WASHINGTON — When former President Donald Trump says he can fix some incredibly complex problem in 24 hours or a few days – whether the Ukraine war or in prior years crime in Chicago — he’s just misleading you.
With Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropping his presidential bid days before New Hampshire voters hold their first-in-the nation primary Tuesday, we’ll soon know whether, in a one-on-one contest, Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, the ex-South Carolina governor, can beat Trump.
Trump, in his third run for the White House, is the frontrunner, heading into New Hampshire after an overwhelming Iowa win last week.
In his 2024 bid, Trump is using the same playbook that’s worked so well for him: say anything, whether it’s true or not.
Trump’s gift has been and remains that so many people believe him, no matter what, even when given evidence to the contrary. The videotape of people violently breaking into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Trump was trying to overturn the election is, in Trump’s telling, not what it seems.
When it comes to the Ukraine war, where the nation is defending itself against the Russian invasion, Trump for months now has been bragging that if he were president again, he could end the war in a day.
In May, in a CNN town hall, Trump said, “I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours.” Trump said that would happen after he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy rang the alarm bells over this in an interview that aired Friday on the U.K.’s Channel 4 News. He said Trump’s claim that he could end Ukraine’s war with Russia in a day was “very dangerous.”
If Trump can make the war end in 24 hours, he should do so, Zelenskyy said.
“Donald Trump, I invite you to Ukraine, to Kyiv. If you can stop the war during 24 hours, I think it will be enough to come,” Zelenskyy said.
But it’s not so easy. The Putin-friendly Trump seems to be content to let Putin keep the parts of Ukraine the Russians have captured. That would be ending the war on Putin’s terms — giving him the territory he stole — to which Zelenskyy would never agree.
Zelenskyy also said, “Because even if his idea [for ending the war] — that no one has heard yet — doesn’t work for us, for our people, he will do anything to implement his idea anyway. And this worries me a little.”
On the domestic front, when it comes to Chicago, Trump, during his four years as president never delivered on his claim that Chicago’s crime problems could be solved in a few days.
In October 2019, Trump was in Chicago for the first time as president, addressing the International Association of Chiefs of Police convention at McCormick Place. By then, Trump had made attacking crime in Chicago — a Democratic city – one of his go-to talking points.
I covered Trump’s speech in McCormick Place and wrote how Trump repeated, “with embellishment, an oft-told but never proven story, that he once met a Chicago police officer who told him how to solve crime in the city. ‘I’m sure we can find him,’ Trump said. The White House has never been able to produce the name of the officer and Trump did not request that he come forward.”
Trump offered one of the best versions of this made-up story on July 28, 2017, during a speech to law enforcement officials in Ronkonkoma, New York.
The cop in question, Trump said, was part of a “motorcycle brigade.”
The Chicago cop supposedly told Trump, “If you gave me the authority” Chicago’s crime problems could be taken care of “in a couple of days.”
Trump said he got the cop’s card. But — and it’s not been for lack of trying — the name of this mystery motorcycle cop with all the answers never surfaced.
Trump likes to brag about how easy it is to solve problems that if they were easy to solve — like crime in Chicago — they would be.
Ending the Ukraine war means it has to be on terms acceptable to Ukraine – not just Putin. No wonder Zelenskyy is scared about what happens if Trump returns to the White House.
