Ohio Rep. Mike Turner struggled to answer when asked whether the president supported a side in the Russia-Ukraine War.
“Clearly, Trump is on the side of peace, and he’s trying to balance these two forces, which is very, very difficult to bring these two parties together,” he told host Jonathan Karl on ABC’s This Week Sunday after seconds of fumbling for words.
He added, “But in balancing it, we have to understand that Russia’s goal is to take from someone else something that’s theirs. And Ukraine has to have a sense of security assurances that Russia’s not coming back.”
Moments before, the congressman was firm that the U.S. needed to stand with Ukraine in defending its independence.
“Obviously, we need to be on the side of what they want, which is sovereignty. They’re on the side of democracy, liberty, and Russia’s on the side of authoritarianism and aggression,” he said.
Karl seemed less sold that Trump was “on the side of peace,” referencing Trump’s frequent victim-blaming of Ukraine for entering war with Russia.
“I mean, Ukraine didn’t start this war. They were invaded. So how does that affect his ability to try to broker a peace deal?” Karl asked.
Turner again stated that Russia was the aggressor, but his words became more riddle-like when answering for Trump’s behavior.
“Clearly, a war of aggression was started by Russia and has been started by Russia,” he said.
“And I think that in—that Trump’s sense of wanting peace is incredibly important, and I think it’s a noble goal, and I think we’re getting closer. I think that Zelensky’s coming with a plan that is workable and could get us there.”
Trump has flip-flopped from vowing to end the Russia-Ukraine war within 24 hours of the beginning of his second term to focusing on his friendship with Putin. So far, it seems that Putin might be getting the better end of the deal.
“He’s barely doing this one move at a time,” former Trump advisor John Bolton said of Trump’s relationship with Putin on The Daily Beast Podcast earlier this month.
“I think because he thinks Vladimir Putin is his friend and, in the context of Ukraine, he trusts Putin more than he trusts Zelensky, I think what you’re seeing is that Putin, going back to the first term, used his KGB training to figure out how to manipulate Trump. Other foreign leaders have figured it out, too.”
Just days after U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff publicly celebrated that Russia was “fully committed” to peace with Ukraine, Putin showed what he thought of Trump’s peace talks by bombing Kyiv on the morning of December 27.
Trump’s intentions in the ongoing peace talks might not solely be focused on ending the conflict. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that his envoys, Witkoff and Jared Kushner, were more interested in Russia’s “vast resources” and setting up profit-making schemes for when the war is over.
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