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In reversal, Trump says he hasn’t ‘agreed to’ grant Ukraine licenses to produce Patriot missiles

Patriot launchers modules mounted on M983 HEMTT, part of the U.S.-made MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, are pictured on a open field on Feb. 18, 2023, in Zamosc, Poland. (Photo by Omar Marques/Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Friday reversed course on his offer earlier this month to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air defense systems, saying during a Cabinet meeting that “we have not agreed to that.”

“We have to be very careful about letting somebody build them,” Trump said as he gathered his top officials at Camp David. “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.”

The president’s remarks contradict Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s readout of their Tuesday meeting at the White House, in which Zelenskyy said Trump agreed to provide the license. Zelenskyy, while in Washington, met with executives at Lockheed Martin, the U.S. defense giant behind the Patriot missiles.

Trump’s Friday comments are also a departure from his own public message to Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Turkey in early July.

“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool, right?” Trump said to the Ukrainian president the time, adding: “This way he can’t complain that we’re not giving him enough. I said, ‘Make them yourself.'”

Zelenskyy has long raised alarm bells about the rapid depletion of U.S. Patriot missiles, which are widely considered to be the most effective tool to counter Russian missiles and drones.

Just as Trump’s Cabinet meeting was getting underway, Zelenskyy posted on X that he received a “good phone call” from Vice President JD Vance and reiterated that the Patriot missiles remain a “top priority.”

“He’d like to have some Patriots,” Trump said of Zelenskyy on Friday. “He’d like to have some Tomahawks, which are, you know, lethal. One offensive, one defensive.”

Trump called it a “big step” to provide such a license, and then suggested that Ukraine or any other nation given the sensitive technology could one day turn and use such weapons against the U.S. 

“And I don’t think this would ever happen, but, you know, those people that you give that technology, they can someday turn on you. You know, that is possible,” Trump said. 

“So, we have to be very careful,” he added.

Trump said he spoke to Zelenskyy, presumably during his visit to the White House earlier this week, about the weapons systems.

“I also spoke to him about let’s get this war over with,” Trump said.

Trump said both Ukraine and Russia will have to make concessions in order to end the yearslong war, which started when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

“I said, ‘You got to get this war over.’ I think he wants to make a deal, and I think Putin wants to make a deal. But there’s a lot of dislike, as you probably notice,” Trump said. “Well, nobody wants concessions, but they’re both going to have to make some concessions. I mean, you got to make a deal.” 

Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

What to know about Candida auris, a fungus contaminating healthcare spaces

By CNN
(CNN) — Cases of Candida auris, a fungus found in healthcare facilities, are rising rapidly this year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.As of July 25, 3,437 clinical cases in 27 states have been reported, CDC data shows. The agency recorded 4,290 clinical cases in all of last year.C. auris is primarily a concern for people who are hospitalized. The total number of clinical cases has been increasing since its detection in the US in 2016, the CDC says. The rate has slowed in recent years, but it still remains a “critical public health threat.”What is Candida auris, and how does it spread?Candida auris is a yeast, a specific type of fungus, that spreads through contact with contaminated objects and people, according to Dr. Graham Snyder, medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.A common characteristic, Snyder said, is its ability to spread and remain in healthcare settings, including nursing facilities and hospitals, as it can resist certain cleaning products. It more seriously affects people who have underlying conditions.“We quickly learned that Candida auris is very good at sticking around in the environment — and that’s not true for all types of pathogens or germs that may be spread through the environment — so we pay extra special attention when we know somebody has Candida auris to making sure that we clean and disinfect the environment,” Snyder said.The first case of C. auris was detected in Japan in 2009; the first case in the United States was detected in 2016, according to the CDC. The agency characterizes C. auris as an “urgent threat,” as it is often multidrug-resistant, meaning certain strains can be resistant to all three classes of antifungal medications used to treat fungal infections.What happens when people get it?There are two ways people can have C. auris, said Dr. Scott Roberts, an associate professor of infection prevention at Yale University. The first, colonization, occurs when the fungi appear on a person’s skin, and it’s asymptomatic most of the time. The second, infection, happens when it enters the body through a break in the skin.C. auris can be detected via a swab of the armpit or groin area.“Most of the time, the infections occur through bloodstream infection. There’s some entry into the skin somewhere; maybe your immune system’s not as good as it should be. You can’t fight it off, and you lead to a big infection,” Roberts said.Although this year’s case count may sound alarming, Dr. Nitipong Permpalung, director of mycology research at Johns Hopkins University, noted that there has also been an increase in screening that differentiates between those who are colonized with C. auris and those who are infected, which could account for some of the rising numbers.“We need to understand that ‘OK, this is a positive screening test, and this is through clinical case, and go from there,’ but I understand the concern. But we need to get some more data, and we need to work on the research in this area to improve the care,” Permpalung said.Dr. Ilan Schwartz, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University, said the fungi can cause symptoms like fever, low blood pressure or a high heart rate, as well as a dangerous condition called sepsis, when it enters the bloodstream. Because it spreads more often in healthcare settings, Schwartz said, it primarily affects people who have other health conditions.Like many germs that can be potentially deadly “in the right circumstance,” Schwartz said, infections can become serious and can be deadly in vulnerable patients, such as those undergoing chemotherapy, recovering from surgery or taking antibiotics.“Generally, these are going to be in patients who are already hospitalized and who are being monitored, and so the healthcare team should be well aware already if patients are showing signs of a general infection, so I don’t think that it’s something individuals need to be vigilant about,” Schwartz said.Awareness at the forefrontRoberts said people who are hospitalized or living in other medical settings should watch for symptoms of sepsis, including fever, high heart rate and low blood pressure.The most important thing people can do if their doctor detects the fungi, Roberts said, is to notify those they live with or those who are around them in a care facility. In addition, focus on washing hands and not sharing medical equipment before it is disinfected.Although C. auris continues to spread, hospitals and nursing homes can screen people to identify the fungi and potentially isolate them as an infection prevention practice, Roberts said.“I just have low confidence every facility can do that, or even right now we don’t even know how big a problem it is because a lot of places are not testing for this or don’t have the lab capability to even identify it,” Roberts said.Roberts noted that once the fungi has colonized a person, treatment generally focuses on any symptoms that develop.“There’s unfortunately not much to do,” Roberts said. “It’s moreso just awareness that it is on the scan or that it is there in that room.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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