In a Monday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump joked about cobbling together a war to avoid having to leave the Oval Office in 2029.
Trump was seated next to the Ukrainian leader when a reporter asked about future elections in the Eastern European country. Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 to a five-year term. Planned elections in 2024 were not held due to the country’s ongoing war with Russia. While Zelenskyy promised to hold elections once it was possible to do so, Trump pinged on the opportunity for a stateside delay.
“During the war you can’t have elections? So let me just see — three and a half years from me, if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections,” he said. “That’s good.”
Zelenskyy was at the White House as part of an ongoing push by Trump to reach a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly demanded that Ukraine cede the entirety of the Donbas region to Russia in exchange for an end to the hostilities. Russian troops control the majority of the region, but Zelenskyy has taken a hardline stance on any agreement that would require him to cede more land to Ukraine’s eastern neighbor.
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