During an appearance on Monday’s broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) applauded President Donald Trump’s efforts ahead of his Alaska meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Graham argued Trump’s policies would prevent a third Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I think Europe has abdicated their responsibility,” FNC host Sean Hannity said. “Joe Biden was all too willing to fight a proxy war on behalf of Europe and pay for it. Trump is insisting that they buy the weapons from us. A very different philosophy. What happens? And how do we define success?”
Graham replied, “Well, I think what we want to do is make sure there’s no third invasion. That President Trump not only ends the war now, but he ends it forever. The word ‘don’t’ I would provide to President Trump. Don’t do what Biden and Obama did. Be clear to Putin. You’re not there to humiliate Russia. You’re there to end the war. There will be land swaps. Ukraine cannot evict every Russian soldier. And Russia is not going to take Kyiv. It’s time for this war to end honorably and justly. But what would a good deal look like? Keep helping the Ukrainian military. Sell weapons to Europe to help Ukraine. That’s good for our economy. And that’s a form of deterrence. President Trump negotiated a hundreds of billions of dollars deal over a trillion dollars of critical minerals to be mined in Ukraine. We get half of it.”
“Set up American business interests in Ukraine,” he continued. “That’s a form of deterrence. Have the Europeans guarantee Ukraine security and if Putin invades again, he’ll be fighting the Coalition of the Willing, just not Ukraine. And a guy like me can help, too. I will create pre-invasion sanctions that will crush Russia if there’s a third invasion. All of this together would prevent a third invasion. It would end the war honorably and justly. And China is watching. I can’t think of a better person on the planet to put in the room with Putin other than Trump. He has a relationship with President Putin, which is a good thing. But the reason Putin is in Alaska is because President Trump announced he was going to sell weapons to Europe to help Ukraine and that rattled Putin.”
“But he put a 50% tariff, President Trump did, on India for buying Russian oil. He went after the second-largest purchaser of Russian oil that keeps the war machine going in Russia, India, with a 50% tariff,” Graham added. “That’s why Putin’s going to Alaska. Peace through strength.”
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