US Should Never Have Gotten ‘Entangled’ In Ukraine ‘Death Trap’: Trump

President Trump following Monday’s phone calls with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said that the United States should have never intervened in Ukraine in the first place.

He blasted his predecessor Joe Biden for sinking boundless billions in arms and aid into Kiev’s coffers and yet it has only been a “death trap” and “real mess” which US decision-makers should have avoided altogether. “This is not my war. We got ourselves entangled in something we shouldn’t have been involved in, and we would have been a lot better off. It’s a real mess. It’s a death trap,” he said before reporters Monday afternoon.

“I do have a certain line, but I don’t want to say what that line is because I think it makes the negotiation even more difficult than it is,” Trump asserted. When pressed, he refrained from divulging what precisely that red line is in the press briefing.

Trump also addressed the ever-present potential for the US to get drawn in deeper, which is why he said this should be Europe’s mess and responsibility, and not the United States’.

“We don’t have boots on the ground, we wouldn’t have boots on the ground. But we do have a big stake. The financial amount that was put up is just crazy,” he added.

“Again, this was a European situation. It should have remained a European situation. But we got involved – much more than Europe did – because the past administration felt very strongly that we should,” he said. “We gave massive amounts, I think record-setting amounts, both weaponry and money.”

Watch a key segment of the Trump presser:

Reporter: “Do you have a red line of what would cause you to back away?”

Trump: “Yeah, in my head, but not something I’m going to announce…This isn’t our war…We got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in.” pic.twitter.com/tVCZcyfLhj

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) May 19, 2025

Meanwhile, in the wake of the Trump-Putin call, which lasted over two hours, the mainstream media has been slamming the US president as essentially giving Putin a free hand. President Trump had said it went “very well” and that he seems “an imminent end to the war”.

For example, below is The Washington Post’s perspective in a fresh Tuesday report:

A phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin shut down an effort to pressure Russia into an immediate ceasefire and instead opened the way for continued fighting while lengthy negotiations take place — much to the consternation of Ukraine and its European allies Tuesday.

Trump’s abandonment of new sanctions on Russian indicated that he may be stepping away from involvement in the talks, something that his team has been flagging for weeks. Trump said Monday that the conditions for a ceasefire could only be agreed by the warring parties “because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.”

European leaders say they had originally been planning with U.S. officials to levy new sanctions on Russia if it did not declare an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.

And yet the reality is that the sanctions themselves would certainly escalate the conflict and proxy war further, providing even less of an opportunity for a diplomatic off-ramp, and Trump knows this.

Trump had written just after the call: “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War.

Growing impatience on all sides, even among Trump supporters and conservatives, amid fears that the proxy war could just continue endlessly…

Trump continues to pose as a mediator while simultaneously supplying weapons and intelligence to Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Q8vzJr7Bbz

— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) May 20, 2025

He wrote on Truth Social, “The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of.

He then emphasized, “The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent. If it wasn’t, I would say so now, rather than later.”

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Fresh remarks from Rubio on Tuesday, defending the president’s talks with Putin…

Rubio pushes back against claims about the administration’s disengagement, says “I see some of those Foreign Ministers, including individuals from Ukraine, more than i see my own children.”