US President Donald Trump seems desperate for a Nobel Peace Prize, as he has time and again claimed to have stopped several wars. However, his command doesn’t seem to have any impact when it comes to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Trump even admitted to thinking that this war would be the easiest to solve.
At a joint press conference with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, US President Trump admitted that he had miscalculated the difficulty of ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Once billed by him as the “easiest” conflict to solve, Trump now says Russian President Vladimir Putin has “let him down”.
Trump feels the Russian President let him down by refusing to engage meaningfully with Kyiv. Despite their summit in Alaska earlier this year, no breakthrough followed.
How does this tie into Trump’s peace ambitions?
For Trump, resolving global conflicts has become more than just foreign policy, it is tied to his long-standing yearning for a Nobel Peace Prize. Since before his presidency, he has publicly claimed he could halt the Ukraine war in “a single day.” The Chequers remarks reinforced his desperation to deliver a grand diplomatic victory that could bolster his legacy and international recognition.
During the press event, Trump insisted that if he had been president in 2022, Putin would never have invaded Ukraine, claiming that Moscow acted only because it “didn’t respect the leadership of the United States” at the time.
He highlighted that during his first term no such conflict broke out, painting himself as the missing variable in global peacekeeping, an argument the critics say is designed as much for the Nobel committee as for the voters back home.
What Trump said on Russia-Ukraine conflict?
“The one that I thought would be easiest would be because of my relationship with President Putin, but he’s let me down. He’s really let me down,” Trump said, noting that war is a different thing. “Things happen that are very opposite of what you thought. You thought you’re going to have an easy time or a hard time, and it turns out to be the reverse.”
The US President went on to state that Putin is “killing many people”, adding that he’s losing more people than he’s killing. He added, “I mean, frankly, the Russian soldiers are being killed at a higher rate than the Ukrainian soldiers, but, yeah, he’s let me down. I don’t like to see, it’s death.”
What about Gaza and other conflicts?
Trump lumped the Ukraine crisis into a broader list of conflicts he says he is working to resolve, including the ongoing Israel-Gaza war. “We will get Israel-Gaza done, likewise, Russia and Ukraine will also be done,” he said, projecting himself as the architect of multiple peace deals waiting to happen.
The repeated promises echo his earlier push for recognition after brokering the Abraham Accords, when he openly complained about not being awarded the Nobel.
What UK PM Starmer said on Russia’s war in Ukraine?
Starmer, however, struck a sharper tone on Russia. He accused Putin of revealing his “true face” with the largest assault since the invasion began, killing more civilians and violating NATO airspace. Britain’s focus, he said, was on building stronger defences and ramping up pressure on Moscow.
Meanwhile, Trump and Starmer unveiled a landmark tech investment deal, billed as the largest in British history, beyond the war talk. It spans artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and nuclear energy, promising billions in investment and thousands of jobs.