Days after deploying the U.S. military to Caracas to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, President Donald Trump did not totally rule out seizing Russian President Vladimir Putin in the same way.
Speaking at a White House press conference following a gaffe-filled meeting with more than a dozen top U.S. oil executives, Trump was pressed by Fox News’ Peter Doocy on whether he would act on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s suggestion to go after Putin just as he did the Venezuelan leader.
“Well, I don’t think it’s going to be necessary,” Trump replied, ambiguously. “I’ve always had a great relationship with him.”
The 79-year-old president invited the Russian leader onto American soil for the first time in a decade in August, where he failed to secure a deal that would end the war in Ukraine that is about to enter its fifth year.
In reaction to the shocking nighttime raid on the home of the leader of a sovereign state on Jan. 3, Zelensky quipped that he hoped America would strike Russia in much the same way.
“Well, what can I say is, if you can do that with dictators, then the United States knows what to do next,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv.
Since the illegal military raid on the South American nation, the Trump administration has made threats to invade or topple governments in Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, and to annex the Danish territory of Greenland by force if necessary.
“I don’t need international law,” Trump said in a recent interview with The New York Times. He further claimed that the only thing that can stop his global interventions is “My own morality.”
“My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,” the 79-year-old president said.
The flexing of American military might has drawn widespread concern and condemnation from international allies. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said U.S. foreign policy is destroying the international order and helping turn the world into a “den of robbers,” where powerful nations act with impunity.
Trump’s rambling answer to the question posed by Doocy on Friday included his “disappointment” that the war in Ukraine had not been as easy to solve as the “eight” wars he claims to have already settled.
“I thought this would be in the middle of the pack or maybe one of the easier ones,” Trump said.
During the 2024 election campaign, Trump promised that he would be able to “settle” the war in Ukraine on “day one.” He has since walked back the statement, claiming he was being “a little bit sarcastic.”
He added, however, that while the war drags on, the U.S. will continue to profit from it through the sale of arms to allied nations.
“President Biden gave $350 million to Ukraine to fight and we would never get that back—although I did make a rare earth deal to get it back—so we will be getting it back, but shouldn’t have done that," Trump said.
“We’re not losing any money, we’re making a lot of money, I guess if you think of it, because… we’re selling to them, to NATO, military equipment, we’re getting full price and all of that.
“That’s not a big deal to me. What is a big deal is stopping a war where 30,000 people are being killed every single month,” Trump continued.
The U.S. is currently attempting to push a 20-point peace plan that is largely aligned with Russian demands onto the Eastern European nation that was invaded by America’s old adversary.
Zelensky has accepted much of the deal in theory, but refuses to make territorial concessions to Russia.
