Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump has ended his lawsuit against Twitter over the platform’s decision to ban him following the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.

In a notice filed Friday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, legal teams for both sides requested that the court dismiss Trump’s pending appeal. The notice did not say whether Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter and rebranded it as X, had agreed to any terms to resolve the case.

In July 2021, Trump filed separate cases against Twitter, Facebook, and Google’s YouTube over similar measures they took to restrict his use of those sites. Twitter said at the time that Trump’s messages—including one in which he stated he would not be attending incoming President Joe Biden’s inauguration—were “highly likely” to inspire more violence.

Trump’s lawsuits centered on free speech violations. While private companies ordinarily have no legal obligation to honor free-speech rights, the suits alleged that Twitter and other platforms were essentially acting as agents of Democratic members of Congress who wanted him deplatformed.

“Legislators … made it increasingly clear that they wanted President Trump, and the views he espoused, to be banned from Defendants’ platform,” the complaint alleged, citing multiple statements from Democratic lawmakers urging Big Tech to take action against Trump.

The suits were initially filed in Florida but were later moved to federal court in California at the companies’ request. In May 2022, a San Francisco judge dismissed the case against Twitter and its former CEO Jack Dorsey, ruling that Twitter was not acting as a government agent when it suspended Trump. Trump appealed the decision to the Ninth Circuit.

All three platforms eventually dropped the bans. Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist who is now a core adviser to Trump, restored Trump’s account in November 2022, just days after Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race.

Attorneys for Twitter have argued that Trump’s case was moot since his account had been reinstated under Musk’s revised content moderation policies. However, the case lingered on, since at least two pro-Trump advocates who joined the lawsuit didn’t have their accounts restored.

Since winning reelection, Trump has secured favorable settlements with tech and media companies he accused of defaming or mistreating him.

In December 2024, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s future presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’s on-air claim that Trump had been found “liable for rape.” The settlement labeled ABC’s payment as a “charitable contribution” earmarked for the yet-to-be-built library.

In January, Meta agreed to pay $25 million to resolve Trump’s suit over his suspension from Facebook and Instagram. Approximately $22 million of that amount will go toward Trump’s presidential library, with the remainder covering legal fees and other plaintiffs.

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The share of homeowners with 6 percent or more mortgage rates is at its highest level in nearly a decade, according to real estate brokerage Redfin, which added that the “lock-in effect” in the housing market has started to ease.

The company said 17.2 percent of homeowners have a 6 percent or higher rate, which is the largest proportion since 2016.

“That’s up nearly five percentage points from 12.3 percent in the third quarter of 2023,”the company said in a Feb. 6 statement. “If this growth rate were to continue, which is feasible, the share of homeowners with a rate of at least 6 percent would nearly double in the next three years.”

Meanwhile, the share of homeowners with an interest rate less than 6 percent stands at 82.8 percent. As such, an even higher share of owners have a rate below the Jan. 30 weekly average rate of 6.95 percent, said the report.

This is “prompting many to stay put instead of selling and buying another home at a higher rate.” The phenomenon, called the “lock-in effect,” dries up housing supply, thus supporting price growth and contributing to the affordability crisis.

However, the lock-in effect is showing signs of easing as “it’s not realistic to stay put forever” for most individuals,” Redfin stated. Many people are opting to move despite the higher rates because of major life events like a divorce or job change that leave them with no choice, Redfin said, citing its agents.

“Many Americans are growing accustomed to the idea that rates are unlikely to fall to pandemic lows anytime soon,” the Redfin report stated.

Rates hit a record low of 2.65 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic, the brokerage said. The average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has remained above the 6 percent level for more than two years, according to data from Freddie Mac.

Moreover, the “pandemic surge in home values means many homeowners have enough equity to justify selling and taking on a higher rate—especially if they’re downsizing or moving somewhere more affordable,” said the report.

Data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis shows that the average sales price of houses sold in the United States in Q1, 2020, was $383,000. This has jumped more than 33 percent to $510,300 as of Q4, 2024.

Growing Rental Market

Mortgage applications to buy homes have declined amid high rates. According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), while overall mortgage applications rose 2.2 percent for the week ending Jan. 31 compared to a week back, the jump was driven by a 12 percent increase in refinances.

