Trump: Zelensky Blew a Better Deal Two Years Ago and Now Young Men Are Dying for Nothing
President Trump made clear Tuesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a real chance to end the war in 2024 and passed on it. Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said Zelensky “could have made a deal two years ago when we had our little chat in the Oval Office” with him and Vice President JD Vance. He added that Zelensky “could have made a good deal then, could have made a much better deal then probably, possibly, than he could make now.”
Trump stressed that Ukraine now has to want peace because its own people are running out of patience. “I don’t think his people are going to stand for it any longer,” he said. “They’ve been fighting a war. So last month they lost 32,000 people between the both of them. They’re mostly soldiers, mostly young soldiers.”
The president noted that the conflict does not directly affect the United States. “It doesn’t affect us much. It doesn’t affect us in theory at all. We’re not involved.” What does affect him, he said, is the human cost: “What affects me is to see that many souls lost so needlessly.”
Trump said he still wants a deal and pointed to his own record. “I settled eight wars. I thought that would be the easiest one.” He identified the main obstacle as the “tremendous” hatred between Vladimir Putin and Zelensky, adding that “Ukraine has to want to make a deal because the United States has spent a fortune, Europe has spent a fortune. Europe’s tired of it right now.”
If no agreement is reached, Trump warned, “ultimately it’s just going to get, in my opinion, it’s just really just going to get worse.” The message was direct: the opportunity for a better deal existed two years ago, Zelensky declined it, and the price is still being paid by young soldiers on the battlefield.