President Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday morning, in what will surely herald the fulfillment of the oft repeated Trump campaign promise to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office. It has only taken 119 days so far.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said before the call that Trump has “grown weary and frustrated” with the conflict. Afterward, Putin told reporters in Russia that the two-hour call was “very meaningful and quite frank,” and then repeated the same talking points about a theoretical cease-fire as he has had for quite some time now. The fear, of course, is that the day-one promise to end the hostilities will not yet actually come to fruition here on day 119, and may stretch into day 120, at the least.
Trump is scheduled to speak with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy later on Monday. At that point, surely, he will make more progress toward the promise made many times, such as in Waco, Texas, in 2023, when he said “I will have that settlement done within 24 hours.” In fact, even that single day was going to be more than necessary; at that same event in Waco, Trump said: “Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after I win the presidency, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine settled.” And again later, on a podcast: “I will have that war settled when I’m president-elect, meaning before I get to office on Jan. 20.”
This will come as good news in the wake of Monday’s call, which according to the New York Times “did not reveal any breakthroughs.” Trump, whose post-promise, post-inauguration attempts to bring peace to Ukraine have gone so well that outlets like CNN have made entire timelines demonstrating the ins and outs, will now try once more to end a conflict that has ramped up in recent weeks, with 30 percent more frontline assaults than in the period prior. For his part, the president said in a social media post that the call went well, and that Ukraine and Russia will “immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War,” a claim whose passing acquaintance with reality situates it nicely alongside the campaign promises.
As the day-one effort enters month five, we would all do well to remember, of course, that those promises were all a big joke. “It was said in jest,” Trump said on Day 95 of Day One. “The war has been raging for three years. I just got here, and you say, what’s taken so long?”
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