“Purchase activity had a tougher week, with declines across all loan types,” said MBA Deputy Chief Economist Joel Kan. “The average loan size for a purchase loan has increased since the start of the year.”

Sam Khater, chief economist at Freddie Mac, said that mortgage rates have remained stable over the last month, with data suggesting the economy to be on a “firm footing.”

Mortgage purchase applications over the last two weeks are “modestly above what we saw a year ago,” he said. This suggests there is “some latent demand in the market.”

With buying a house becoming increasingly costly, the build-to-rent market is growing nationwide, according to a recent report by real estate listing portal Point2Homes. Build-to-rent properties are built specifically for renting out.

There are currently 110,727 new single-family build-to-rent homes under construction in the United States across 613 communities, according to the report.

State-wise, Texas had the highest number of build-to-rent homes under development, with 21,812 homes at various stages of construction. It was followed by Arizona and Florida with nearly 14,000 properties, and North Carolina with more than 12,000 units.

Doug Ressler, manager of business intelligence at Yardi Matrix, a sister company of Point 2Homes, said renting a build-to-rent home is cheaper on average than buying a starter home.

“Recent reports indicate that renting can save one around $1,000 per month compared to buying. This is largely due to high mortgage rates and elevated home prices,” Ressler said.

“More and more build-to-rent (BTR) residents consider themselves renters by preference compared to 2023 (36 percent in 2024 vs. 27 percent in 2023).”

Two Chinese nationals living in Los Angeles were recently arrested for allegedly running a scheme to smuggle counterfeit goods from China through Southern California ports, according to the US Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California.

Zhongliang Wang, 39, and Chenyu Zhao, 31, both of Hacienda Heights, were taken into custody last week over an alleged “cargo-swapping scheme” operating out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach – by which they are accused of taking cargo ship containers selected for inspection by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), breaking the security seals, removing the contraband, and then stuffing the containers with junk cargo before replacing the broken seals with counterfeit ones.

Wang and Zhao’s co-conspirators would then transport the containers to a CBP-authorized location for inspection, according to prosecutors. The co-conspirators were allegedly paid much higher than normal trucking fees – $15,000 for each cargo container diverted from inspection in November and December 2024.

As the Epoch Times notes further, a photo in the complaint showed a fake luxury handbag bearing the brand name Christian Dior, while another photo showed several boxes with the word Prada.

Wang and Zhao allegedly began their scheme in July 2023, according to the complaint.

“Protecting our nation’s borders from illegal smuggling is a top priority,” U.S. Attorney Joseph McNally said in a statement. “These arrests highlight the unrelenting efforts of law enforcement to dismantle criminal networks that seek to exploit our trade system and endanger American businesses and consumers.”

Zhao, a Chinese citizen and lawful permanent U.S. resident, was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 30, just before he returned to China on a one-way flight, prosecutors said.

According to the complaint, Zhao told law enforcement officials at the airport that he was aware of media coverage that some individuals had been charged with similar smuggling activities via the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

On Jan. 27, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California announced charges against nine individuals, including executives of logistic companies, warehouse owners, and truck drivers, after prosecutors seized $130 million in contraband. Eight were arrested while one was a fugitive at the time of the announcement.

As of Feb. 6, prosecutors said local law enforcement officials had seized more than $1.3 billion of contraband in connection with cargo-swapping schemes, including in Wang and Zhao’s case.

Wang and Zhao have been charged with conspiracy and illegally removing goods from customs custody. They face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each conspiracy count and up to 10 years of imprisonment for each count of breaking customs security seals.

In fiscal year 2024, CBP seized more than 32 million counterfeit items, which would have been worth more than $5.4 billion if they had been genuine, according to a report.

The report also found that counterfeit goods from China and Hong Kong accounted for about 90 percent of the total quantity seized.

The top five commodities seized in fiscal year 2024 were pharmaceuticals, sunglasses, consumer electronics, perfumes, and personal care items, according to the report.

On Feb. 6, the CBP officials in Louisville, Kentucky, announced that it had seized 28 shipments in January, most of which came from either China or Hong Kong. The shipment contained fake designer watches, bracelets, rings, necklaces, and earrings, all of which would have a combined manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $27.5 million if the items were genuine.

It’s not known if Wang and Zhao have attorneys.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and flax seeds, may slow down the body’s aging process, according to a new study.

