Get The Facts: Examining claims President Trump made about Ukraine-Russia war
95 IN 101 DELAY FREE. WE’RE GETTING THE FACTS ON A RECENT COMMENT BY PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP ABOUT THE WAR IN UKRAINE. WHILE ANSWERING REPORTERS QUESTIONS ABOUT U.S. AND RUSSIA REPRESENTATIVES MEETING IN SAUDI ARABIA WITHOUT ANYBODY FROM UKRAINE PRESENT. THE PRESIDENT SAID THIS, BUT TODAY I HEARD, OH, WELL, WE WEREN’T INVITED. WELL, YOU’VE BEEN THERE FOR THREE YEARS. YOU SHOULD HAVE ENDED IT THREE YEARS. YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER STARTED IT. YOU COULD HAVE MADE A DEAL. IN FACT, LOOKED INTO THIS CLAIM. LOU JACOBSON JOINING US LIVE NOW. SO, LOU, BEFORE WE GET INTO THE CLAIM ITSELF ABOUT, YOU KNOW, WHO MAY HAVE STARTED THIS CONFLICT, WHAT WAS THE INITIAL REACTION TO TRUMP’S CLAIM? YEAH, WELL, AS SOON AS I HEARD THIS, I. WAS. IN TO FACT CHECK. AND THE EDITORS AGREED COUNTER TO WHAT WE’D ALL SEEN WITH OUR OWN EYES. IN FEBRUARY 2022. AND AND IT GAINED TRACTION VERY QUICKLY ON SOCIAL MEDIA. EVEN TRUMP’S FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, MIKE PENCE, CALLED HIM OUT ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR SAYING THIS. AND ALSO A LOT OF OTHER REPUBLICANS DID. OKAY, SO TAKE US BACK FEBRUARY 2022. THE START OF THIS CONFLICT. WHAT ARE THE FACTS WHEN IT CAME TO WHO STARTED THIS? YEAH. SO BASICALLY, AS THE COUNTRY WAS SLEEPING IN UKRAINE, RUSSIAN TROOPS AND TANKS ROLLED IN AND MISSILES POURED DOWN AND WHAT WAS ESSENTIALLY THE BIGGEST MILITARY OPERATION IN EUROPE SINCE WORLD WAR TWO, THE ATTACK FOLLOWED WEEKS OF RUSSIAN MOVES, INCLUDING A LARGE SCALE MILITARY EXERCISE ALONG THE BORDER. NEWS COVERAGE AND VIDEO FOOTAGE IN REAL TIME SHOWED THE INVASION OF UKRAINE. VLADIMIR PUTIN, THE PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA, FORMALLY SAID ON TV HE ANNOUNCED IT AS A SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION ON FEBRUARY 24TH, 2022. I SO I KNOW POLITIFACT SOMETIMES RATES CLAIMS THAT THAT POLITICIANS HAVE MADE IN THIS INSTANCE WHEN IT COMES TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP SAYING THAT UKRAINE STARTED THE CONFLICT BETWEEN UKRAINE AND RUSSIA, WHAT IS THE RATING POLITIFACT GAVE? YEAH, WE GAVE IT A PANTS ON FIRE, WHICH IS OUR MOST NEGATIVE RATING. IT BASICALLY MEANS SOMETHING IS NOT ONLY FALSE, BUT IT’S ALSO BASICALLY RIDICULOUSLY FALSE AND RECKLESSLY SO. AND STAYING WITH THIS THREAT OF UKRAINE. BY THE PRESIDENT, THE PRESIDENT CALLING ZELINSKI A, QUOTE, DICTATOR WITHOUT AN ELECTION AND SAYING THAT HE’S VERY LOW IN UKRAINIAN POLLS, PILING ON MORE ATTACKS. AND SO ALL OF THIS KIND OF STARTED THIS WAR OF WORDS. I WANT TO QUICKLY TAKE EACH OF THESE. WHAT IS THE STATUS WHEN IT COMES TO UKRAINIAN ELECTIONS? YEAH. SO IN TERMS OF BEING A DICTATOR, UKRAINE IS NOT PERFECT, BUT THERE’S CERTAINLY A STRONGER CASE TO BE MADE THAT VLADIMIR PUTIN IS A DICTATOR THAN IS ZELENSKY. IT IS WORTH NOTING THAT ZELENSKY HAS NOT HAD TO FACE A VOTE DURING DURING THE WAR FROM THE PEOPLE, AND THAT’S BECAUSE THEIR CONSTITUTION SAYS YOU CAN’T DO ONE DURING WARTIME, THAT YOU BASICALLY HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE WAR IS OVER. SO THEY’RE ACTUALLY ABIDING BY THE CONSTITUTION INSTEAD OF BREAKING IT. AND THEN WE KNOW PRESIDENT TRUMP WATCHES POLLS CLOSELY. HE TALKS ABOUT THESE UKRAINIAN POLLS THAT HE CITED. HE CITED ZELENSKY SOMEWHERE IN THE LOW SINGLE DIGITS. DO WE ACTUALLY HAVE NUMBERS WHEN IT COMES TO UKRAINIAN POLLING AND WHERE ZELENSKY MIGHT STAND WITH THE POPULACE? YEAH. NOW, YOU KNOW, POLLING VOTERS IN A VERY RECENT DEMOCRACY DURING WARTIME IS NEVER GOING TO BE PERFECT. BUT THE MOST RECENT POLLS THAT THAT THAT THEY’VE TAKEN HAVE SHOWN THAT HE HAS ABOUT A 50% APPROVAL RATING, WHICH IS BETTER THAN LIKE A LOT OF USE OF RECENT U.S. PRESIDENTS HAVE HAD. ALL RIGHT. LUKE JACOBSO
Get The Facts: Examining claims President Trump made about Ukraine-Russia war
Updated: 5:11 PM EST Feb 21, 2025
WMUR is getting the facts on a recent comment from President Donald Trump and the war in Ukraine. While answering reporters’ questions about U.S. and Russian representatives meeting in Saudi Arabia without anyone from Ukraine present, the president said, “But today I heard, ‘Oh we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.” WMUR’s partners at PolitiFact looked into this statement. PolitiFact’s Lou Jacobson joins to examine the claims.
WMUR is getting the facts on a recent comment from President Donald Trump and the war in Ukraine.
While answering reporters’ questions about U.S. and Russian representatives meeting in Saudi Arabia without anyone from Ukraine present, the president said, “But today I heard, ‘Oh we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
WMUR’s partners at PolitiFact looked into this statement. PolitiFact’s Lou Jacobson joins to examine the claims.
