‘More Difficult to Deal With Ukraine’ – Trump Says He ‘Believes’ Putin in Oval Office Address

US President Donald Trump said he believes Russian leader Vladimir Putin during an impromptu Oval Office address on Friday. 

When asked by a reporter about whether he trusts Putin considering Moscow’s latest attack on Ukraine on Friday, Trump said he believes Putin and that the US is “doing pretty well with Russia” in terms of recent talks. 

“I believe him… We are doing very well with Russia,” Trump said, adding that now Russia is “bombing the hell out of Ukraine” before adding that it has been easier to work with Russia than Ukraine for him. 

“I’m finding it more difficult frankly to deal with Ukraine – and they don’t have the cards,” Trump said, once again using the exact phrase he used to belittle President Volodymyr Zelensky when the latter visited the White House a week prior. 

Trump added that it “may be easier” to “[get] a final settlement dealing with Russia, which is surprising, cause they have all the cards.”

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When asked if he thinks Putin is taking advantage of Washington’s military aid and intelligence suspension at present, Trump said Putin is “doing what anybody else would do” before claiming that Putin “wants to get [the war] ended.”

“I think he’s doing what anybody else would do, I think he wants to get it stopped and settled, and I think he’s hitting them harder than he’s been hitting them, and I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now,” Trump said. 

When asked by a reporter why Washington is not providing Ukraine with aid if Russia is “pounding” Ukraine as he claimed, Trump said that’s because he “[has] to know that they want to settle.”

Trump then went on to claim that Ukraine doesn’t want to settle, though Zelensky reiterated his call time and time again that he wants the war on his country to end. 

When asked by a reporter about Europe’s different position on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump said Europe “[doesn’t] know how to end the war.” 

Trump also claimed multiple times during the conference that the war wouldn’t have started if he were in place.

When asked about security guarantees for Ukraine, Trump said he only wants to settle the war. He claimed that guarantees are “the easy part,” but settling the war is more difficult.

During the conference, US National Security Advisor Michael Waltz also stepped in and said the talks next week with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia are set to get the talks on the resources deal “back on track.”