Last week, a team of researchers, including some from Harvard University in the United States and Switzerland’s University of Zurich, analyzed 777 Swiss people over the age of 70 to determine whether omega-3 or other supplements can reduce aging. Their findings were published on Feb. 3 in the journal Nature Aging.

One of the tests conducted by the researchers showed that combining omega-3 supplementation with vitamin D and exercise was found to work better in slowing down aging in older adults, according to the paper.

At the same time, their study found that vitamin D, exercise, and omega-3 had the largest impact on lowering the risk of cancer and premature frailty over a three-year period.

But they noted that in particular, researchers “found that taking omega-3 fatty acids slowed down biological aging across several epigenetic clocks by up to four months—regardless of subjects’ gender, age or body mass index,” according to a statement by the University of Zurich.

To purchase high-potency Omega3 fish oil with 5:1 ratio of DHA to EPA for brain, eye, and heart health, click here.

During the study, which tested eight separate groups for treatments over a three-year period, the participants consumed some 2,000 IUs of vitamin D each day and/or took one gram of omega-3 per day and/or participated in a home exercise program for 30 minutes three times per week, according to the statement.

“Our trial indicates a small protective effect of omega-3 treatment on slowing biological aging over 3 years across several clocks, with an additive protective effect of omega-3, vitamin D, and exercise based on PhenoAge,” the authors said, referring to a measure of biological aging they used.

“This result extends our previous findings from the DO-HEALTH study, in which these three factors combined had the greatest impact on reducing the risk of cancer and preventing premature frailty over a three-year period, to slowing down the biological aging process,” said University of Zurich professor of geriatrics and geriatric medicine Heike Bischoff-Ferrari, who led the research team, according to the statement.

Foods with high amounts of omega-3 acids include fatty fish and other seafood such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, herring, and sardines, as well as seeds and nuts such as chia seeds, walnuts, and flax seeds, officials say. Fish oil supplements are also a source of omega-3 fatty acids.

They differ from omega-6 fatty acids, which are found in soybeans, corn, sunflower and safflower oils, some nuts and seeds, and animal products.

Last year, a study released by the University of Georgia’s College of Public Health and Cornell University found that a higher omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is associated with a higher risk of developing cancer or cardiovascular disease.

“Participants with the highest ratios of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids were 26% more likely to die of any cause, 14% more likely to die of cancer, and 31% more likely to die of heart disease than individuals with the lowest ratios,” that study said, although it noted that people with high levels of both omega-6 and omega-3 “were both associated with a lower risk of dying.”

In rare words assessing the state of the Russia-Ukraine war, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has blamed the United States for exacerbating and prolonging the death and destruction with an aim of inflicting strategic defeat on Russia.

He made the remarks on the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the Korean People’s Army, telling the gathering of his generals and top officers that US is blinded “by the wild ambition for establishing unipolar hegemony.“

Starting last year North Korea injected troops into the conflict, based on a defense agreement with Moscow the summer prior, but reports are that the some 10,000 DPRK troops sent have been confined to assisting the defense of Russian territory in Kursk region.

Ukraine has recently said the North Koreans withdrew from the frontlines in Kursk, but now they are back, after taking possibly hundreds of casualties.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) cites of Kim that “He expressed serious concern over the reckless behavior of the US and Western group intentionally fostering the prolonged war for the unrealizable dream to deal a strategic setback to Russia.”

Kim stressed that Pyongyang has fiercely opposed “any act of denying international justice and disturbing global peace and security.”

He said that North Korea “will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity in keeping with the spirit of the treaty on the comprehensive strategic partnership between the DPRK and Russia.”

Kim added that he expects that 2025 will see the Ukrainian conflict remain one of the two “main axis of the tense international situation” – identifying Gaza and also (now post-Assad) Syria “which have been the scene of global geopolitical conflicts and confrontation last year.”

The North Korean leader said Washington’s actions “are further increasing the danger of the outbreak of a new world war with a serious impact not only on international peace and security but also all other spheres of human activities.”

