreat on Friday, Trump emphasised concerns about sharing advanced US weaponry including missile technology.
“In the case of President Zelensky, he’d like to have some Patriots, he’d like to have some Tomahawks, which are, you know, lethal – one offensive, one defensive,” Trump said.
“You have to be very judicious, but you have to be very careful. Now we have not agreed to that. We’re talking about it, but it’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology. And I don’t think this would ever happen but, you know, there’s people that you give that technology, they can someday turn on you,” Trump said.
