Articles

# SUNDAY SHOWS: President Trump’s Pursuit of Peace

The White House
August 17, 2025

This morning, Trump Administration officials were on the Sunday shows discussing President Donald J. Trump’s relentless pursuit of peace following his historic meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday and his forthcoming meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders tomorrow.

Here’s what you missed:

### Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Meet the Press

- “It was agreed to by all that the best way to end this conflict is through a full peace deal. There’s no doubt about that… What we’re aiming for here is not a ceasefire — what we ultimately are aiming for is an end to this war.” (Watch)
- “This is not our war. The United States is not in a war. Ukraine is in a war, and we’ve been supporting Ukraine. We happen to be in the role of the only country in the world with the only leader in the world that can actually bring Putin to a table to even discuss these things.” (Watch)
- “As much as people may not like it, as distasteful as people may find it, the only way to end this war is to get the Russians to agree — as well as the Ukrainians — but the Russians to agree to a peace deal.” (Watch)
- “The only way to reach a deal is for each side to get something and each side to give something — and that’s been very difficult. If it was easy, this wouldn’t have been going on for three and a half years… That’s why Zelensky is coming tomorrow… We are trying to find what can we get to that both sides can agree on.” (Watch)

### Secretary Rubio on This Week

- “Of course, concessions were asked — but what utility would there be of me going on a program and telling you we wagged our finger at Putin and told him you must do this and you must do that? It’s only going to make it harder and less likely that they’re going to agree to these things. As much as everyone would love it to be a live pay-per-view event, these discussions only work best when they are conducted privately in serious negotiations.” (Watch)
- “In order for us to get a peace agreement, Ukraine has to be a part of it. They have to be included; they have to be involved. That’s why the President called him on the phone immediately… That’s why President Zelensky will be traveling to Washington tomorrow.” (Watch)
- “You’re not going to end a war between Russia and Ukraine without dealing with Putin… The President is the only leader in the world that could get Putin to a meeting to talk about serious things.” (Watch)
- “Everyone, including the Ukrainians and all the countries in Europe, are begging the United States to be engaged, engage Putin, and try to get him to agree to a peace agreement.” (Watch)

### Secretary Rubio on Sunday Morning Futures

- “We never said there was going to be a deal coming out of the meeting because the Ukrainians are not there. This is a war between two countries; it’s not America… We made progress in narrowing down the issue set.” (Watch)
- “You can’t have a peace deal between two warring factions unless both sides agree to give up something and both sides agree that the other side gets something… Ultimately, where this should lead is to a meeting between the three leaders.” (Watch)
- “There’s only one leader in the world that has any chance of bringing these two sides together… that’s President Trump, and you forfeit that role the minute you put additional sanctions on.” (Watch)

### Secretary Rubio on Face the Nation

- “What the President deserves a lot of credit for is the amount of time and energy that his administration is placing on reaching a peace agreement for a war that’s not a war that started under him. It’s on the other side of the world… He has made it a priority of his administration to stop wars or prevent them.” (Watch)
- “In order for there to be a peace deal — this is just a fact, we may not like it, it may not be pleasant, it may be distasteful — but in order for there to be an end to the war, there are things that Russia wants that it cannot get and there are things that Ukraine wants that it’s not going to get. Both sides are going to have to give up something in order to get to the table.” (Watch)
- “This is such a stupid media narrative that they’re coming here tomorrow because Trump is going to bully Zelensky into a bad deal. We’ve been working with these people for weeks. They’re coming here tomorrow because they chose to come here tomorrow. We invited them to come.” (Watch)

### Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on State of the Union

- “We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing.” (Watch)
- “We began to see some moderation in the way [Russia is] thinking about getting to a final peace deal — and so we feel that that’s encouraging. We briefed the Europeans immediately after we were done with the Summit. First, we briefed President Zelensky directly… then we had the Europeans on the phone, and I think everybody agreed that we had made progress… For the first time, we are seeing accommodation certainly more than we saw in the last administration, and that’s encouraging. Now, we have to build on that.” (Watch)

### Special Envoy Witkoff on Fox News Sunday

- “The President, as a mediator, was looking for ways to solve the crisis. He understands that it is for the Ukrainians to decide how they might land swap, how they might make a deal with the Russians on different territories there, but that’s why Zelensky and the Europeans are coming to the White House on Monday to make those decisions.” (Watch)
- “We were on the phone with President Zelensky moments after the Alaska summit ended… Everybody recognized on that telephone call — and there were various European leaders — how much progress we had made in demonstrating that the Russian Federation was going to make significant accommodations well beyond we thought before that summit started. So, it was absolutely acknowledged as a win.” (Watch)

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