Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – Former US President Donald Trump expressed his appreciation for Saudi Arabia’s pivotal role in facilitating crucial peace talks aimed at resolving the ongoing war in Ukraine. Speaking at the FII PRIORITY Miami event on Wednesday, Trump commended Saudi Arabia for “doing a great job” in hosting discussions that brought senior US and Russian officials together in Riyadh, marking a significant step toward ending the nearly three-year conflict.
Trump emphasized his belief that the war would never have begun had he been in office, blaming the US’s involvement under President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership. “Ukraine talked the US into spending $350 billion on a war that could not be won, one that never had to start and never would have started if I was president,” Trump stated. He also pointed out that without US involvement, Ukraine would not have had the leverage to achieve a resolution.
The high-level meeting in Riyadh on Tuesday saw US and Russian officials beginning to lay the groundwork for peace talks. Notably, senior Saudi officials attended the discussions, but Ukrainian representatives were not involved. Trump noted that Zelenskyy could have attended the talks if he had chosen to.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio shared that the meeting participants agreed on three key goals: restoring embassy staffing in Washington and Moscow, setting up a high-level team to support peace talks, and exploring closer economic cooperation between the US and Russia.
Trump, who voiced optimism about a potential ceasefire in the near future, also discussed his broader goals of reducing government waste, boosting energy production, and refining his foreign policy approach.
Prominent dignitaries attending the event included Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Elon Musk, head of the new US federal entity DOGE aimed at reducing government waste, and Princess Reema bint Bandar, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the US.
