WASHINGTON — President Donald J. Trump put the blame for the war in Ukraine, and the pain at the diesel pump, right where it belongs. Asked on the South Lawn Saturday whether his new Russian diesel deal could prolong the war, the President said: “Well, I look at it differently. Zelensky could have settled this war many times. Many, many times. And he chooses not to.” It is a war, he said, “that should have never been started,” and never would have if he had been president.
The President laid out exactly what he asked of Kyiv. “We said, ‘You can do whatever you want to Russia. Don’t hit the refineries, because that’s a world problem,’” he said. Russia supplies a large share of the world’s diesel, and Ukrainian strikes on its refineries have helped squeeze supply worldwide. “He wants to make problems for our farmers, our ranchers with diesel fuel,” the President said. “We told him, ‘Do whatever you want, but don’t hit the diesel fuel because there’s a big problem, big shortage.’ And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel… He’d better damn well stop.”
Then he went a step further. “I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal, because he could have made many deals, and for some reason he never does,” the President said. “You’ve lost 30% of your country, and you’ve had over a million people killed. Between the two of them, over two million people killed. That’s a war that should have never started. And I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.” The comments came a day after the President announced that Russia will release 300,000 tonnes of diesel to the American and global market right away, 500,000 more in November and millions more after that, with the Treasury issuing a temporary license so the fuel can flow. Zelensky had attacked the deal.
The President covered plenty more before boarding Marine One. Asked whether he would accept the midterm results, he answered: “Of course I will. But we don’t want cheating… You understand me?” On the Fort Hood jihadist Nidal Hasan, “a vicious killer” who “killed 13 people in cold blood,” he said he will make the final call on whether to show the execution: “By showing it, maybe other people won’t be doing what he did.” On joining Saudi strikes against the Houthis: “We may… We move very quickly.” And after ending eight wars, he noted, the Nobel committee picked someone “nobody ever heard of.” “Something wrong in Norway, let me tell you.”
The message to Kyiv and the world is the same one the President has delivered since day one: end the killing, make the deal and stop making American families pay for someone else’s war. Watch the Official White House video.
