Russian state TV guest says Donald Trump won’t have the power to stop war

Donald Trump “would not end this war in Ukraine” if he were successful in his bid for re-election as president, a Russian state TV guest has said.

The former president, who announced in November he would be seeking re-election in 2024, has said several times he believes he could resolve the ongoing conflict in Ukraine within hours, were he in office.

On Saturday, Trump told a crowd gathered in Salem, New Hampshire, that he could end the Ukraine war in just one day.

He said his “personality” had kept the U.S. “out of war” during his time in office, but “even now, I could solve that in 24 hours.”

“It’s so horrible what happened,” he added. “Those cities are demolished now.”

“IF PRESIDENT, I WOULD BE ABLE TO NEGOTIATE AN END TO THIS HORRIBLE AND RAPIDLY ESCALATING WAR WITHIN 24 HOURS,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account ahead of his appearance in New Hampshire. “SUCH A TRAGIC WASTE OF HUMAN LIFE!!!”

“FIRST COME THE TANKS, THEN COME THE NUKES,” he also posted on Truth Social. “Get this crazy war ended, NOW. So easy to do!”

The former president was referring to the Biden administration’s decision to send 31 Abrams main battle tanks to Ukraine.

Discussing the comments on Russian state TV, host Dmitry Kulikov introduced the topic of “our Donald Trump” to the assembled commentators, according to a translation by Russian Media Monitor, run by journalist Julia Davis.

Kulikov suggests the comments would not have a significant impact on military actions, but would “affect the political landscape.”

Responding to Kulikov, guest Karen Shakhnazarov said he believed “American presidential candidates will say anything, but once they become presidents, it’s a totally different story.”

Later in his answer, he said that “if Donald Trump were to become president again, I don’t think much would change.”

“He would not end this war, he would not stop the deliveries,” Shakhnazarov added, but “the rhetoric would be different—maybe it would be quite friendly, like, ‘We like the Russians, Putin’s a good guy.'”

Shakhnazarov said a “bourgeois oligarchy” was in control of U.S. domestic and global policy, meaning the president “does not have much importance, or maybe no importance whatsoever.”

Robert Collins, a political analyst and professor at Dillard University, previously told Newsweek that Trump “always claims he can easily solve any problem currently in existence.”

“Even though the records show that he had his own problems that he could not solve while in office,” he added.

Back in September 2022, a guest on Russian state TV called the former president “our beloved Trump, in whom we place all of our hope that he might sober up America.”

In the Russian Media Monitor clip shared by Davis, state TV anchor Olga Skabeeva can then be seen addressing the audience. In an apparent reference to Trump, she says “we need to support him,” after saying that, “as always, our candidate doesn’t let us down.”