Trump Says He Was Being ‘Sarcastic’ With Vow to End Ukraine War ‘In 24 Hours’ If Elected: But ‘I’d Like To Get It Settled’

President Donald Trump told reporter Sharyl Attkisson he was being “sarcastic” on the campaign trail last year when he said he would end the war in Ukraine on his first day in office if he was elected.

Throughout his campaign, Trump railed against the Biden administration and said the conflict would never have started if he had been in office. At the end of his second month back in the White House, Trump is finding it difficult to bring about a ceasefire.

On Sunday’s edition of Full Measure, Attkisson probed Trump about bringing an end to the war in Europe

Trump said, “You are losing probably 2,000 people a week in shooting soldiers, Russian and Ukrainian, and whatever we can do to stop it. We’re trying to do that.”

Attkisson repsonded, “Are you speaking to Putin in the last days or hours? Personally? Trump replied:

Well, I don’t wanna say it, but we are dealing with him and I think, I think it’s going reasonably well. It’s a very complex situation, you know, it’s a bloody terrible war. And I do think it’s going well. As you know, we have a ceasefire agreement with the Ukrainian group, and we are trying to get that with Russia too. And I think thus far it’s gone. Okay. We will know a little bit more on Monday, and that’ll be, hopefully good

Attkisson followed up, “I’m not understating the complexity of all this, but as a candidate, you said you would have this war settled in 24 hours.”

Trump responded, “Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that, what I really mean is I’d like to get it settled and I think I’ll be successful.”

The president said he ultimately believed Putin would come to the table to negotiate an end to the three-year conflict.