President Donald Trump “wants to end” the Russia-Ukraine war but “he’s just not sure how to do it,” says former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland.
“The thing that makes Donald Trump so different from every other president is they go into it thinking, ‘oh, the Ukraine war is bad, Russia’s horrible. We’re going to prop Ukraine up. We’re going to help them. We’re not going to let Russia win.’ President Trump goes to the other direction. He says, ‘I want to end this war. How am I going to do it?’ I’m not sure. Here’s my objective. I’m going to end the war. I’m going to try this. I’m going to try that. If this doesn’t work, I’ll try that,'” McFarland told Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
“He thought he could go in and he would pressure both of them to go to the negotiating table and get a deal. It didn’t work. So, then he gets [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy to the Oval Office. Zelenskyy overplays his hand, pushes too much. Trump pushes back. So now Zelenskyy is ready to do a deal. He’s ready to do a negotiated solution. He knows he doesn’t get everything he wants, but now, it’s Russia that’s holding back.
“So, what’s Trump doing? He’s now pivoting to Russia. How am I going to get Russia to the table? How am I going to get Russia to do it? And the interesting conversation that I would love to be a fly on the wall for the next 50 days is the conversation between the United States and India. You wouldn’t think India has anything to do with it, but when President Trump says, ‘I’m going to pressure Russia with secondary sanctions,’ now, what that means is we’re going to go after anybody who does business with Russia, and we’re going to give them a lot of sanctions. We don’t do any business with Russia,” she added.
Trump on Monday said he would impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, natural gas, and other products if there isn’t a peace deal in 50 days. The levies are meant to cause Russia financial pain by making its trading partners think twice before buying Russian energy.
“We can impose sanctions,” McFarland told Newsmax.
“So, the conversation that we might be having right now with the Indians is, ‘look, you’re buying Russian oil at a discount. It’s cheap. How about buying American oil? How about an American natural gas?’ You press them economically with the sanctions, you press them militarily by giving Ukraine military weapons. You push them diplomatically by pushing everybody to the negotiating table. Because that’s the genius of Trump,” she said.
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