President Donald Trump said in an interview published Tuesday that it is time for Ukraine to hold a presidential election.
Trump’s remarks came during a conversation with Politico White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns at the White House on Monday.
“Is it time for Ukraine to hold an election, do you think?” Burns asked the president in a nearly 45-minute-long discussion.
“Yeah. I think so. It’s been a long time…hasn’t been doing particularly well. Yeah, I think it’s time. I think it’s an important time to hold an election,” Trump said. “They’re using war not to hold an election, but, I would think the Ukrainian people would–should have that choice.”
“And maybe Zelensky would win. I don’t know who would win, but they haven’t had an election in a long time. You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore,” he added.
Ukraine is under martial law amid the war with Russia, and per Ukrainian law, an election cannot be held unless martial law is lifted. Ukraine was due for an election in 2024.
A Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) poll published in October found that a whopping 75 percent of Ukrainians want to see Zelensky out of office after the war, as Breitbart News reported at the time:
KIIS analysts said the public is still generally supportive of Zelensky’s wartime leadership, and 60 percent of poll respondents said they trusted him. His high-water mark for public trust in the KIIS poll was 90 percent, achieved shortly after Russia invaded in February 2022. He was sitting at just 37 percent before the Russian invasion began.
While 41 percent of respondents believed Zelensky should remain engaged in politics after the war ends, only 25 percent would be willing to vote him back into office as president.
On the other hand, 36 percent of the respondents said Zelensky should leave politics entirely after the war, and 14 percent wanted him to face criminal prosecution for some of the actions he has taken as president. The poll did not go into detail about what offenses he should be prosecuted for.
When Burns asked if Zelensky was delaying an end to the war, Trump said the Ukrainian president needs to read the latest peace proposal, from Sunday night.
“Maybe he’s read it over the night. It would be nice if he would read it, you know. A lot of people are dying. So, it would be really good if he’d read it,” he said.
“His people loved the proposal. They really liked it. His lieutenants, his top people, they liked it, but they said he hasn’t read it yet. I think he should find time to read it,” Trump added.
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