Speaking at the CNN Town Hall on Wednesday, 45th President Donald Trump said he would end the war in Ukraine “in 24 hours,” in order stop “everybody dying.”
Host of the Town Hall, Kaitlan Collins, asked if under a Trump presidency, the United States would continue to give Ukraine weapons and funding. Just this week, the Biden administration announced another $1.2 billion defensive aid package, totaling almost $37 billion since February 2022, which does not include other financial support, such as humanitarian aid.
“Let me just put it a nicer way. If I’m President, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours,” Trump responded. “I’ll meet with Putin, I’ll meet with Zelensky, they have both have weaknesses and they both have strengths, and within 24 hours that war will be settled. It’ll be over. It’ll be absolutely over.”
President Trump on the Ukraine War: "I don’t think in terms of winning and losing. I think in terms of getting it settled so we stop killing all these people." pic.twitter.com/5S304y71rF
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) May 11, 2023
The statement from Trump mirrors one he made during his first 2024 campaign rally in South Carolina in January, where he noted that there was a “deal waiting to be done” between Russia and Ukraine to end the war, but that currently “there’s nobody to do it.”
Collins then proceeded to ask the former President repeatedly if he wanted “Ukraine to win.” Trump eschewed such simple terms when looking at the conflict. “I don’t think in terms of winning and losing,” he said. “I think in terms of getting it settled so we can stop killing all these people and breaking down this country.”
“I want everybody to stop dying,” Trump added. “They’re dying. Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying, and I’ll have that done in 24 hours I’ll have it done. You need the power of the presidency to do it.”
Ohio Senator JD Vance, known as a strong supporter of Trump’s America First agenda, posted in support of his comments during the Town Hall. “This is real statesmanship,” Vance tweeted.
This is real statesmanship. pic.twitter.com/CItkC8vKi3
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) May 11, 2023
In an Agenda 47 video released in March, Trump noted that the West has “never been closer to World War 3 then we are today under Joe Biden,” and that “every day this proxy battle in Ukraine continues, we risk global war.” The objective must be “a total cessation of hostilities” immediately, he argued.
“There must also be a complete commitment to dismantle the entire globalist neocon establishment that is perpetually dragging us into endless wars, pretending to fight for freedom and democracy abroad, while they turn us into a third world country and a third world dictatorship right here at home,” Trump concluded.
