The son of Donald Trump has said the US president-elect can end the war in Ukraine in “one day” because “Putin respects him”.
Speaking to the PA news agency at the Trump International golf course in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, Eric Trump said he believes his father – who has said several times he could resolve the conflict in a day.
Asked how that could happen, Eric Trump replied: “Because Putin actually respects him.
“He’s not going to send 200 billion dollars over to see young boys blow each other’s heads off in dirty trenches, broadcast to the world on YouTube every night.
“He will end that conflict. You mark my words. He will end that conflict.”
Republican businessman and media personality Donald Trump, who was the 45th US president from 2017 to 2021, was re-elected earlier this month and will take office in January 2025 from Democrat Joe Biden.
Eric Trump said the conflict has done “no good” for Ukraine, Russia, Europe or the UK, and warned against missiles being launched into Russia.
He said: “I mean now all of a sudden, long-range missiles are being shot into Russia, the largest nuclear superpower. I don’t need to tell you how this could go wrong.
“My father has been very clear. He wants to see death and destruction stop. He wants to see the end of senseless wars that accomplish nothing.
Eric Trump during an interview with the PA news agency at Trump International Golf Links near Balmedie, Aberdeenshire (Jane Barlow/PA)
“He wants to take the money we’d otherwise spend on the other side of the globe, and spend it fixing our educational system, fixing our highways, fixing our roads, fixing our southern border, and otherwise improving society, not creating death and destruction.
“And I’m telling you, he will get that conflict solved. It would never have started under Donald Trump. It never started under Donald Trump, and there are millions and millions of people who are dead.”
He added: “There are cities where there’s not been a single building that’s still standing because every single one of them have been mortared and shelled and destroyed and toppled.
“The carnage has to stop and he’ll stop it.”