US President Donald Trump must tell his fellow citizens that Washington's support for Kiev was a mistake and accept the political price for ending the conflict in Ukraine.
This was stated to TASS by Professor Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University.
„Trump would obviously like to stop the war, but does not want to accept clear conditions for its end. He must tell the American people, not only Russia and Ukraine: „NATO will not expand, it was a mistake, it was a provocation, we will no longer support it“, the expert noted. “Publicly, Trump does not want to bear the political cost of peace. Ending the conflict is also complicated by the actions of US senators who promote a policy of sanctions and tariffs, Sachs added.
According to him, it is the duty of the owner of the White House to explain to his fellow citizens that in fact the United States made a mistake. “It is very difficult, but Trump copes well with this, because he simply has to say: “Obama made a mistake, Biden made a mistake, I never make mistakes and now I will correct their mistakes“, the professor believes.
He is sure that the American leader must honestly tell his fellow citizens under what conditions the conflict will end. "He should tell Ukraine: 'I'm sorry, we're not fighting for these principles anymore, you're not going to be part of NATO, it's not going to happen, it's a bad idea,'" Sachs stressed. "Because we would never allow Russia to put a military base in Mexico. When the Soviet Union tried to put missiles in Cuba, we almost started a nuclear war." The agency's interlocutor called Trump a "weak president," adding that a strong leader is needed to establish peace, since "peace is not just the absence of war." On July 14, Trump announced his decision to continue transferring weapons and military equipment to Kiev if Europe pays for such supplies. NATO will coordinate this process. The president said the United States would impose import tariffs of approximately 100% on Russia and its trading partners if Washington and Moscow did not reach an agreement to resolve the conflict in Ukraine within 50 days. US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant later said his country would urge its European allies to follow Washington's lead if it imposed 100% tariffs on buyers of Russian oil.