US President Donald Trump holds up paperwork during a press conference that he said listed some of the items DOGE has found to be improper government spending at his Mar-a-Lago resort on February 18, 2025

Donald Trump drew fierce blowback on Tuesday for — once again — falsely blaming Ukraine for its invasion by Russia.

“I think I have the power to end this war and I think it’s going very well,” the president told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, after tentative peace talks were held in Saudi Arabia between US and Russia officials.

Trump then mocked, though, Ukrainian complaints that its officials weren’t invited to the negotiating table.

“Today I heard, ‘Oh, oh, we weren’t invited,’” said Trump.

“Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should’ve ended it in three years,” he added. “You should have never started it, you could have made a deal.”

"You should have never started it" -- Trump to Ukraine, which very much did not start the war

Trump’s claim that Ukraine “should never have started” the conflict was quickly fact-checked on social media, where critics remembered how it was Russia — under orders of its President Vladimir Putin ― which invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Yale history professor

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