Trump gives Zelenskyy hard reality check after Harris sugarcoats Ukraine's chances in war against Russia: 'Fair deal'

Former President Donald Trump met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower on Friday, where the two leaders discussed the Russia-Ukraine war.

Before the meeting, Trump said he and Zelenskyy have a "very good relationship" and promised that if he wins the election, he would help negotiate an end to the war "very quickly." Trump has repeatedly stated on the campaign trail his belief the war would have "never happened" if he were still in the White House.

The meeting came one day after Zelenskyy met with Vice President Kamala Harris.

"I have been proud to stand with Ukraine. I will continue to stand with Ukraine. And I will work to ensure Ukraine prevails in this war," Harris said before the bilateral meeting.

Harris, moreover, argued the U.S. must continue to help Ukraine fight its war, despite the U.S. already having sent more than $100 billion of taxpayer money to Ukraine. It's not clear how that money has helped Ukraine either win the war or bring an end to the fighting. Harris suggested the only acceptable outcome to the war is an unconditional Ukrainian victory, but she did not say how exactly that might happen. She also criticized Trump — though not by name — claiming that peace proposals are, in her view, "proposals for surrender."

'We'll get it solved. It's a very complicated puzzle, very complicated puzzle, but we'll get it solved.'

The message that Trump shared after his meeting, however, was remarkably different.

Instead of speaking in vague platitudes, Trump said that he "learned a lot" in the meeting and stressed the need for a "fair deal" to end the war.

"I think I haven't changed from the standpoint that we both want to see it end and a fair deal made. It's gonna be fair. I think it will happen at the right time. I think it is going to happen," Trump said.

"I believe if we win, we're gonna have a very fair and actually rather rapid deal," he added, stressing that he believes both Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin want the war to end.

"So we want to have a fair deal for everyone," Trump said.

"This is a war that should have never happened. It should have never happened, and it wouldn't have happened. It's a shame," Trump reiterated. "We'll get it solved. It's a very complicated puzzle, very complicated puzzle, but we'll get it solved, and people [will] get on with their lives. Too many people dead."

Trump has not divulged his plans for ending the war. He believes that doing so would be a strategic blunder.

Zelenskyy's trip to the U.S. this week immediately generated controversy after the Defense Department flew the Ukrainian president on the taxpayer dime to a munitions factory in Pennsylvania.

Republicans have accused Zelenskyy of operating essentially as a Democratic Party campaign surrogate, and House Republicans have launched an investigation into the trip.

"The [House Oversight] Committee seeks to determine whether the Biden-Harris Administration attempted to use a foreign leader to benefit Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign and, if so, necessarily committed an abuse of power," said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).

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