In a high-profile press briefing held in Washington, D.C., White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt strongly defended President Donald Trump’s foreign policy record, particularly his handling of Russia and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Leavitt framed Trump as the only U.S. president in the 21st century—whether Republican or Democrat—who successfully held Moscow in check and maintained peace in Europe.

She contrasted Trump’s tenure with those of his predecessors, noting that Russia invaded Georgia under George W. Bush in 2008, annexed Crimea during Barack Obama’s administration in 2014, and launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine under Joe Biden in 2022.

In her account, Trump’s presidency stood as the lone exception to this pattern of Russian expansionism. Leavitt argued that Moscow refrained from overt military aggression during Trump’s first term because of what she described as Russia’s respect for Trump’s “peace through strength” strategy, combining tough sanctions and military aid to Ukraine with cautious diplomatic engagement and a pragmatic working relationship with President Vladimir Putin.

The press secretary highlighted recent diplomatic breakthroughs that she attributed to Trump’s leadership in his second term, emphasising two back-to-back summits that unfolded within the past week. First, Trump hosted Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska—the Russian leader’s first visit to the United States since 2015—for bilateral discussions.

According to Leavitt, Putin publicly acknowledged Trump’s long-standing assertion that the Russia-Ukraine war would never have started had he been in office in 2022. Just 48 hours later, at the White House, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy along with several European leaders.

These follow-up talks, Leavitt reported, generated momentum that had been absent for more than three years of bloody conflict.

Illustrating the shift in tone, she quoted Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who asserted that more progress had been achieved in the past two weeks than in the previous three and a half years of war, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who declared that Trump was uniquely capable of breaking the diplomatic deadlock with Putin.

According to Leavitt, Trump’s efforts represent the clearest departure yet from what she characterised as the failed and costly approach of his predecessor, Joe Biden. She criticised Biden for enabling the continuation of the war through extensive U.S. taxpayer funding for Ukraine, framing his policy as one that prioritised an “endless, directionless” conflict over genuine movement toward peace.

In her narrative, it was Biden’s “weakness and incompetence” that allowed the war to begin and persist, while Trump’s decisive leadership has now opened what she described as a long-awaited opportunity for resolution.

Citing European support and Zelenskyy’s cooperation, Leavitt maintained that Trump’s brokerage is gaining legitimacy and recognition across the continent, distinguishing itself from the approach of past presidents who, in her words, “travelled halfway around the world to apologise for America” rather than standing firm in global leadership.

Looking ahead, Leavitt announced that negotiations would soon advance into a new phase, beginning with a direct meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelenskyy and potentially culminating in a three-way summit with President Trump as mediator. She confirmed that Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will serve as the American team responsible for coordinating the process.

She described this as a breakthrough moment in which world leaders are once again looking to Washington, particularly to Trump, to deliver diplomatic solutions. “President Trump is the peace president,” she asserted, stressing that his return to office has restored U.S. influence on the world stage, re-centred Washington as the undisputed leader of the free world, and created the first tangible pathway to resolving the war since the Russian invasion began in 2022.

Taken together, Leavitt’s remarks served both as a substantive update on Trump’s second-term diplomatic efforts and as a broader political narrative re-framing his foreign policy legacy.

By contrasting his tenure with those of Bush, Obama, and Biden, she portrayed Trump as uniquely effective in deterring Russian aggression and uniquely capable of bringing warring parties to the negotiation table today.

The message doubled as a reaffirmation of the administration’s central claim: that Trump’s return to power has transformed the course of one of the world’s deadliest conflicts and has re-established the U.S. as a force not just for strength, but for lasting peace.

Based On ANI Report