Conservative commentator and a long-time friend of Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly, has revealed what the new President of the US makes of the Russo-Ukraine war.
In an interview with Trump’s former EU ambassador, Gordon Sondland, he noted that Trump doesn’t believe the current war to be a stalemate, adding that “you know, Russia’s winning.”
“Putin doesn’t care about how many Russians are dead. He does care about the ruble collapsing and the economy in shambles. He cares about that, but he doesn’t care about the dead. So, Trump has now got a more difficult problem with Putin than he would if a battle was a stalemate which it isn’t,” he said, adding: “And Trump knows that. He actually said this to me. You know, Russia’s winning. I know they’re winning, but you have to make it painful for them to win.”
He then proceeded to ask Sondland to comment on the “economic sanctions” with which Trump came out last week, asking him “How do you see this going down?”
Sondland emphasized that he thinks Putin will regret what he did.
“I actually think that Putin is going to regret what he did for the simple reason that if he winds up at Donald Trump’s pleasure by retaining any amount of Ukraine that he was able to take since the invasion, and I don’t know whether it’s going to be the case or not but let’s assume that it is, the payment he’s going to make for that is a structure that guarantees Ukraine ironclad security,” he noted.
When elaborating on what they could look like, he added that “if that’s short of joining NATO, it’ll be some kind of NATO compact, umbrella. But the deal will be very simply, ok, you get XYZ. You never get another inch. And if you take one more inch in the future, all bets are off, and we go toe-to-toe with the United States and NATO all in with Ukraine.”
Asked when the deal may happen, Sondland said that likely “very soon.”
“I think President Trump believes it’s his personal duty to stop the bloodshed,” he noted, with O’Reilly confirming that, dubbing it “one of his signature items” while adding that the Nobel Peace Prize nomination is one of the things that attracts US President.
The interview comes as the US continues its peace push, with Trump stating that discussions are going rather well.
