Trump expected Ukraine's defeat, but reality changed his view — Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that US President Donald Trump initially believed Ukraine would be defeated in its war against Russia, but later came to recognize that such predictions were unfounded.

Macron reflected on the evolution of Trump's views regarding the conflict, arguing that the US leader's early assessment shaped his push for a swift peace agreement, France TV reports.

According to Macron, Trump entered office convinced that Ukraine was destined to lose the war and therefore sought to secure a rapid settlement.

“Remember January–February 2025... He thought Ukraine would lose. Things went badly in the Oval Office during the meeting with Zelenskyy, and then... the summit between Trump and Putin (referring to Anchorage) raised hopes for a deal under which Ukraine would have been asked to cede territories that Russia had not even captured yet,” Macron said.

The French president noted that, later that August, he and other officials traveled to Washington to argue against such an approach.

“We traveled to Washington with a delegation,” Macron said, adding that they made clear that such a proposal was unacceptable and could not be implemented.

Over time, Macron argued, Trump came to understand that forecasts of Ukraine's imminent collapse had been inaccurate.

“Since then, an enormous distance has been covered. And that journey is, above all, a victory for the Ukrainians—their capability and their power of persuasion. President Trump saw that everything he had been told—that they would collapse, that they would not survive the winter—was untrue. He saw before him courageous, resourceful people whom he respects,” the French leader concluded.

By Vafa Guliyeva