Trump Floats Giving Up on Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks if ‘Horrible People’ Make it Difficult: ‘We’re Going to Just Take a Pass’

President Donald Trump suggested that diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine brought about by the Russian invasion may end if one of the parties decides to make it difficult on Friday. It’s the first time the president has acknowledged the lack of progress on one of the more notable promises from his 2024 presidential campaign, in which he promised a nearly material end to the war within 24 hours of taking the oath of office.

Fox News went live to reporters asking questions of Trump during an Oval Office press availability featuring Dr. Mehmet Oz. The question about the Ukraine-Russia negotiations was could not be heard, but his answer was clear.

“Now, if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, you’re foolish, you are fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re gonna just take a pass,” Trump said. “But hopefully, we won’t have to do that. ” The full context of his answer:

We want to get it done. We’re talking about here, people dying. We’re taking about over there. People are dying also, like on average 2,500 young people soldiers. They’re not from America. They’re from anywhere else other than Ukraine and Russia. But we want to save these lives. So it’s 2,000 500 a week being killed in battle. It’s a vicious battle with the best equipment, the best everything, and it is brutal. 2,500 young people a week. Some of them not so young, actually. They’re getting older. They’re going older by the month. But 2, 500 a week, and we’re going to get it stopped, ideally. Now, if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, you’re foolish, you are fools, you’re horrible people, and we’re gonna just take a pass. But hopefully, we won’t have to do that. And Marco [Rubio] is right in saying it. Getting, we want to see it end. Think of it, every day, a lot of people are being killed as we talk about, you know, as they play games. So we’re not gonna take that, and we will see. I think we have a good chance of solving the problem, however.

He was then asked, “Are you prepared to walk away completely from these efforts and these talks?” to which Trump replied. “Well, I don’t want to say that, but we want to see it end. We want to it end, yeah.”

“Is Vladimir Putin stalling in your view, Mr. President?” he was then asked.

“I hope not. I’m going to let you know about that soon, if he is. But I hope he’s got a big force out there, a big force. It’s a war that should never have happened. It would have never happened if I were president,” answered Trump before repeating many of the same talking points about how this would never have happened if he were president.

“What do you need to see from both sides in order to keep negotiations going?” he was later asked “What do want to see Russia and Ukraine?”

“I have to see — my whole life has been one big negotiation and I know when people are playing us and I when they’re not and I have see an enthusiasm to want to end it and I think I see that enthusiasm,” Trump replied. “I think I see it from both sides.”

“Do you think Russia’s playing you here?” someone asked.

“No, nobody’s playing me. I’m trying to help,” he replied before giving a longer reply:

You know, this was Biden’s war. By the way, by me getting involved, you know, they’ll say, oh, it’s Trump. This is not Trump’s war, this is Biden’s. This is a war that should have never happened. Okay? Think of it. Those cities are crushed and crashed and all those beautiful steeples, the most beautiful in the world, actually considered the most beautiful in world, most of them are now smashed to smithereens, as they say, and lying on the ground in a million pieces. Those towns are crushed, the whole place. It’s so horrible. And millions of people are dead, far more than you think. That’s one thing you’re gonna get out of this war. You’re gonna find out that your estimates are far lower than, it’s far worse than people think. Nobody’s playing anybody. We are gonna see if we can get it done. I think we have a really good chance of getting it done and it’s coming to a head right now. If you do decide to move on and take a pass Mr. President, would you then continue to support Ukraine militarily? Well, I’m not going to say that because I think we’re going to get it done.

Trump’s comments echo those previously made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who recently said in Paris that the U.S.  was set to decide in a matter of days if bringing an end to a war in Ukraine is feasible, saying “If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on.”

Watch above via Fox News.