National security adviser Mike Waltz compared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to an “ex-girlfriend” who wants to re-litigate issues from nearly a decade prior.
In an interview on Breitbart Radio on Saturday, Waltz was critical of Zelensky’s approach to the Oval Office meeting and to his subsequent Fox News interview, saying the Ukrainian president is too focused on “fact-checking” the past and not focused enough on moving on in the future.
Asked whether Zelensky has improved his standing since the contentious meeting with President Trump, Waltz said, “No, look, he’s clearly solely focused on believing he needs to fact-check and correct every nuance.”
“It’s like a, you know, ex-girlfriend that wants to argue everything that you said nine years ago, rather than moving the relationship forward,” he added.
Long-simmering tensions between President Trump and Zelensky erupted into the open on Friday during a heated Oval Office exchange that is sure to have significant ramifications for the U.S., Russia, Ukraine and all of Europe.
The meeting, which began cordially, devolved when Zelensky pressed Vice President Vance for suggesting that a diplomatic solution be reached with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.
Zelensky in turn laid out years of Putin violently taking over Ukrainian territory, going back on previous ceasefires and refusing to exchange prisoners.
“What do you mean?” Zelensky asked Vance.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” Vance responded. “I think it’s disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems, you should be thanking the president for trying to bring an end to [this] conflict.”
Zelensky suggested that the U.S. would feel the ramifications of the war in the future, but did not yet because of geography. Trump shot back, saying, “Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel because you’re in no position.”
During a back and forth, Zelensky was repeatedly asked if he had said thank you for the billions in weapons the U.S. has sent Ukraine since the war started in 2022.
“If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks,” Trump said. “It’s going to be a very hard thing to do business like this.”
“Just say thank you,” Vance added. “We know you’re wrong.”
In a subsequent interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Zelensky would not apologize for the extraordinary Oval Office spat with Trump, saying, “No, I respect the president and I respect the American people and if, I don’t know, I think that we have to be very open and very honest and I’m not sure that we did something bad.”
“I think maybe sometimes, somethings we have to discuss out of media, with all respect to democracy and to free media,” he continued, adding, “This is not good for both sides, anyway, and I was very open, but I can’t change our Ukrainian attitude toward Russia.”
