Trump Says Zelensky 'Not Exactly Innocent Either' When Asked About Russia-Ukraine War

Forbes Breaking News

At his Cabinet meeting, President Trump was asked about efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine War.

Transcript

00:00Why do Alaska, you had mentioned that there would be severe consequences if Vladimir Putin did not agree to a ceasefire.

00:06After that summit that was rolled back, given the negotiations, is he back on the clock now?

00:14I want to see that deal end.

00:16It's very, very serious what I have in mind if I have to do it.

00:22But I want to see it end.

00:24I think that in many ways he's there.

00:26Sometimes he'll be there and Zelensky won't be there.

00:30You know, it's like, who do we have today?

00:33I got to get them both at the same time.

00:35But I want to have it end.

00:37We have economic sanctions.

00:39I'm talking about economic because we're not going to get into a world war.

00:44I'll tell you what, in my opinion, if I didn't win this race, Ukraine could have ended up in a world war.

00:52We're not going to end up in a world war anymore.

00:54But it would have ended up possibly in a world war.

00:57That would have been it.

00:58That would have been it.

00:59They were ready to trot.

01:01But just like India and Pakistan, we're going to end up in a nuclear war if I didn't stop them.

01:08You know, it was sort of strange.

01:09I saw they were fighting.

01:11Then I saw seven jets were shot down.

01:14I said, that's not good.

01:15That's a lot of jets.

01:16You know, $150 million planes were shot down.

01:20A lot of them, seven, maybe more than that.

01:23They didn't even report the real number.

01:25I'm talking to a very terrific man, Modi of India.

01:32And I said, what's going on with you in Pakistan?

01:36Then I'm talking to Pakistan on trade.

01:38I said, what's going on with you in India?

01:41And the hatred was tremendous.

01:43Now, this has been going on for a hell of a long time.

01:45Like, with sometimes with different names for hundreds of years.

01:51But I said, what's going on?

01:53I said, I don't want to make a trade deal.

01:55No, no, no.

01:56We want to make a trade deal.

01:57I said, no, no.

01:58I don't want to make a trade deal with you.

02:00You're going to have a nuclear war.

02:01You guys are going to end up in a nuclear war.

02:03And that was very important to them.

02:08I said, call me back tomorrow.

02:09But we're not going to do any deals with you.

02:11Or we're going to put tariffs on you that are so high.

02:14You were there, Howard, right?

02:15You're going to put tariffs on you that were so high.

02:18I don't give a damn.

02:19Your head's going to spin.

02:20You're not going to end up in a war.

02:22Within about five hours, it was done.

02:26It was done.

02:27Now, maybe it starts again.

02:28I don't know.

02:29I don't think so.

02:29But I'll stop it if it does.

02:31Because we can't let these things happen.

02:35The Russia-Ukraine situation, last week, 7,012 soldiers died.

02:49They were Russian.

02:50They were Ukrainian.

02:51They weren't American.

02:52So a lot of people would say, what do you care?

02:54They're not American.

02:54I care.

02:55I care.

02:55They're 12,000 over the last couple of weeks, over 12,000 people died in like in two weeks.

03:03You know, we're talking about crime where somebody's killed here or somebody.

03:07Think of it.

03:08You have your son leaving Russia, leaving Ukraine, their little house, wherever they live with

03:12their parents, they're waving goodbye, just like our parents would wave goodbye.

03:16And they're waving goodbye, son.

03:18And then a week later, his head's blown off in a stupid war by a drone, a whole new form

03:24of military problem.

03:26So, no, I'd like it to stop.

03:28I want to get it to stop.

03:29And it will not be a world war, but it will be an economic war.

03:36And an economic war is going to be bad.

03:38And it's going to be bad for Russia.

03:40And I don't want that.

03:41Now, I have to also see, because not everybody, you know, Zelensky is not exactly innocent either.

03:47Okay?

03:47You know, it takes two people to tango.

03:50And I say it all the time.

03:51You got to get them together.

03:53I get along with Zelensky now.

03:54But we have a much different relationship, because now we're not paying any money to

04:00Ukraine.

04:01You know, stop that.

04:02We're paying money to ourselves.

04:05What's happening is NATO is buying all of the equipment and paying in full.

04:11But even with that, forget about that.

04:14I want to get it stopped, because it's a lot of lives that are being lost.

04:17Every week, it's 7,000, 5,000, 6,000.

04:20I get the reports.

04:22And I see battlefields.

04:23I'd rather not see them.

04:24And, you know, you read about, you read about Gettysburg.

04:28You read about Gettysburg, and you see, you know, those 1,000, 600,000 people.

04:32But in that war in particular, it was really bad, like 150,000 or something.

04:38Just dead body.

04:40I'm seeing the same.

04:41I see pictures.

04:42I see satellite pictures of heads over here, arms over here, legs over here.

04:49And this is like a modern age.

04:53It's no different than the worst wars that I've ever seen.

04:57And if I can stop it because I have a certain power or a certain relationship.

05:02I had a very good relationship with President Putin.

05:06Very, very good.

05:06That's a positive thing, again.

05:09And I think I'm probably the only...

05:10Steve Whitcoff would tell you I'm the only one that can solve it.

05:13I don't know.

05:13He's told me that a few times.

05:15Unless he was saying that just to build up my ego.

05:17But it's not, really.

05:18I have no ego when it comes to this stuff.

05:20I just want to see yourself.

05:22Thousands of young people, mostly young people, are dying every single week.

05:26If I can save that by doing sanctions or by just being me or by using a very strong tariff system

05:36that's very costly to Russia or Ukraine or whoever we have, you know.

05:41But I stopped seven wars.

05:43And three of those wars were going on for more than 30 years.

05:46You know, if you look at Congo, if you look at...

05:49Just look at any of them.

05:51Almost all of them were going on for an extended period of time.

05:55Now, interestingly, one had just started.

05:59It was two days old.

06:01And you know that one.

06:02And we did that one when we were in Scotland negotiating.

06:05It was two days...

06:06But there were 2,000 dead bodies laying on the border.

06:09And I got that one stopped, too.

06:11And I'm very honored by that.

06:12But I still...

06:13The one that I thought would be the easiest is turning out to be the hardest.

06:17That's President Putin and President Zelensky.

06:21But I think I'll get it done.

06:22Why do you stop something that you got out, sir?

06:24You never know.

06:25It's war.

06:26Can you stop the fanfare?

06:27With war, you never know.

06:29Right?

06:29War is very tricky, very horrible.

06:32But with war, you never know.

06:34Things change.

06:35People go into war, think they're going to win the war.

06:37And then they get their asses kicked.

06:38And they lose their country.

06:40And they lose millions of lives.

06:42Nobody goes into a war thinking they're going to lose.

06:45They go in.

06:45I'm sure that Ukraine thought they were going to win.

06:47It's going to be...

06:48You know, we're going to win.

06:49You're going to beat somebody that's 15 times your size.

06:52Biden shouldn't have let that happen.

06:55Biden shouldn't have...

06:56I mean, the man was grossly incompetent.

06:58He should have never been there.

06:59That would have never happened.

07:00But you don't go into a war that's 15 times your size.

07:03Do you think that's 15 times your size?

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