When President Donald Trump came into office, Secretary of State Marco Rubio counseled him not to believe Vladimir Putin. Now, according to Semafor,Trump realizes Rubio was right all along.
Semafor reported Wednesday that a top official to the White House said that Trump may not admit it, but he knows he was wrong.
“A lot of that has obviously turned out to be true,” the official said of Rubio’s doubts about Putin, Semafor said. “And the president has recognized that … ‘[Putin will] talk nicely to me on the phone, but then he’ll go bomb the shit out of Ukraine that very same night.’”
During his 2024 campaign, Trump promised Americans he would end the war between Ukraine and Russia, perhaps even before taking the oath of office.
“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, I will have the disastrous war between Russia and Ukraine settled. It will be settled quickly. Quickly. I will get the problem solved and I will get it solved in rapid order and it will take me no longer than one day. I know exactly what to say to each of them," Trump proclaimed in a March 4, 2023 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference.
The rhetoric continued as he repeated it again just a few weeks before the election.
“I had a lot of people from, very religious people, come up to me tonight, from Ukraine, and they’re asking me for help. So, so sad to see so many people have been killed in Ukraine, and we’re going to get it — we’re going to get it settled up if we win. As I’m president-elect, I’m going to get that done. I’m going to do it before we ever get there," Trump said at the Al Smith charity dinner in New York on October 17, 2024.
CNN captured 53 similar comments Trump made while running for office between Nov. 2022 and Nov. 2024.
Despite Trump realizing Rubio was right about Putin, the president pushed forward with a peace plan that would deliver on many elements Russia wanted, Reuters reported last month.
As of this week, Trump is still attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, alleging that he hadn't even read the peace plan proposal. On Tuesday, the pressure campaign continued as the U.S. tried to convince Zelenskyy to approve the proposal, Axios reported.
Zelenskyy is now slated to release his edits to the peace plan on Wednesday.
Rubio, Semafor explained, may have been right, but he must tread carefully.
"So, even as MAGA descends into an identity crisis, he’s managing to stay mostly on its good side," the report said.