Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said over the weekend that President Donald Trump was ready to start increasing pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to force him to end his war in Ukraine.
Mullin made the remarks during a Sunday interview with ABC News’ “This Week” with Jonathan Karl when asked about an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that said Trump was the one who “wants a deal more,” implying that he was not arguing from a position of strength.
“Is President Trump poised to actually really turn the screws on Putin?” Karl asked.
“Absolutely because Putin knows the one person that can truly change the war is the United States,” Mullin responded. “If we went all in for Ukraine, if we went all in with the resources we have, from air superiority to – to the weapons that we can deploy to Ukraine, Putin knows at that point he would be in an extremely negative position.”
“I think that being the opportunity for President Trump to talk to Putin and say, listen, we want to end the war,” he continued. “We don’t want to have to engage more. But we’re not going to allow you to move forward. So, let’s negotiate a peace deal here or you’re going to force our hand to be farther involved. That’s what peace through strength is. It’s negotiating peace, but using strength as a backup. If you make us do something, we will do it.”
“We did this in Syria when President Trump was in office in 2017,” he noted. “You saw that Putin went ahead and engaged with – with – with Syria. They used chemical weapons. And immediately what President Trump did is he bombed the airport and took over the air space that Russia was [in] control over, and he controlled the air space for the remainder of his presidency. So we had the ability to do it and Putin knows that.”
WATCH:
GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin says Pres. Trump has the capability to apply pressure to Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin to negotiate a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
“President Trump wrote ‘The Art of the Deal.’ He knows how to negotiate.” https://t.co/ITK275Hp4z pic.twitter.com/jgFSRIifVO
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) February 16, 2025