Sen. Lindsey Graham believes that while President Trump was not the one who started the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, he needs to be the one to negotiate an end to the conflicts.
During an interview with Politico at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday, Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, said the president “was probably right” that neither conflict would have happened under his watch.
But now that he’s back in the White House, it’s up to Mr. Trump to own “the outcome.”
“I agree with you. It would not have happened if you had been president, but it did happen,” Mr. Graham said. “You are going to be the main person to end this war, and it has to end in a fashion that will create stability.”
The lawmaker’s comments come after the president’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr. Trump said the phone conversation was “highly productive” and vowed that negotiations to end the three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine would begin immediately.
Mr. Graham, a staunch ally of the president and vocal supporter of Ukraine, said Mr. Trump is the best “person we could have in America” to get a deal that benefits the war-beleaguered country.
“If he offers what he thinks to be a reasonable deal to Putin, and Putin says no, Putin will be making a serious mistake,” Mr. Graham said.
He warned that the aftermath of Russia’s invasion into Crimea, and lack of consequences, should be front and center when thinking about a plan to deal with Mr. Putin after the war ends.
Mr. Graham listed three things “we didn’t do” after the 2014 conflict, including not integrating economically, not arming Ukraine and not explicitly telling Russia what would happen next, which led to the invasion in 2022 and urged that those same decisions can’t be made in the future.
He also pitched an automatic trigger to include Ukraine into NATO should Russia invade the country again. That would act as a “tripwire” against the Kremlin, the senator said.
“We better learn from 2014, he said. “If we do the same old thing, then we’re going to get the same outcome.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.