Ever imagine what Donald Trump would have done when the Russian-Ukraine conflict began? Well, the former US President himself answered this question and his response has shocked many. He has claimed that he would have let Russia’s Vladimir Putin annex parts of Ukraine as a peace strategy. To add insult to injury, his soft supporter, Fox News, edited out these remarks when replaying the interview.
As always, the internet was divided over this polarizing statement. The statement came in a radio show interview hosted by Sean Hannity, which is part of his campaign to return to the White House in his ongoing bid for the 2024 United States Presidential elections. As he runs for President for the third time, Trump has claimed he can “quickly end the war” if he is in office.
Donald Trump’s controversial peace plan for the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict
Donald Trump started out by making a strong claim that Vladimir Putin would not have dared to invade Ukraine during his presidency. According to him, any Russian attempt to launch an attack would have been futile. He spoke about how he would have negotiated a deal even in the worst case.
"I could've made a deal to take over something, there are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly, but you could've worked a deal." – Donald Trump.
The perfect idea to inspire dictators all over the world to invade other countries and have never-ending wars. pic.twitter.com/L3O76we90U
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) March 8, 2023
The deal is basically to allow Russia to take over certain parts of Ukraine to put an end to the war. Trump mentioned that there are some Russian-speaking areas in Ukraine that he would have allowed Putin to annex.
Earlier last year, the Republican praised his former Russian counterpart for his “smartness.” He referred to how Putin had declared independence for major parts of Ukraine before illegally annexing it.
Fox News removes Trump’s peace strategy from interview telecast
On the day of the interview, radio show host Sean Hannity played excerpts on his prime-time Fox News show. In this telecast, the part was cut out where Trump suggested he may have supported handing over parts of Ukraine to Russia. The TV excerpt was edited to show Trump saying, “I could’ve negotiated,” and stops there.
In response to this decision, a Fox News spokesperson has said that the original interview was on a different platform and 22 minutes in length. However, the excerpt is just a two-minute feature and cannot include everything.
Fox News is known to be favorable to the Republican party and the news agency was instrumental in getting Donald Trump elected as President. However, he has seemingly fallen out of favor as Fox News prominently features Florida’s Ron DeSantis now.
A brief history of Trump, Putin, Russia, and Ukraine
During the time of his presidency, Trump never opposed Putin directly despite his authoritarian regime in Russia. He has openly stated that he trusts Putin more than the FBI, when Russia had reportedly meddled with his election. Trump almost withdrew from NATO, the main Western coalition against Russia.
Furthermore, in 2019, Trump was impeached as President over some serious allegations of threatening to withhold Ukraine’s military aid. In return, Ukraine had to dig up dirt on the political rival and current US President Joe Biden.
Twitter reacts to Trump’s controversial statement
Trump echoing Putin’s narrative: the war can end quickly… if we bow to Putin’s power.
Who would be the next target… Poland, the Baltics, Moldova?
Dumb… even by Trump’s standards. https://t.co/DB2F3B3Ozn
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) March 5, 2023
For everyone asking why Putin didn’t invade Ukraine when Trump was POTUS, here you go:
I firmly believe if Trump was re-elected, he would have attempted (and probably screwed it up, to be fair) to pull out of NATO.
And I *know* he wouldn’t have armed Ukraine like Biden has. https://t.co/jhoSUPajEo
— Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) March 10, 2023
https://twitter.com/kalmantibs/status/1631250791125209088?s=20
BREAKING: Donald Trump told Sean Hannity that he may have “made a deal” allowing Russia to take over parts of Ukraine to end the war if he was president when they invaded.
Isn’t this exactly what his followers always say he would never have done?
Trump told Hannity, “I could…
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 10, 2023
Russia launched a full-fledged invasion on Ukraine earlier last year and since then, the region has only seen turmoil. The illegal annexation sent shockwaves across the global community as most of them sided with the Ukrainian people in solidarity against Putin.
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