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Trump mocked after revealing his plan to end Ukraine war: ‘Knock heads and get it done’

The former president made the vague comments in a radio interview

Sheila Flynn
Tuesday 28 February 2023 10:10 GMT
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Drone footage shows Bakhmut devastated by Russian forces

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Critics have mocked former President Donald Trump after he suggested that the solution to the war in Ukraine would be to “get people in a room” and “knock heads.”

Mr Trump made the comments on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion into Ukraine, in a radio conversation with host Glenn Beck.

“The saddest part about the war is that this is a war that should’ve never happened, right, okay?” the 45th president said. “So now it happened. Now you have to get people in a room. You have to knock heads and you have to get it done.

“That would mean saying things to Putin and saying things to Zelensky that they’re not gonna want to hear and getting them into a room and getting it done.”

Twitter users had a field day with the former president’s simplistic solution.

Attorney and activist Ron Filipkowski tweeted audio and quotes from the interview on Sunday morning, writing: “Trump finally reveals his secret plan to end the war.”

“The idea of Trump saying anything to Putin that Putin doesn’t want to hear is simply hilarious,” replied @BenMcCroryFBI. “As for what to say to Zelensky, I don’t think ‘hey, you got to stop defending your country and give Putin what he wants’ is going to cut it. Putin can end the war he started.”

“This is brilliant,” tweeted @didoment. “So nuanced and savvy. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this?”

Another wrote that “Donald Trump thinks you achieve peace by just locking people in a room until they figure it out.

“He thinks it’s like negotiating a real estate deal,” @russonpolitics tweeted Sunday. “Just like Republicans’ panacea for all economic woes are tax cuts for the rich. Unrealistic attempts at resolving major issues.”

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2019
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in 2019 (Reuters)

Mr Trump has been criticised in the past for his relationship with Mr Putin, most famously at a joint press conference in Helsinki in 2018 where the then-US president said he believed the word of his Russian counterpart over his own intelligence services in relation to Moscow’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.

He was impeached for the first time in 2019 after it emerged he had tried to coerce Mr Zelensky into announcing an investigation into the Bidens, apparently in the hope of smearing his likely opponent – and the eventual victor – Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

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