Appealing to President Donald Trump's desire for a lasting, positive American presidential legacy, a Ukrainian lawmaker said making peace in Ukraine "is his chance" to be considered the "greatest president in U.S. history."
But it will require full-throated appreciation for Ukraine against Russia, Ukrainian Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Oleksandr Merezhko told The Kyiv Independent on Sunday.
"He wants to be great, and he wants to be remembered in history as a great president, and for him, Ukraine is his chance," he said.
American presidential greatness has been measured by President John F. Kennedy's 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" and President Ronald Reagan's 1987 "tear down this wall" speeches as showing greatness on the world stage, he continued.
"And so for Trump, if he comes to Kyiv and says something like 'I’m Ukrainian' or 'We express solidarity with you, we are on your side, you’re fighting for the right cause,' he will go down in history as a person who might eclipse even Kennedy and Reagan," Merezhko said.
"I believe that Trump really can become the greatest president in the history of the United States — he could become iconic."
Trump has been applying pressure on both Ukraine and Russia to end their war and battle over territory, calling for peace to end "the deaths" of both sides that Trump has said repeatedly comes to the tune of 5,000 deaths a week.
"There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days," Trump rebuked of Putin in a Truth Social post Saturday as he flew back on Air Force One from Pope Francis' funeral and a brief meeting with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"It makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war, he's just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through banking or secondary sanctions?
"Too many people are dying!!!"
Clearly the one-on-one with Zelenskyy was an "important meeting" that moved Trump, according to Merezhko.
"If he uses this chance, he will become great," Merezhko said with the caveat: "If not, he will be remembered in a negative way."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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