President-elect Trump said Thursday he’s working to set up a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“He wants to meet. And we’re setting it up,” Trump told Fox News’s Peter Doocy at Mar-a-Lago during a meeting with Republican governors.
Trump noted he’s had “a lot of communication” with Chinese President Xi Jinping and has spoken with numerous other world leaders. But he has yet to speak with Putin.
“But President Putin wants to meet. He’s said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Trump said of the war in Ukraine.
Trump has vowed to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, which began in early 2022 when Russian forces invaded their neighbor. He has said he would bring Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the negotiating table.
Trump has for years drawn criticism from Democrats over his relationship with Putin, with opponents accusing the president-elect of being too friendly and accommodating with the autocratic leader of Russia.
