Fox News anchor Jacqui Heinrich caught Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, off guard by bluntly asking if the president is “being played” by Russian President Vladimir Putin in negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
On Fox News Sunday, Heinrich cited a Washington Post report about a Russian document laying out plans for negotiations with Trump administration officials which includes “boost[ing] its negotiating position by exacerbating tensions between the US and both China and the European Union.”
“How do you know President Trump isn’t being played right now by Putin?” Heinrich asked.
“That’s almost laughable!” Waltz said, in a clip highlighted by Mediaite. “I’ll take President Trump in dealing with the likes of Xi [Jinping]… Kim Jong Un, Putin and others, certainly ahead of his predecessor. And really, as both President Putin and Zelensky said on our first call just a few weeks ago, only President Trump could drive this to an end.”
Last week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, but Putin’s response was ambiguous. The Russian President said that while “we agree with the proposal” the ceasefire deal “wasn’t complete.”
On Sunday, Heinrich asked Waltz about whether the Trump administration will punish Putin like they did Zelensky when he did not sign a deal to hand over control of his country’s rare earth minerals to the US in exchange for continued support.
“He punished Zelensky when they wouldn’t agree to an unconditional ceasefire, withholding military aid and intelligence sharing,” Heinrich said. “And a lot of people are asking, is the president going to punish Putin too?”
“All options are on the table,” Waltz responded. “But I think that’s a bit of a spin in the sense that President Zelensky had an opportunity to bind our economies together for the foreseeable future — the U .S. and Ukrainian people in terms of growing the pie in their economy and their natural resources in a way that would completely redefine our assistance.”
