Former President Donald Trump said Friday that – if elected – he’s ready to work out a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, emphasizing his good relationship with Vladimir Putin even as the former president stood next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump and Zelensky met in New York on Friday, giving the Ukrainian leader the chance to make a personal pitch to the GOP presidential nominee who is openly skeptical of continued US security assistance for Ukraine against Russia.
The tensions between the two men – both of whom had been critical of the other leading up to the meeting – were obvious during a pre-meeting Q-and-A with reporters.
“We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin. And I think if we win, we’re going to get it resolved very quickly,” Trump told reporters ahead of his meeting with Zelensky.
“I hope we have more good relations between us,” Zelensky interjected.
“Oh, I see,” Trump said. “It takes two to tango, you know, and we will – we’re going to have a good meeting today. And I think the fact that we’re even together today is a very good sign.”
Friday’s meeting came at a pivotal moment for Zelensky ahead of November’s US election. He’s sought this week to convince the Biden administration that his country can still win the war, so long as the US and other countries significantly and quickly ramp up military assistance.
Trump has repeatedly complained about the funding the US has provided for Ukraine and claimed he will quickly end the war between the two sides, which began with Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February 2022. Zelensky said this week that Trump doesn’t know how to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a good victory, because if the other side wins, I don’t think you’re going to have victories with anything, to be honest with you,” Trump said of the race between him and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
“So, we’re going to sit down (to) just discuss it, and if we have a win, I think long before I, before January 20, before I would take the presidency – it’s January 20 – but long before that, I think that we can work out something that’s good for both sides. It’s time,” Trump added. “By the way, the president (Zelensky) knows that too. He wants to get something done. He doesn’t want to do this.”
Zelensky thanked Trump for agreeing to meet with him, recalling how five years had passed since their last meeting, and said he believes they share a common view that Putin must be stopped.
“I think we have common view that the war in Ukraine has to be stopped, and Putin can’t win, and Ukraine has to prevail, and I want to discuss with you the details about that,” Zelensky said.
Trump says he ‘learned a lot’ but hasn’t changed his view of Russia-Ukraine war
After the meeting ended, Trump and Zelensky appeared together on Fox News. Trump reiterated that he thinks a fair deal is possible and can be done quickly even as Zelensky made it clear that he feels Russian troops must be pushed all the way out of Ukraine.
“I learned a lot, but I think I haven’t changed from the standpoint that we both want to see this end and we both want to see a fair deal made. And it’s got to be fair, and I think that’ll happen at the right time. I think it’s going to happen,” Trump told Fox News following the meeting.
“It should stop, and the president wants it to stop. I’m sure President Putin wants it to stop, and that’s a good combination. So, we want to have a fair deal for everybody,” Trump said.
When he was asked what he envisioned as “fair,” Trump said it was “too early to say that.”
“I have my own ideas and I’m sure the president definitely has his own ideas. But, has to be fair,” Trump said.
Zelensky chimed in reminding how Putin has invaded Ukrainian territory.
“This war shouldn’t be started, and I think that the problem that Putin killed so many people and, of course, we need to do everything to pressure him to stop this war. He is in our territory. That’s the most important. He is in our territory and how to stop the war to pressure him as we can. We have to do it,” Zelensky said.
Trump said Zelensky “said it the best” that “this is a war that should’ve never happened” and said another meeting between them “could very well happen.”
Trump questioned how Ukraine could rebuild and restore its cities, saying “it’s not possible.”
“You have to, by the way, come to see all us,” Zelensky said.
“I will,” Trump said. “It’s a beautiful country.”
Zelensky’s crucial – but politically awkward – meetings in the US
Zelensky met at the White House on Thursday with President Joe Biden and Harris, and the Democratic nominee used the appearance to draw a stark contrast with Trump on Ukraine.
“There are some in my country who would instead force Ukraine to give up large parts of its sovereign territory, who would demand that Ukraine accept neutrality and would require Ukraine to forego security relationships with other nations,” Harris said.
Zelensky’s meeting with Trump one day after visiting the White House puts him once again in the middle of a heated US political campaign – five years after Zelensky was caught up in another US domestic political firestorm.
The last time Zelensky and Trump met occurred amid a Democratic impeachment investigation into Trump for denying Zelensky a White House visit and US aid to Ukraine while Trump tried to get the Ukrainians to announce an investigation into then-presidential candidate Biden.
Trump would ultimately be impeached by House Democrats over pressuring Zelensky to investigate Biden. The Ukrainian president, meanwhile, finally got a meeting in the Oval Office – with Biden – in September 2021.
Trump praised Zelensky – namely for being “like a piece of steel” during his first impeachment surrounding their phone call.
“He could’ve grandstanded and played cute, but he didn’t do that,” Trump said. “He said, ‘President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong.’ He said it loud and clear, and the impeachment hoax died right there.”
GOP goes after the Ukrainian president
At a rally Wednesday, Trump criticized Zelensky and claimed the Ukrainian president “refuses to make a deal” with Russia, marking the former president’s most explicit criticism of Zelensky’s handling of the war to date.
“Those cities are gone, they’re gone, and we continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refused to make a deal, Zelensky. There was no deal that he could have made that wouldn’t have been better than the situation you have right now. You have a country that has been obliterated, not possible to be rebuilt,” Trump said during a campaign speech in Mint Hill, North Carolina.
Trump’s Republican allies in Congress are also furious with Zelensky for his visit to a Pennsylvania ammunition plant along with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro. They’ve argued his visit to the key battleground state, which is home to a sizable population of people of Ukrainian ancestry, had partisan motivations, with House Speaker Mike Johnson calling on Zelensky to fire the Ukrainian ambassador to the US. Republicans have also taken issue with Zelensky calling Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the GOP vice presidential candidate, “too radical” in an interview with The New Yorker.
In the same interview, Zelensky criticized Trump, saying: “My feeling is that Trump doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how. With this war, oftentimes, the deeper you look at it the less you understand.”
Trump left things open-ended when asked Thursday whether he believes Ukraine should cede territory to Russia as a means of ending the war.
“We’ll see what happens,” Trump told reporters at Trump Tower.
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
