During a high-stakes press conference at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump dropped a bombshell—he believes Ukraine must hold a presidential election as part of any peace deal with Russia.
“We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law—essentially martial law in Ukraine,” Trump stated. He pointed out that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is suffering from plummeting approval ratings and that much of the country has been “blown to smithereens.”
Trump argued that the Ukrainian people should have a say in their leadership, questioning, “Wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say, like, you know, it’s been a long time since we’ve had an election?” He insisted that the push for elections wasn’t coming from Russia, but from him and “many other countries.”
The former president also took aim at Europe’s financial contributions, accusing European nations of failing to pull their weight. “They have to find out where is the money going to,” he said, referencing Zelensky’s own admission that he doesn’t know where half of the U.S. aid has gone. Trump made it clear: “We have to equalize with Europe.”
Expressing his deep frustration over the war’s toll, Trump emphasized his desire for peace. “I don’t want all these people killed anymore,” he declared, adding that he believes he has the power to end the war. In a swipe at the current administration, he criticized U.S. officials for failing to resolve the conflict sooner, saying, “You should have ended it three years ago. You should have never started it.”
