Former U.S. President Donald Trump said in a July 16 interview with Fox News that, if elected president again, he would ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to make a peace deal.
Trump is currently the most popular Republican candidate in the upcoming primaries for the 2024 presidential election, according to opinion polls. As many as 48% of the respondents will support him in the primaries, while 22% will back Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a poll published by YouGov and the Economist on July 8-11 revealed.
Trump said he would warn Putin that the U.S. would increase military support for Ukraine if an agreement is not reached.
“I would tell Zelensky, no more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don't make a deal, we're going to give him a lot. We're going to (give Ukraine) more than they ever got if we have to,” Trump said, adding that “he will have the deal done in one day.”
Trump has repeatedly said he would end Russia’s war within 24 hours.
“It looks as if Donald Trump had already these 24 hours once in his time. We were at war, not a full-scale war, but we were at war and as I assume he had that time at his disposal, but he must have had some other priorities,” Zelensky told ABC News on June 9.
Zelensky introduced Ukraine’s 10-point peace plan at a G20 summit in November 2022. The peace plan includes the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops, establishing a tribunal for Russian war crimes, the release of all prisoners of war and deported Ukrainians, and the prevention of ecocide.
Trump said in May that he would not commit to providing Ukraine with defense assistance if he won the 2024 election.
“We're giving away so much equipment, we don't have ammunition for ourselves right now,” Trump said on May 11, as cited by CNN.
He also refused to say who he thinks should win in the war between Russia and Ukraine, adding that he wants “everybody to stop dying.”
Meanwhile, around 65% of U.S. citizens want Washington to continue military aid to Ukraine, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on June 28.
