Trump made the remark while deriding Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country was invaded by Russia in February 2022.
President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that Ukraine was responsible for Russia's invasion of the country three years ago, arguing Kyiv could have made a deal to avoid the conflict.
“You should have never started it,” Trump said of Ukraine while criticizing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had expressed concern that his country was not included in talks between the U.S. and Russia in Saudi Arabia.
"I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well. But today I heard, 'Oh, well, we weren't invited.' Well, you've been there for three years," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. "You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."
Trump went on to say: "I could have made a deal for Ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything, almost all of the land, and no people would have been killed, and no city would have been demolished, and not one dome would have been knocked down. But they chose not to do it that way."
They had no choice! The Dems should have put up a better candidate! Genocide! Gaza! Liberals! Woke! DEI! Anything but make me address the consequences of my action and/or inaction!
I mean, looking at global politics… propaganda campaigns against democratic nations or alliances aren’t only occurring in the US and they’re working all over. You think Brexit wasn’t a psyops campaign funded by Russia? Or how about ultra-right wing conservatives popping up in elections across the world? These are planned attacks against democracy, they’ve just been hard at work sowing the seeds to destabilize the US for decades, and those seeds are finally paying off.
I hate the US. That does not mean I hate all Americans, but jesus fuck, you guys fucked so many millions of people around the world voting for a literally human piece of shit. In not sure who's worse, Hitler or Trump, but it looks like Trump might finally win something: being worse than Hitler.
You know, sometimes I try to read articles outside my echo chamber and at this point conservative == conspiracy in my mind. You’re just playing mental gymnastics the entire time.
Nonsense. It’s these sort of blanket statements that undermine a clear understanding of what each side wants. Putin wanted Ukraine to remain neutral and not join NATO, because the head of NATO, the United States was talking about unprovoked nuclear first strikes and all sorts of crazy things. Zelensky himself publicly floated the idea of Ukraine obtaining nukes. If your choice is between going to war and having a country on your border point nukes at you, then you might go to war.
In fact. The United States claimed Iraq (a country far away from itself) was trying to obtain nukes and invaded it in the 2000s, and that was while the leaders of Iraq were refuting the claim (and the Iraqis were telling the truth).
That’s what the United States and NATO countries claim Putin wants, and which he has refuted. That makes reforming the USSR about as believable as Iraqi nukes.
If you want to win me over and have me believe you, then my advice would be to go to Iraq and don’t come back until you find those nukes. My advice is that when you go, remember to avoid packing light, because you’re gonna be there a while.
Zelensky is clearly a weak leader as he can’t even control his former staff. The negotiator goes out, gives an interview saying Johnson gave Zelensky his marching orders, and all you can do is pretend I should be embarrassed? Zelensky was a fool to trust the British, a people known to have cheated and humiliated people across the entire world.
This idea that the NATO powers that gave Ukraine weapons have no influence is very silly. As we’re seeing right in front of our eyes, Trump expects to collect payment for those weapons by taking Ukrainian resources. Of course they wanted Ukraine to prolong the war, accept more weapons, and rack up more debt. Johnson showed up, told them to keep fighting and likely whatever else Zelensky wanted to hear and now we’re at this outcome. Zelensky is at home seething, egg on his face as Trump and Putin decide the fate of his country. Reality is right in front of you and yet you deny it. If Zelensky had any sort of political or military leverage he’d be at the peace talks too.
He’s telling the truth because he didn’t do anything wrong.
Zelensky is lying to avoid admitting his mistake.
The British are lying because they always lie. Boris Johnson isn’t exactly known as an honest man, but admitting they played the Ukrainians would be a pretty terrible mistake when the other European countries want the fighting to continue.
Trump is telling the truth because he didn’t have any say at the time and doesn’t mind saying the quiet part out loud and throwing Zelensky’s bad decisions in his face.
Putin is telling the truth because the Russians have had to put quite a bit of resources into fighting this war when it could’ve ended earlier.