Trump Says Ukraine can Defeat Russia

Making a dramatic about face, President Donald Trump has blessed Ukraine’s intention to defeat Russia and return to its national domain temporarily occupied Ukrainian lands.

Trump on Tuesday, September 23, a day before President Volodymyr Zelensky is to address the 80^th UN General Assembly, argued Ukraine could win its war against Russia and regain the land it had lost and “maybe even go further than that,” suggesting the Russian army was a “paper tiger.”

Trump virtually gave Ukraine the go ahead to bomb Russia into the Stone Age and win the war that it started in February 2022. This expression of his courage and resolve in supporting Ukraine will certainly anger the Russian leadership.

“After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN (Trump’s capitals) all of Ukraine back in its original form,” Trump posted on Truth Social. 

“With time, patience, and the financial support of Europe and, in particular, NATO, the original Borders from where this War started, is very much an option,” he added. “Why not?”

The president’s social media post came on the heels of a meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations with Zelensky. The two leaders discussed the war in Ukraine, which has been raging since Russian forces invaded in February 2022, and efforts by the U.S. to hinder Moscow’s war machine.

In his Truth Social post, Trump said Russia had been “fighting aimlessly for three and a half years a War that should have taken a Real Military Power less than a week to win.” 

“This is not distinguishing Russia. In fact, it is very much making them look like ‘a paper tiger,’” Trump wrote.

The president suggested Russian citizens could stop supporting the war effort as they learn it is hurting the economy.

“Putin and Russia are in BIG Economic trouble, and this is the time for Ukraine to act,” Trump posted. “In any event, I wish both Countries well. We will continue to supply weapons to NATO for NATO to do what they want with them. Good luck to all!”

Earlier, Trump had hinted of change of heart about Russia’s war against Ukraine. In his address at the UNGA, Trump noted, “I’ve also been working relentlessly to stop the killing in Ukraine. I thought that would be one of the seven wars I stopped. I thought that would be the easiest because of my relationship with President Putin, which had always been a good one. I thought it was going to be the easiest one. But in war, you never know what’s going to happen. There are always lots of surprises, both good and bad.
“Everyone thought Russia would win this war in three days, but it didn’t work out that way. It was supposed to be just a quick little skirmish. It’s not making Russia look good—it’s making them look bad, no matter what happens from here on out. This was something that should have taken a matter of days, certainly less than a week. And they’ve been fighting for three and a half years, killing anywhere from 5,000 to 7,000 young soldiers, mostly on both sides, every single week, additional deaths in cities where rockets are shot and drones are dropped.

“This war would never have started if I were president. It shows what leadership—or bad leadership—can do to a country. Look at what happened to the United States and where we are right now in just a short period of time. The only question now is: how many more lives will be needlessly lost on both sides?”

Trump said he had thought it would be “the easiest” conflict to resolve because of his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, he said, the war had dragged on for three years, “killing five to seven thousand young people a week.”

Trump also accused North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries of hypocrisy for buying oil and gas from Moscow “when they are fighting Russia.”

His proposed solution is punitive tariffs: “If Russia does not end the war, the United States will impose very strict tariffs which would end the war very quickly, but the Europeans have to adopt them as well.”

Trump’s subsequent post marked the latest shift in rhetoric toward the war in Ukraine. Earlier this year, Trump had been adamant that Zelensky would need to be willing to make territorial concessions as part of a peace agreement after Russian forces advanced into Ukraine over the past three years.

Trump met last month with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which yielded no specific progress toward peace. He later hosted Zelensky and European leaders at the White House to discuss potential security guarantees for Ukraine moving forward.

The president has also in recent weeks urged European nations to stop purchasing Russian oil as a way to undercut Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Asked during his meeting with Zelensky on Tuesday whether he could trust Putin still, Trump told reporters he would let them know in “about a month.”

That would be October 23, 2025.