President Trump Likens Russia-Ukriane War To 'Two Young Children Fighting Like Crazy' In The Park

Forbes Breaking News

While meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office, President Trump discussed the Russia-Ukraine War.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, on the war.

00:01You've asked.

00:02You've had enough.

00:04Go ahead.

00:04Mr. President, so would you consider to put more sanctions on Russia?

00:09Because this discussion is going on now for weeks and months,

00:12and you tweeted about it once, but then nothing happened.

00:15Yeah, when I see the moment when we're not going to make a deal,

00:18when this thing won't stop, if that moment, yeah,

00:23it's in my brain, the deadline.

00:25And when I see the moment where it's not going to stop,

00:30and I'm sure you're going to do the same thing,

00:32we'll be very, very, very tough.

00:35And it could be on both countries, to be honest.

00:37You know, it takes two to tango.

00:39But we're going to be very tough, whether it's Russia or anybody else,

00:43we're going to be very tough.

00:44That's a bloodbath that's going on over there.

00:47And when I see the moment where I say,

00:51well, they're going to just keep fighting.

00:52You know, I gave the analogy yesterday when I spoke to President Putin.

00:56I had a two-hour and 15-minute call with him.

01:01Sometimes, and this is me speaking, maybe in a negative sense,

01:05but sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy.

01:09They hate each other, and they're fighting in a park.

01:13And you try and pull them apart.

01:14They don't want to be pulled.

01:15Sometimes you're better off letting them fight for a while,

01:18and then pulling them apart.

01:21And I gave that analogy to Putin yesterday.

01:25I said, President, maybe you're going to have to keep fighting

01:29and suffering a lot because both sides are suffering

01:32before you pull them apart, before they're able to be pulled apart.

01:35But it's a pretty known analogy.

01:38You have two kids.

01:39They fight, fight, fight.

01:41Sometimes you let them fight for a little while.

01:43You see it in hockey.

01:44You see it in sports.

01:45Sports, the referees, let them go for a couple of seconds.

01:48Let them go for a little while before you pull them apart.

01:52And maybe, maybe, and I said it, and maybe that's a negative

01:56because we're saying go.

01:57But a lot of bad blood.

02:01There's some bad blood between the two.

02:03I have to deal with it, and the chancellor has to deal with it.

02:06It's incredible.

02:06The level of, there's a great hatred between those two,

02:10between those two men, but between the warring parties.

02:14Great hatred.

02:15What's the question you say and believe apparently

02:18that there's no immediate peace?

02:20What?

02:20That there's no immediate peace.

02:21There will be no...

02:22Well, I can't.

02:23I'd love to have immediate if I could.

02:24But why?

02:25If I could.

02:25But we don't, we don't have immediate, you know?

02:27It's like, I'd love to have that.

02:30I'd like it to start.

02:32Right now, we would leave a room.

02:33If we knew the war could end, we'd say,

02:36forget about you guys.

02:37Forget about trade, right?

02:39Yeah.

02:39We'd say, let's go settle it.

02:40But there's some additional fighting that's going to go on.

02:46You know, he was, he attacked, and they attacked pretty harshly.

02:51They went deep into Russia.

02:54And he actually told me, I mean, I made it very clear.

02:57He said, we have no choice but to attack based on that.

03:01And it's probably not going to be pretty.

03:05I don't like it.

03:05I said, don't do it.

03:06You shouldn't do it.

03:07You should stop it.

03:08But, again, there's a lot of hatred.

03:12And, you know, I'm very proud of the fact that with India and Pakistan,

03:17I was able to stop that.

03:19And those are nuclear powers.

03:20And that would have really, that was getting close to being out of hand.

03:23And I spoke to some very talented people on both sides,

03:27very good people on both sides.

03:29And I said, you know, we're dealing with you on trade,

03:32Pakistan and India, right now.

03:34I said, we're not going to deal with you on trade

03:36if you're going to go shooting each other and whipping out nuclear weapons

03:40that maybe even affect us.

