EXCLUSIVE: Trump Lays ‘America First’ Plan For Helping Ukraine End War, Casts Doubt On Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting

THE OVAL OFFICE – President Donald Trump told the Daily Caller on Friday that a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting seems unlikely, and American jets may be needed to help Europe secure an end to the war.

The Daily Caller sat down with Trump for an hour-long interview in the Oval Office on Friday. He discussed his plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war with Daily Caller White House Correspondent Reagan Reese, saying that he is willing to help out with security guarantees, even if it involves American air support, to stop the war. Trump addressed concerns that continued U.S. involvement isn’t “America First” and cast doubt on a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting happening anytime soon.

The following is an unedited excerpt from the transcript of the interview:

DAILY CALLER WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT REAGAN REESE: I want to come back to Russia. Are you still considering with security guarantees, using U.S. soldiers… 

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: No

REESE: and planes in the air, I mean, in the air. 

TRUMP: Maybe we’ll do something. Look, I’d like to see something get solved. They’re not our soldiers, but there are, five to 7,000, mostly young people being killed every single week. If I could stop that and have a plane flying around the air every once in a while, it’s going to be mostly the Europeans, but we, we’d help them. They, you know, they sort of need it, and we’d help them if we could get something done.

REESE: Are you concerned at all – I know some of your base thinks that’s not our war –

TRUMP: It’s not our war –

REESE: …and they don’t want our Americans over there at all. Are you concerned about how that might square with the America First agenda?

TRUMP: So there are a lot of people that so agree. Look, we were spending hundreds of billions of dollars in that war. Now we sell equipment to NATO. I got them to go from two to five. Nobody thought that was, and pay. We sell equipment to NATO. We don’t sell it to Ukraine. We sell it to NATO. They pay for the equipment. We’re not spending any money in the war. That’s some difference, right there. So add that one up. And other than that, look, if I don’t think it can be settled without a security guarantee of some kind, and we’re not going to have boots on the ground or anything else. But if we can help Europe, and you know, they’ll, they’ll be out there.

TRUMP: They want to, they want to see it get settled, but if we can help them, I’d be willing to do that. We’re talking about a lot of lives. We’re not talking about something that I started. I inherited this war. And all I’m trying to do is put out the flame, you know. And I thought I had it done. I did it seven times with other, I did it with wars that were tougher than this in terms of nobody. So three of those wars are going on for more than 30 years, and I got them all done. This war is just, it’s been very difficult. It’s been a difficult war.

REESE: You mentioned, I believe in a Truth Social post, that there was a big thing that you and Putin didn’t agree on in Alaska. What was that big thing?

TRUMP: I don’t know. We got along. You saw it, we’ve had a good relationship over the years, very good, actually. That’s why I really thought we would have this done. I would have loved to have had it done. Maybe they have to fight a little longer. You know, just keep fighting. — stupidly, keep fighting.

REESE: Do you think a trilateral will still happen?

TRUMP: A tri would happen. A bi, I don’t know about, but a tri will happen. But, you know, sometimes people aren’t ready for it. I say, I use the analogy. I’ve used it a couple of times. You have a child, and there’s another child in the lot, in the playground, and they hate each other, and they start swinging, swinging and swinging, and you want them to stop, and they keep going. After a little while, they’re very happy to stop. Do you understand that? It’s almost that way. Sometimes they have to fight for a little bit before you can get them to stop. But this has been going on for a long time. A lot of people are dead.

The president ruled out American boots on the ground in Ukraine as a part of a security guarantee during an Aug. 19 interview with Fox News. Trump indicated openness at the time to using U.S. forces in the air as a part of a deal. (RELATED: Trump Pentagon Reportedly Blocking Ukraine From Firing Western Missiles Deep Into Russia)

Trump told reporters on Monday that “it takes two to tango” and that it would need to be up to Zelenskyy and Putin to set it up. The Russians have so far said they’re unwilling to have the bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy and have continued to strike Ukrainian civilian targets in recent weeks.