Trump Insists He Was Being 'Sarcastic' About Major Campaign Promise
One month before the election, 70 percent of Americans felt that foreign affairs comprised either a 'very important' or 'extremely important' component of their vote. But as it turns out, Donald Trump's repeat campaign promises to end the war in Ukraine 'in 24 hours' were just gas.
In an interview with Sharyl Attkisson broadcast Sunday, the president revealed he never actually intended to follow through on that.
'Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that,' Trump told Attkisson on her show Full Measure. 'What I really mean is I'd like to get it settled, and I think I'll be successful.'
It's one of the rare occasions where Trump has actually admitted that he was wrong. But dressing up the blatant lie as a 'little bit' of sarcasm is an awfully convenient way to circumnavigate blame for failing.
Trump had harped on the vow to instantaneously end the war for more than a year before taking back the White House. While speaking about the ongoing deaths of Ukrainians and Russians at a CNN town hall in May 2023, Trump claimed that he would 'have that done in 24 hours.'
He amped up the proposition the next year. While debating former Vice President Kamala Harris in September 2024, Trump claimed that he would 'get it settled before I even become president.'
The Trump administration's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, visited Moscow last week to advance talks on the Ukrainian-approved ceasefire terms. Negotiators in Washington and Moscow are reportedly discussing how to divvy up assets between Russia and Ukraine to bring a close to the three-year war. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies have insisted that they intend to keep the land they've carved out of Ukraine's borders for the Kremlin. They are also expected to stipulate that Ukraine never joins NATO, the strategic Western trade and military alliance that had promised in 2008 to absorb the Eastern European nation into its fold.
Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, which Putin tried to justify by falsely claiming that he needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine. But the Trump White House has proved remarkably hostile towards Ukraine in negotiations to close the conflict.
During Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's curt visit to Washington late last month, Trump and Vice President JD Vance repeatedly attacked the wartime leader while verbally defending Putin. In doing so, they challenged the U.S.'s strongest alliances while ceding the world stage to America's adversaries. In the weeks that followed, the White House ordered a pause on intelligence sharing with Kyiv and suspended military aid to the war-battered nation in defiance of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, in which America agreed to defend Ukraine's borders with the U.K. in exchange for its surrender of nuclear weapons. The aid and intelligence resumed last week after Zelenskiy publicly apologized for getting attacked.
Speaking with Attkisson on Sunday, Trump said that it would be 'bad news for this world' if Putin refused the ceasefire terms.
'Bad news for this world because so many people are dying,' Trump said. 'But I think, I think he's going to agree. I really do. I think I know him pretty well and I think he's going to agree.'
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