03:42Because, you know, that nuclear dust blows across oceans very quickly.

03:46It affects us.

03:48And I said, if you're going to do that, we're not going to do any trade deals.

03:51And you know what?

03:51I got that war stopped.

03:52Now, I hope we don't go back and we find out that they started,

03:56but I don't think they will.

03:58They were both good.

03:59They were well represented.

04:00I want to congratulate both countries.

04:03Because, as you know,

04:05the leader of India, who's a great guy,

04:09was here a few weeks ago.

04:11We had some great talks.

04:12We're doing a trade deal.

04:14And Pakistan, likewise.

04:16They have very, very strong leadership.

04:18Some people won't like when I say that,

04:20but, you know, it is what it is.

04:22And they stopped that war.

04:24Now, am I going to get credit?

04:25I'll never get credit for anything.

04:27They don't give me credit for anything.

04:29But nobody else could have done it.

04:31I stopped it.

04:32I was very proud of that.

04:34I wish we could do the same thing with Ukraine and Russia.

04:39And at some point, it'll happen.

04:41I believe that.

04:42And if it doesn't happen,

04:44or if I see somebody's out of line,

04:45if Russia's out of line,

04:47we'll be...

04:48You'll be amazed how tough.

04:51Remember this.

04:53They like to say that I'm friends with...

04:55I'm not friends with anybody.

04:57I'm friends with you.

04:58I'm not friends with...

04:59I want the right thing to happen for our country,

05:02for everybody, for humanity.

05:04But I'm the one that stopped the pipeline.

05:06It's called Nord Stream 2.

05:07Until I came along,

05:08nobody ever heard...

05:09Not one person in this room

05:10ever heard of Nord Stream 2.

05:12You probably did,

05:13because it went to Germany.

05:15He's the only one that heard.

05:15Knowing that this was a mistake.

05:17But I stopped him.

05:18I stopped it.

05:19Yeah, and you've said that openly.

05:20It was a mistake,

05:21because...

05:22And I used to go with Angela.

05:23I'd say,

05:24well, wait a minute.

05:25We're spending all this money

05:26to defend you against Russia,

05:28and then you're giving Russia

05:29billions of dollars a month.

05:31What kind of a deal is that?

05:32You know, which was...

05:34But you said it better than anybody else.

05:36I appreciate it.

05:37But I'm the one that stopped it.

05:40And that was the biggest economic development job,

05:42if you want to call it that,

05:43in the history...

05:44Think of it.

05:45In the history of Russia.

05:46That was a massive...

05:47It's the biggest pipeline in the world.

05:49Got to go all over Europe.

05:51Not only to Germany.

05:52You know, they're Germany,

05:52but then they were branching off

05:54all over to Europe.

05:55Nobody ever heard of...

05:56Not one person of you heard of it.

05:58And I stopped it.

05:59It was dead.

06:01And then they say,

06:02I'm friends with Putin.

06:03I got along with him.

06:05He respected me.

06:06I respected him.

06:07It would have never happened.

06:08But I stopped Nord Stream 2.

06:10When Biden came in,

06:11almost the first week,

06:13he approved it.

06:14He let it be built.

06:16And then they say that

06:17I wasn't tough on Russia.

06:19Putin said to me,

06:20you know,

06:21you're not tough on Russia.

06:22You stopped the biggest,

06:23most important job we've ever done.

06:25You stopped it.

06:26And Biden came in

06:27and he let it be built.

06:28And I'll tell you what,

06:30I'll never forget the day.

06:31I had it totally stopped.

06:33They weren't building.

06:34They gave up on it.

06:35They weren't able to.

06:36And then Biden came in

06:37and he let it build.

06:38I couldn't believe it.

06:39Okay, one or two questions more, please.

06:41Any questions?

06:42Any questions for the chancellor?

06:45Go ahead, for the chancellor.

06:48I like his answers much better.

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