Veteran journalist Bill O’Reilly said Monday that President Trump seeks to end the war in Ukraine partly to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
“I know exactly what Trump is aiming for. He would like to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,” O’Reilly said on NewsNation’s “On Balance.”
“That may or may not happen,” he added. “That’s not the most honest organization over in Norway, but he wants to get this thing settled.”
O’Reilly also defended Trump’s approach to bringing the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close, which has entered its third year.
The former Fox News host outlined what he believes are key elements of Trump’s strategy, including a mineral treaty with Ukraine and allowing Ukraine to join the European Union but not NATO.
“Once we get that deal in Ukraine, we put American structure into that country, which makes it much, much (more) difficult for Bad Vlad to drone it, to bomb it, because there’ll be Americans there,” O’Reilly said, using his nickname for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The commentator went on to criticize the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict.
“Under the Democratic Party, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, you had no chance to stop this war. None,” he told host Leland Vittert.
O’Reilly also characterized Putin as someone without moral constraints, comparing him to historical dictators.
“He’s like Hitler, he’s like Mao [Zedong], he’s like [Joseph] Stalin. You’ve got no leverage on him,” O’Reilly said, adding that Putin “doesn’t care if his people are freezing in Siberia.”
Earlier Monday, Trump met with French President Emmanuel Macron and expressed hope that the war could end within weeks.
Trump is reportedly working on an economic deal giving America access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky might sign during a potential visit to Washington.
Macron cautioned that any peace agreement must not amount to “a surrender of Ukraine” and must “allow for Ukrainian sovereignty.”
Putin said Monday that he has not discussed resolving the conflict in detail with Trump, contradicting some of the president’s public statements about their communications.
At the United Nations in New York, the U.S. voted against a resolution condemning Russia as the aggressor. This decision aligned the U.S. with Russia and 16 other countries, including North Korea and Syria, while opposing longtime allies such as France, Germany and Canada.
Trump, who in the last two weeks has blamed Ukraine for triggering a war against its invader and called Zelensky a dictator, said he would rather not explain the rationale behind the vote when asked about it in the Oval Office, saying it was “self-evident.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
