Trump Could End the Ukraine War ‘Immediately,’ But It’s a Secret

Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

At a campaign stop in South Carolina last weekend, his first since announcing his 2024 presidential run, Donald Trump claimed we’re at the brink of another world war — and he alone can fix it. “The 2024 election is our one shot to save our country,” Trump said. “Through weakness and incompetence, Joe Biden has brought us to the brink of World War III. We’re at the brink of World War III, just in case anybody doesn’t know it. As president, I will bring back peace through strength.”

Pretty terrifying! But maybe this is one of those times when we’re supposed to take Trump seriously, but not literally. “World War III” is just a (horrifying) metaphor; he just means that if reelected, his generally chill demeanor and superior diplomatic skills would help reduce international tensions.

Or maybe we should take him literally. In an interview with Right Side Broadcasting Network’s Brian Glenn posted Thursday, Trump revealed that he knows how to end the war in Ukraine right now. But unfortunately, he’s not telling.

After explaining that poor Vladimir Putin was “sort of forced” into attacking Ukraine by Biden, Trump asserted that the war will be over, if you want it. “It can be negotiated, I think, within 24 hours,” he said.

So why is it still happening?

“It really has to be done from the office of the president,” Trump said. “And you have to get them both in a room and there are things you can say to each one of them, which I won’t reveal now, which will guarantee that this war will end immediately.”

Okay, sure: Trump can’t do this as an ex-president. As we learned amid the search for obscure statutes that could nail Trump administration officials, the Logan Act prohibits private U.S. citizens from undermining the foreign policy of a sitting U.S. president by contacting foreign nations directly. But if Trump really knows the secret to ending the war in Ukraine, couldn’t he try calling someone in the White House or maybe the State Department? There has to be some foreign official who’ll still take his call.

I get that Trump wants to be reelected, but I just don’t think he should keep this information secret until his inauguration in January 2025. As he noted, this is extremely urgent. “That war has to stop, and it has to stop now,” he said. “And it’s easy to do.”

To quote another Queens-born crusader for world peace, “When you can do the things that I can, but you don’t, and then the bad things happen? They happen because of you.” I know Trump’s more of a Superman guy, but he should think about it.