Elections, war, NATO, peace plan: Trump gave an interview in which he spoke a lot about Ukraine

U.S. President Donald Trump gave a lengthy interview to Politico journalist Dasha Burns, a significant part of which was devoted to Ukraine.

The head of the White House said it was time for Kyiv to hold elections.

“I think so. It’s been a long time. Things are not going very well. Yes, I think it’s time. I think now is the right time to hold elections. They are using the war not to hold elections, but I think the Ukrainian people should have that choice. And maybe Zelensky will win. I don’t know who will win. But they haven’t had elections for a long time. You know, they talk about democracy, but at some point it’s no longer democracy,” Trump said.

He also touched on the topic of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, where, according to him, the country has long not really been expected to join.

“It was always understood, long before Putin, that Ukraine would not join NATO. That was long before Putin, frankly. And now they are insisting. You know, when Zelensky first met with Putin, he said: ‘I want two things. I want to get Crimea back, and we will be a member of NATO.’ And he did not say it very nicely,” the American president said.

Trump also repeated that Zelensky “has still not read” the latest draft of the peace plan.

“He has to read the proposal. He hasn’t… In fact, he still hasn’t read it,” Trump noted.

He clarified that “this was as of yesterday.”

“Maybe he read it overnight. It would be great if he read it. You know, a lot of people are dying. So it would be great if he read it. His people were thrilled with the proposal. They really liked it. His people really liked this proposal. His aides, his top leadership liked it, but they said he still hadn’t read it. I think he should find the time to read it,” Trump added.

He noted that the war in Ukraine is “a big problem for Europe, and they are not handling it well.” In his view, this war could have escalated into a third world war.

“I think that now it probably will not happen,” the U.S. president said.

In addition, he expressed confidence that Zelensky will have to “get down to business” and “accept things as they are,” because Ukraine is losing the war.

“He will have to get down to business and start accepting things as they are. You know, when you’re losing — because he is losing. They lost an entire strip of coastline, a large strip of coastline. They lost a lot of land, and it is very good land that they have lost,” Trump stressed.

As for Zelensky personally, the American politician compared him to the founder of a traveling circus, Phineas Taylor Barnum.

“You know, he’s a great salesman. I call him Barnum. One of the greatest on Earth. He could sell any product at any time. He said: it doesn’t matter whether it works or not. He got crooked Joe Biden to give him 350 billion dollars. And look what it got him. About 25% of his country is gone,” Trump said.

The conversation with Burns also touched on the issue of mass immigration to Europe. In the view of the head of the White House, this is destroying that part of the world.

“NATO calls me daddy. I have something to say about that. You know, I raised [the NATO contribution as a share of] GDP from 2% to 5%. And they are paying, because when we transfer shipments to them, NATO pays for it, and I suppose they pass that money on to Ukraine. But Europe is being destroyed,” he said.

Trump believes that Europe has smart leaders, stupid ones, and “really stupid” ones, but overall Europe is “in many ways not doing its job.”

“And if everything continues this way, Europe will cease to be… in my view, many of these countries will cease to be viable. Their immigration policy is a disaster. It’s one of the best places in the world, and they are letting people just come in and… without vetting, without any approval,” the Republican lamented.