D.O.A.

Trump Admits Putin Ceasefire Meeting Was a Diplomatic Dud

“This war is just… it’s been very difficult. It’s been a difficult war.”

President Donald Trump appeared to admit that his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the country’s war in Ukraine was a flop because he failed to secure a ceasefire—or much of anything but presidential pleasantries.

Trump sat down for an Oval Office interview with reporter Reagan Reese of the conservative-slanted Daily Caller on Friday. Addressing the challenges he has had brokering peace between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump prefaced that he “inherited this war.”

Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 during former President Biden’s term.

“We’re talking about a lot of lives. We’re not talking about something that I started,” Trump said. “I inherited this war. And all I’m trying to do is put out the flame, you know. And I thought I had it done.”

Trump again alleged that he had “seven times” ended other wars, which has been contested by several reports.

“I did it with wars that were tougher than this in terms of nobody,” he said. “So three of those wars are going on for more than 30 years, and I got them all done. This war is just, it’s been very difficult. It’s been a difficult war.”

The MAGA figurehead has consistently raged against critics of his Putin meeting for suggesting that it did nothing to move the Russian president toward peace.

Yet Trump now also seemed doubtful of a Putin and Zelensky face-to-face meeting and a timeline for peace between the two warring nations.

According to Trump, he hoped his “good relationship” with Putin would be enough to seal a deal but it wasn’t.

“That’s why I really thought we would have this done. I would have loved to have had it done,” he told Reese. “Maybe they have to fight a little longer. You know, just keep fighting. — stupidly, keep fighting.”

To promote her interview with the Commander-in-Chief, Reese took a jab at rumors swirling around Trump’s health and claims that he is declining in a tweet. She included a photo of her on a walk with the president and captioned it, “He’s very much alive! More coming soon.”

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Yet Trump kept the conversation focused on Putin and Ukraine, doubling down on his declaration that he would not put American boots on the ground to assist Ukraine. But he said he could send a plane.

“If I could stop that and have a plane flying around the air every once in a while, it’s going to be mostly the Europeans, but we, we’d help them,” he said. “They, you know, they sort of need it, and we’d help them if we could get something done.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for greater clarity on what was discussed at Trump’s summit with Putin.

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