On Monday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” President-Elect Donald Trump responded to a question on his strategy to end the Russia-Ukraine war by stating that “there’s only one strategy, and it’s up to Putin. And I can’t imagine he’s too thrilled with the way it’s gone, because it hasn’t gone exactly well for him either.”
Host Rob Schmitt asked, “You’ve said you want this war ended in six months. What is the strategy to do that? Can you give us any insight?”
Trump answered, “Well, there’s only one strategy, and it’s up to Putin. And I can’t imagine he’s too thrilled with the way it’s gone, because it hasn’t gone exactly well for him either. And I know he wants to meet and I’m going to meet very quickly. … Ukraine is being decimated and Russian soldiers are being killed in large numbers. And so are Ukraine soldiers — Ukrainian soldiers. … The cities, they’re literally knocked to the ground. … I would have gotten them into a room, Zelensky and Putin, we would have worked out a deal. Or, even if you didn’t work out a deal, it wouldn’t have happened. This wouldn’t have happened if no deal was worked out. And this was gross incompetence. That’s the only reason this war has taken place. But we’re going to do everything we can to get it stopped, for both countries.”
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