President Donald Trump said there is just a 25% chance his meeting on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin will be unsuccessful, striking an optimistic tone in a Thursday Fox News radio interview with host Brian Kilmeade. 

Trump said that because of the relationship between himself and Putin, he feels confident the Russian President will be more amenable to striking a peace deal in the country’s war with Ukraine. Trump reiterated his belief that the war “would have never started” if he had been president in February of 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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“Because of a certain relationship that he has with me running this country, he really, I believe now, he’s convinced he’s going to make a deal. He’s going to make a deal. I think he’s going to, and we’re going to find out. I’m going to know very quickly,” Trump said to Kilmeade.

Putin also gave encouraging words on Thursday regarding his outlook heading into the Alaska peace summit with Trump. 

Putin said he believes the Trump administration is making “quite energetic and sincere efforts to stop the fighting, end the crisis, and reach agreements of interest to all parties involved in this conflict.” He also said the two powers could discuss weapons control agreements in Friday’s summit.

Several Kremlin officials will be participating in Friday’s summit at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, including Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Presidential Aide and Former Ambassador to the United States Yuri Ushakov. Trump and Putin will also have a one-on-one meeting as part of the summit.

Trump compared Friday’s meeting with Putin as part of “a chess game,” he told Kilmeade Thursday. He noted that he sees this meeting as the first of two parts, the second being a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“It’s like a chess game, this meeting sets up the second meeting. But, there is a 25% chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting,” Trump said. 

Trump referenced this ideal dual-meeting dynamic on Wednesday during remarks at the Kennedy Center.

“If the first one goes okay, we’ll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky — and myself, if they’d like to have me there,” Trump said.

‘THERE WILL BE VERY SEVERE CONSEQUENCES,’ TRUMP TALKS TOUGH AHEAD OF SHOWDOWN WITH PUTIN

When Kilmeade asked Trump on Thursday if he would consider hitting Russia with sanctions if Friday’s meeting with Putin does not go well, Trump said he would. 

“They’re still losing thousands of soldiers a week, and we have to get that taken care of,” Trump said to Kilmeade.