WASHINGTON — Free from the supervision of European leaders, President Donald Trump on Tuesday reverted to kind, blaming Ukraine for getting invaded by Russia and making dictator Vladimir Putin’s arguments on his behalf.
“Russia is a powerful military nation. You know, whether people like it or not, it’s a powerful nation. It’s a much bigger nation,” Trump stated in a 25-minute, phoned-in look on Fox Information’ morning present. “You don’t do that. You don’t take ― you don’t take on a nation that’s 10 times your size.”
Trump had, a minimum of in the course of the public elements of Monday’s conferences, shunned providing his pro-Putin views and as a substitute gave the looks of solidarity with Europe in its assist of Ukraine.
That efficiency was gone, although, by Tuesday morning when he known as in to “Fox & Friends.”
Trump once more supplied heat phrases for Putin, who has been charged with struggle crimes for his conduct within the invasion, and whom Trump invited to Alaska final week: “You saw that when he got off his plane, I got off my plane. There’s a warmth there that you can’t ― you know, there’s a, there’s a decent feeling.”
Sergey Bobylev / Pool / AFP through Getty Photographs
Trump additionally urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to appease Putin by gifting away Ukrainian territory: “I hope that Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility, also.”
And Trump urged that Ukraine introduced Putin’s brutal invasion on itself by in search of to affix NATO: “It was always a no-no, you could not. Russia said, ‘We don’t want the so-called opponent or the enemy,’ let’s use that term, ‘We don’t want them on our border.’ And they were right.”
Not one of the present’s hosts requested Trump why that supposed normal doesn’t apply to Latvia and Estonia, which each joined NATO in 2004, or Finland, which joined in 2023 — largely as a response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. All three nations border Russia.
Trump on Tuesday even went so far as to take credit score for the seven different European leaders coming to his assembly with Zelenskyy to debate the summit with Putin days earlier.
“I think really, they have respect for our country again. A year ago, they wouldn’t have come. They wouldn’t have even thought about it. Now we’ve become the hottest country anywhere in the world. Everybody wants to be here. When I made the call, they came,” Trump stated.
In actuality, it was Zelenskyy who requested the opposite leaders to return to supply a united entrance — and to keep away from the ambush he suffered throughout his final Oval Workplace go to in February when he was publicly attacked and insulted by Trump, Vice President JD Vance and pro-Trump “reporter” Brian Glenn. That therapy was considered with horror in European capitals.
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen even acknowledged her motive for attending forward of time on social media: “At the request of President Zelenskyy, I will join the meeting with President Trump and other European leaders in the White House tomorrow.”
“The idea came from Zelenskyy and was supported immediately by [German Chancellor Friedrich] Merz and the others,” stated Jan Techau, a Berlin-based analyst with the Heart for European Coverage Evaluation. “But of course, Trump loves holding court. So he turns it into evidence for his unique genius.”
Von der Leyen and Merz had been joined by NATO Secretary Basic Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron for the afternoon conferences.
All the leaders praised Trump lavishly — persevering with a method adopted by allies and adversaries the world over to get what they need from America’s attention-seeking president.
“Everybody has to give Trump credit for everything,” stated Fiona Hill, a Russia analyst on the Nationwide Safety Council throughout Trump’s first time period. “This is just now the price of admission for a civil meeting.”
Trump additionally sprinkled in a few of his typical lies, corresponding to blaming predecessor Joe Biden for Russia’s invasion and taking credit score for ending six wars everywhere in the world.
In Tuesday’s telling of his ending of the struggle between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, it had gone on for 35 years, which is 4 years longer than his earlier variations of the declare, together with the one he made to the European leaders on the White Home on Tuesday.
In truth, whereas Trump introduced in leaders of the 2 nations to the Oval Workplace in June to signal a peace settlement, they’ve not agreed on phrases, and the combating continues. Trump additionally has taken credit score for ending conflicts between India and Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Iran and Israel, a quick skirmish between Thailand and Cambodia and a dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia that didn’t contain armed battle in any respect.
In Tuesday’s Fox look, Trump stated he has brokered seven peace offers, slightly than the six he has been claiming of late. It was not instantly clear what seventh struggle he was speaking about.
