‘NEGOTIATE A DEAL’

Call With Zelensky Revealed in Trump’s Flurry of Friday Night Posts

In a series of posts boasting about his Republican National Convention ratings, one important detail stood out.

In a series of social media posts the day after accepting the GOP’s presidential nomination, Donald Trump characteristically boasted about the event’s “great reviews” and ratings, and reiterated his claims that he would somehow be able to secure the freedom of imprisoned Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich at no cost, and end Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“Big TV RATINGS last night for the Republican Convention, the best and most successful in history! Fox led the way. MSNBC was dead last. Four Great Days!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Fox News ranked first in viewership for Trump’s lengthy speech—not exactly surprising, given it’s the Republican National Convention—with over 8.8 million viewers, Forbes reported.

As for the “great reviews,” Trump didn’t cite any, but they have come from the usual suspects—Fox News hosts, other Republicans, MAGA social media influencers, and the like. Plenty of others, however, beg to differ.

Most notably, though, Trump on Friday described a phone call he had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day in which the leader of war-torn Ukraine congratulated him on becoming the GOP presidential nominee and condemned the assassination attempt last Saturday.

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Trump then reiterated that as president, he “will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families.”

“Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity,” claimed Trump, who called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 “genius” and “savvy.”

Trump has also publicly and repeatedly denigrated the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and has encouraged Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to member countries that don’t meet defense spending guidelines.

For his part, Zelensky offered his account of the call, saying he “noted the vital bipartisan and bicameral American support for protecting our nation’s freedom and independence.”

“Ukraine will always be grateful to the United States for its help in strengthening our ability to resist Russian terror. Russian attacks on our cities and villages continue every day,” wrote Zelensky, who faces the difficult task of trying to maintain bipartisan support in the U.S. in an election year. “We agreed with President Trump to discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting.”

And as for Gershkovich, who was sentenced Friday to 16 years in a Russian prison on espionage charges that the Journal and U.S. government deny, Trump insisted once more that if he were president again, Russian President Vladimir Putin would just let Gershkovich go.

“I will get him out FOR NO COMPENSATION immediately following our victory on November 5th,” Trump claimed on X.

President Joe Biden’s campaign immediately dismissed Trump’s statement at the time, as did former Marine Trevor Reed, who was detained in Russia from 2019 to 2022.

“As a former wrongful detainee in Russia, I would just like to remind everyone that President Trump had the ability to get myself and Paul Whelan out of Russia for years and chose not to. I would be skeptical of any claims about getting Evan Gershkovich back in a day,” Reed wrote on X in May.

In December 2022, pro basketball player Brittney Griner was released from a Russian jail as part of a prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

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