The New Republic Breaking News from Washington and beyond Most Recent Post Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling November 3, 2025 / 10:20 a.m. ET Share This Story
Trump Flails Trying to Distract From His Failure to Control Putin Donald Trump waved around pieces of paper touting his success rather than discuss Ukraine. Donald Trump waves while walking outside the White House Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images
Donald Trump is using an imaginary list of “wars” he’s solved to silence questions about his untenable relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The president refused to answer questions about why Putin was dragging his feet on ending Russia’s war on Ukraine during a sit-down interview with 60 Minutes Sunday. Instead, Trump pulled a propaganda-packed sheet of paper out of his jacket pocket to illustrate just how successful he thinks he’s been at solving international crises.
“So why won’t Putin end this war?” asked host Norah O’Donnell.
“But, Nora, that was Joe Biden’s war, not my war. I inherited that stupid war,” Trump responded, 11 months into his own presidency.
“But I brought just a little list of, look at this, wars,” Trump said.
“And you have branded yourself the peace president,” O’Donnell continued.
"Well I think I did pretty good, I solved eight of the nine wars I solved, you know how I solved them? I said, in many cases, in 60 percent, if you don’t stop fighting I’m putting tariffs on both of your countries and you’re not going to be able to do business in the United States,” Trump said.
“So why isn’t that working with Putin?” pressed O’Donnell.
“Uh, it is working with Putin, I think,” Trump said.
Trump has conceded quite a bit to the Russian dictator, to no avail. This summer, Trump literally rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska, marking Putin’s first return to U.S. soil in more than a decade. After the theatrics were over, the two world leaders still failed to reach a consensus on how to end the bloodshed, with Trump losing his cool while Putin demanded that Ukraine cede more territory to Russia.
He is 100% Putins puppet. And a pedophile.
“Failure to control Putin”?
Trump is controlled by Putin. What action has Trump ever taken that did any damage to Putin? It’s all been empty talk. When push comes to shove, Trump always takes the Russian side.
Cool list bro, do one from the Epstein files now
We’re gonna need a bigger paper…
Look at you with your little stack of papers listing all the wars you didn’t solve. Very low energy 🪫
Well I think I did pretty good, I solved eight of the nine wars I solved.
So he solved nine wars and out of those nine he solved eight…
… and out of those eight he solved ZERO.
Genius.
Does the puppet dream to control the puppeteer?
The fact that Trump won shows people don’t care about Ukraine.
Its all the Russian propaganda being used by conservative pundits. They convinced republican voters that Ukraine is the bad guy somehow…
I don’t think it’s that simple. I know young people who emigrated from Ukraine and still have family there that voted for Trump in 2024. I would wager that they care more than you or I do what happens in Ukraine. It didn’t stop them from voting for Trump.
He was gonna to stop the war in 24hrs, why wouldn’t they vote for him? Oh, the amount of stupid is beyond imagination…
Can’t fix stupid but if people from Ukraine don’t care, then imagine how little people care when they have absolutely no connection to Ukraine.
The result that Trump won shows centrists and lefties were told to care too much about Ukraine and Gaza, blame that on the current administration, and throw the election in the trash so they could elect the worst option of them all.
Fixed that for ya. Fun fact: it worked so well that people who allowed the worst option just keep doubling down on their bad decision so they can avoid feeling some involvement.