Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics.
President Trump on Wednesday would not say whether he considers Ukraine to be an “equal member” of efforts to end the war between Moscow and Kyiv, as his administration pushes for negotiations between Russia and the neighboring country it invaded in 2022.
“It’s an interesting question,” Trump said in the Oval Office when asked if he viewed Ukraine as an equal member of the process.
“I think they have to make peace. Their people are being killed, and I think they have to make peace. I said that was not a good war to go into, and I think they have to make peace. That’s what I think.”
Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would “have to do what he has to do” when asked about the prospect of ceding territory as part of negotiations to end the war.
Trump claimed Zelensky’s poll numbers were sinking, and he reiterated his belief that Europe should be doing more to support Ukraine because of its proximity to the conflict.
Trump also called it “unlikely” that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, before Russia seized Crimea, as part of a negotiated ceasefire.
“They took a lot of land, and they fought for that land and they lost a lot of soldiers,” Trump said. “I’m not making an opinion on it, but I’ve read a lot on it, and a lot of people think that’s unlikely. Some of it will come back. I think some of it will come back, yeah.”
The call came on the same day that Mr. Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, declared that the United States would not support Ukraine’s desire for NATO membership. It also came as the Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard, widely seen as sympathetic to Mr. Putin, as the next director of national intelligence.
...
In Moscow, news of the long-awaited call ushered in a wave of barely contained glee. Commentators claimed that the American-led three-year effort to isolate Russia had emphatically ended. They celebrated Mr. Trump’s glowing social media post after the call about “the Great History of Our Nations” and noted that the American president had spoken to Mr. Putin before he had called President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
One Russian lawmaker said that Mr. Putin’s call with Mr. Trump “broke the West’s blockade.” Another said that Europeans were surely reading Mr. Trump’s post about it “with horror and cannot believe their eyes.” A third said it was a “day of good news.”
In a sign of the burst of optimism, Russia’s main stock market index jumped 5 percent on Thursday morning to its highest point since last summer, and its battered currency, the ruble, gained against the dollar to its strongest level since September.