The debris from North Korean, Iranian, and Russian missiles has revealed a startling fact: They are filled with newly produced Western electronics. https://t.co/A2TL0KvThI pic.twitter.com/ACFiMtrH0N

— Foreign Policy (@ForeignPolicy) February 5, 2025

Ukraine’s President Zelensky has recently said that there is a global ‘axis’ conspiring against his country – which includes Iran and North Korea fighting alongside Russia. The Iranians have chiefly supplied suicide drones, and according to some reports, short and mid-range missiles for use against Ukrainian cities.

By Thomas Brooke of RMX News

A decision by the Federal Employment Agency to mandate higher wages for two refugees than for their German colleagues has sparked outrage and debate over fairness in Germany’s labor market.

Schwäbische Zeitung reported on Monday how logistics company SV Druck GmbH sought to employ two refugees as shipping assistants at one of its warehouses in Weingarten last month. The company offered the prospective employees the statutory minimum wage of €12.82.

They were expected to start work on Feb. 1 but the process hit a bureaucratic roadblock when the Office for Migration and Integration refused to authorize the employment citing an objection from the Federal Employment Agency.

In Germany, employment contracts for refugees must be signed off by the relevant authorities.

According to a letter issued on Jan.20, the employment was not approved because the proposed wage was deemed too low. The agency ruled that refugees must be paid at least €14.00 per hour, as this was determined to be the “customary wage” for similar roles.

However, the company already employs numerous German citizens in the same role at the legal minimum wage of €12.82. The company’s HR department explained that approving a higher wage for refugees while German employees earned less for carrying out identical tasks would be discriminatory, but its protests were ignored.

SV Druck GmbH ultimately decided to cancel the employment contracts of the two refugees to avoid internal conflicts among staff.

“If the refugees were paid more, our German employees would justifiably demand the same increase,” the company explained.

When questioned about the higher wage requirement, Federal Employment Agency spokesperson Eva Schmid said, “The general statutory minimum wage is only applicable when no customary remuneration can be determined. For the position of ‘shipping assistant,’ the customary wage is set at €14.00 per hour.”

She cited wage statistics that list shipping assistants as earning between €15.98 and €16.52 per hour based on reference professions such as warehouse assistants or print shop helpers.

The regulation calls into question the extent to which federal bodies should be interfering with the free market economy and stipulating levels of remuneration exceeding the statutory limit for private companies.

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

Republicans in the U.S. Senate proposed a new constitutional amendment on Feb. 7 that would prevent federal lawmakers from increasing the number of justices—currently set at nine—on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The new joint congressional resolution, the Keep Nine Amendment, was introduced after Democrats in the previous Congress proposed a series of measures to boost the number of justices and enforce ethics standards at the nation’s highest court. Republicans at the time criticized the legislation.

Congressional Democrats have been demanding ethics reforms in recent years as reports of justices not publicly disclosing gifts have surfaced. They have also grown increasingly incensed by Supreme Court rulings they disagree with on issues such as abortion, gun rights, affirmative action, environmental policy, and the power of the administrative state. Republicans have countered that efforts to regulate the court are unconstitutional and motivated by partisan animus.

The current limit of nine justices was established by the federal Judiciary Act of 1869. The number has not changed since then. Supreme Court justices are nominated by the sitting president and confirmation requires a simple majority vote by the Senate.

Amending the U.S. Constitution is difficult. Article V of the Constitution provides that an amendment can move forward only if it is approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by two-thirds of states participating in a special constitutional convention. It must then be ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the states to become part of the Constitution.

The resolution states that the amendment would become effective if it is ratified “within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification.”

The Democrats’ “court-packing scheme would erase the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and destroy historic precedent,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

“The Court is a co-equal branch of government, and our Keep Nine Amendment will ensure that it remains independent from political pressure.”

Co-sponsor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), said the amendment is needed to check Democrats’ “efforts to undermine the integrity of the Court.”

He said lawmakers on the other side of the aisle want “to use the Court to advance policy goals they can’t accomplish electorally.”

Among other co-sponsors of the amendment are Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).

Several bills have been introduced in Congress in recent years to expand the court beyond nine justices.

In September 2024, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) unveiled legislation to add six justices to the Supreme Court, raising the total number of members to 15.

“The Supreme Court is in crisis and bold solutions are necessary to restore the public trust,” Wyden said.

In May 2023, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced legislation to raise the cap on justices to 13.

