GOP's Lawler breaks with Trump on Zelensky, advises against public spat

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) broke with President Trump over Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday and advised against a public spat between the two leaders.

“Are you disturbed at all by the rhetoric coming from the Trump administration about Zelensky?” ABC News’s Martha Raddatz asked Lawler on “This Week.”

“I did not agree with the president's rhetoric about ... Zelensky. What I would say is this, it is not — it does not behoove either side to have this public back-and-forth,” Lawler responded.

Trump took swings at the Ukrainian president multiple times last week. On Tuesday, he seemed to blame Ukrainian leaders for the current war in the country, alleging Zelensky “should have never started it.” In response, Zelensky said the U.S. president “lives in this disinformation space.”

“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Wednesday.

The president also questioned U.S. spending for Ukraine, as well as why the Biden administration didn’t demand Europeans chip in the same amount, considering their proximity to the war.

“He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle,'” Trump said of Zelensky. “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left."

In his “This Week” appearance, Lawler said he believes "President Zelensky needs to work with the administration, especially with respect to economic cooperation.”

“The United States has invested hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine,” he added. “And, when this war is finally over, Ukraine is going to need significant investment to rebuild.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

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