WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump told the country exactly why he is keeping his options open on Russia: peace comes first. “My decision on Russia is a very simple one,” the President posted Sunday afternoon. “I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”
“Great progress is being made, and that includes current hostage negotiations!” the President wrote. He said signing “that document at this time” would push Moscow away from the talks, and he made clear the leverage stays in his hands: “I can sign it later, or any time that I want!” It is the same steady approach Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Saturday, when he said the President is using a 60-day window to figure out the right combination of sanctions and tariffs.
President Trump also pointed to the bigger picture in the fight with Iran. “Perhaps more importantly, Russia is doing very little, if anything, to help the Islamic Republic of Iran, compared to what they could be doing,” he wrote, “and I want to keep it that way, and will, unless stupid people get in the way.”
He put American families at the center of the decision. Ukraine’s strikes on Russian diesel refineries, he wrote, “are seriously hurting the world diesel markets, including those in the United States. Farmers, ranchers, and businesses of all kinds are suffering greatly from this.” With all of the money from Europe and from “Crooked Joe Biden,” he wrote, Zelenskyy “doesn’t want to end this war,” and “he could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now.”
The President’s bottom line was written in capital letters: he wants this war over. Watch the White House video of President Trump’s historic Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, part of his drive to end the war, above.