“Our most fundamentally held freedoms are under attack from an illegitimate, far-right United States Supreme Court,” Markey said. “And if we fail to act, it will only get worse.”

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to the Democrat minority on the Senate Judiciary Committee. No reply was received by publication time.

Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Commentary

I’d like to talk a day about an irony. Maybe it’s something that’s a paradox. Have you noticed that there’s certain people who are coming out of the woodwork who are diehard Trump opponents and suddenly they say, sorta, “I like Donald Trump,” or they don’t say it publicly or they don’t write it emphatically?

And here’s what I mean. He went to Davos and I thought, “Wow, they’re going to destroy Don.” I don’t mean destroy him effectively, but they’re going to try to destroy him. And then the questions and answers were amazing. He outlined tax reform, transparency, low interest rates, targeted tariffs, more energy development, more fossil fuels, closed borders. I thought, “Wow, that is going to drive the Davos people crazy.”

And then the questions were, “Are you sure you can send us a liquid, not natural gas? We need it in Europe,” or there were, “This sounds great, but when will it start?” And you start to think, these are capitalists and they want Europe to be turned to its former grandeur. And all of a sudden, this man is saying something that is exactly opposite of the socialism that destroyed their countries and which they bought into. And now they don’t have to do it. And they’re secretly, but more openly even admiring Donald Trump.

Same phenomenon happened when I was on campus, not long on the Stanford campus, a professor whom I know came up to me, and I would say that he is a moderately anti-Trumper, never Trumper maybe, and he whispered, said, “Wow, the end of DEI is actually not that bad, is it?” And what he was saying is, “There’s no more racial quotas and maybe I wanted to be a dean.” I’m saying, I’m extrapolating what he was saying. “Maybe I want to be a dean or maybe I want to get published at University Press and there’s not going to be any racial quotas anymore or discrimination and I’m for that because the DEI is a monstrosity. There won’t be any czar that calls me up and says your syllabus doesn’t have enough DEI material in it, or I’ve looked at your grading pattern and you’re inordinately giving Cs to people of color. No more commissars.”

So even they are, you know, happy that Donald Trump is doing this. And then we get into the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and people are really angry at Donald Trump because in this tragedy of the airline accident, Donald Trump actually said things that were quite blunt. He said that DEI was maybe at fault, and we now know that the, and I don’t want to get into a critique yet of the crash, but it seems like the helicopter was too low, and there was culpability, which seems like one of the air traffic controllers was not there. It seems like somebody left early. It seems like there was a mistake on giving directions about the proper elevations.

But we do know this, and Donald Trump brought it up, and that was that the FAA consistently under Joe Biden had racial quotas and they abolish programs and universities that encourage people who had either expertise through the curriculum or prior military experience who would do well on meritocratic exams to try to join the FAA and they were rejected because of their race. That is a fact and in fact, there has been several lawsuits challenging the FAA and the first nomination to the FAA, of course, the candidate that Biden picked didn’t even know the fundamentals of aviation. He came from the Denver airport, but he didn’t have any knowledge of the actual mechanics of how airports worked, it seemed.

My point is that when he did that, everybody in the media thought it was awful. But then people who probably didn’t even vote for him said, “Wait a minute. I want to be safe. I want my daughter to be safe. I want my husband to be safe. You mean there’s people in these control towers that were selected for criteria other than merit?”

And while it might have been illiberal or maybe inconvenient, Donald Trump told the truth. What I’m getting at is this. This country has moved so far to the left on energy, on DEI, on transgenderism, on crime, on the border, that people even who supported it, whether they’re the people in LA that lost their homes, or the people who voted for Adam Schiff—and we saw what he did at the nomination—they want a return.

And this man is the only person, Donald Trump, with the guts and the backbone to not just make a transition, not to the far Right, back to the center or the center traditional Right that secretly, at least for now, they are happy that it’s going on because they feel that they and most Americans will be the beneficiaries, And you know what’s correct? They’re absolutely right.

Reprinted by permission from The Daily Signal, a publication of The Heritage Foundation.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS News over its “news distortion” of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris may have compelled the left-leaning media organization, owned by Paramount Global, to report actual news. 

A new CBS News/YouGov survey of 2,175 US adults interviewed last week found President Trump to be “tough,” “energetic,” “focused,” and “effective” in his first few weeks in office.

