Trump said he has a concrete plan to end the war.
“I hope it’s fast. Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing.”
Addressing National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who joined him in his study aboard Air Force One Friday night, the president said: “Let’s get these meetings going. They want to meet. Every day people are dying. Young handsome soldiers are being killed. Young men, like my sons. On both sides. All over the battlefield.”
Vice President Vance will meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference next week.
Trump has said he wants to strike a $500 million deal with Zelensky to access rare-earth minerals and gas in Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees in any potential peace settlement.
On Iran, Trump told The Post: “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it. . . . They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.”
“If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them.”
But he would not reveal details of any potential negotiations with Iran: “In a way, I don’t like telling you what I’m going to tell them. You know, it’s not nice.”
“I could tell what I have to tell them, and I hope they decide that they’re not going to do what they’re currently thinking of doing. And I think they’ll really be happy.”
“I’d tell them I’d make a deal.”
As for what he would offer Iran in return, he said, “I can’t say that because it’s too nasty. I won’t bomb them.”
„No words“ is an overused comment on social media I think, often lazily taking the place of analyzing an article or statement one objects to. Here, though, I really do find myself at something of a loss for words. Describing Trump as a dangerous buffoon, saying he sounds like a mobster threatening violence if the terms of the deal he offers are not accepted, has all been done. In 2025 these phrases sound trite. What does one say, though? What must it have been like to be Putin on the phone with Trump? I also see this Post interview on social media feeds which view Trump as a well-intentioned peacemaker.
From time to time I remember Noam Chomsky’s address at the 2022 National Solar Conference at the University of New Mexico, in which he detailed his major concerns for human civilization:
The primary concerns have been the growing threat of nuclear war and the failure to prevent lethal global heating.
In the last few years, a new concern has been added. The deterioration of the arena of rational discourse, which is all too apparent. Unless we can use our capacities for thought in an arena of rational discourse, there’s no hope of closing the dread gap in time to save ourselves.