President Donald Trump had to admit his failure to fulfill one of his most popular ― and ludicrous ― campaign promises on Wednesday.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine in 24 hours and even told Fox News’ Sean Hannity he was “100% sure” he could keep that promise.
However, despite Trump’s subsequent election and inauguration in January, the war between Russia and Ukraine has continued with no real end in sight.
Trump didn’t have a decent answer on Wednesday when Austrian reporter Johannes Petrov noted, “You once said that you would end the Ukraine war in 24 hours. You later said you said that sarcastically.”
“Of course I said that sarcastically,” Trump replied, which prompted Petrov to ask, “But you’ve been in office for five months and five days, why have you not been able to end the Ukraine war?”
At first, Trump admitted that ending geopolitical conflicts between rival countries is “more difficult than people would have any idea.”
He also played the blame game.
“Vladimir Putin has been more difficult,” he said about the Russian president. “Frankly, I had some problems with [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, you may have read about them. And it’s been more difficult than other wars,” Trump said, before listing the various wars he’s had an easier time “ending.”
Here’s a clip of the exchange.
Of course, people on social media had thoughts about Trump’s inability to end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours.
And, yes, there was snark. Lots and lots of snark.