With most describing him as “tough,” “energetic,” “focused” and “effective” — and as doing what he’d promised during his campaign — President Trump has started his term with net positive marks from Americans overall, in our first CBS News polling since he returned to office.… pic.twitter.com/ZYKPscvS0G

— CBS News (@CBSNews) February 9, 2025

Many respondents said the president is going over and beyond in helping this nation, with very few saying he is doing less. 

His voters note that he has the right balance of focusing on restoring national security by reversing the disastrous open border policies of the Biden-Harris administration and ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government and military. 

Most respondents approved of the president’s border and deportation policies, while cash-strapped respondents said the administration needs to focus more on tackling the inflation storm sparked by out-of-control spending by Democrats.

Here are the questions asked in the CBS News/YouGov survey:

Describe Donald Trump As…?

Trump And Campaign Promises: Is He Doing…?

Trump’s Overall Job Rating

Trump Admin’s Program To Deport Immigrants Illegally In US

Sending US Troops To The US-Mexico Border

Large Detention Centers While Determining Who Should Be Deported

Trump’s Handling Of Israel-Hamas Conflict

US Trying To Take Over Gaza Would Be…

Trump’s Focus On Lowering Prices Is…

New US Tariffs On Goods From…

Elon Musk & DOGE: Influence Over Gov’t Operations And Sending Should Be

What’s entertaining is that all of these polls heavily lean to the left—yet, no matter how much the MSM tries to manipulate polling data to generate negative sentiment around Trump, the president’s level of support must be extraordinarily high. And this is what actually keeps the Democratic Party up at night… Poll rigging is not working. Too big to rig. 

All the polls are left leaning. So imagine how much higher it actually is.

— Any Excuse (@anyexcuse4me) February 9, 2025

MSM’s ability to control narratives and push radical leftist state propaganda through its censorship blob is coming to an end in the Trump era. More and more Americans are realizing that their hard-earned money has been used to fund leftist media outlets and journalists who have spent the past decade calling Trump a “Nazi.”

Now let’s look at MSNBC’s polling of Trump…

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump said this weekend that he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin about ending the Russia–Ukraine war, drawing a response from the Kremlin.

Speaking to the New York Post in an exclusive interview on Air Force Once, Trump said that he did speak with the Russian leader about the war, which started in 2022. Asked about how many times he’s spoken to Putin in recent days, Trump said, “I’d rather not say.”

However, Trump said he believes Putin “does care” about the carnage on the battlefield and “wants to see people stop dying.”

“All those dead people. Young, young, beautiful people. They’re like your kids, two million of them—and for no reason,“ Trump said, referring to soldiers dying in the war, adding that the conflict ”never would have happened” if he was president in 2022.

Elaborating, but without providing many details, Trump said that he has a plan to end the war and added that he has a good relationship with Putin.

“I hope it’s fast,“ he said. 

”Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing.”

Longtime Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that “many different communications are emerging” between Moscow and Washington, according to a Russian-to-English translation.

“These communications are conducted through different channels,” Peskov said when asked by TASS to comment directly on Trump’s interview with the Post.

“I personally may not know something, be unaware of something. Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it.”

In February 2022, Putin sent thousands of troops, tanks, and other military hardware to Ukraine as part of a “special military operation” for what he said was an attempt to end a possible threat to Russian sovereignty by Ukrainian forces backed by NATO. He also has said that Russia wants to protect Russian speakers living in Ukraine.

But Ukraine and its Western backers, led by the Biden administration, have said the invasion was an imperial-style land grab and vowed to defeat Russian forces. Moscow controls a chunk of Ukraine about the size of the American state of Virginia and is advancing at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 invasion.

Before taking office in January, Trump has said that he wants to quickly end the war, at several points saying he would end it within 24 hours of taking office.

On Feb. 7, Trump said he would probably meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week to discuss ending the war. Zelenskyy told Reuters on the same day that he wanted Ukraine to supply the United States with rare earths and other minerals in return for continued financial support its war effort.

“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskyy said. “Let’s develop this together, make money, and most importantly, it’s about the security of the Western world.”

But Zelenskyy cautioned that Trump must meet with him before he meets with Putin on ending the war. The reason, he said, is because meeting with Putin first would “look like a dialogue about Ukraine without Ukraine.”