Waltz: Ukraine needs to 'tone it down' amid 'frustration' with Zelensky
National security adviser Mike Waltz said Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to “tone it down” amid his escalating feud with President Trump.
In an interview on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” Waltz said, “There’s obviously a lot of frustration here,” pointing to Zelensky’s apparent resistance to signing a proposed agreement to supply the U.S. with rare earth minerals in exchange for military support.
Waltz said not just Trump, but Vice President Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are also “frustrated” with Zelensky after meeting with him last week.
“And that's because we presented the Ukrainians really an incredible and historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy,” and provide Ukraine “the best security guarantee they could ever hope for, much more than another pallet of ammunition,” Waltz said.
“Why we're getting this pushback and certainly this, kind of, as the vice president said, ‘bad-mouthing’ in the press for all the administration has done, in his first term as well, and all the United States has done for Ukraine, it's just — it's unacceptable,” Waltz continued.
“They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,” he added.
Bessent, who visited Ukraine last week, said striking an economic deal would send a message to Russia that Washington stands alongside Kyiv and would “provide a long-term security shield for all Ukrainians.” The Treasury secretary said last week that he gave a draft of the proposal to Zelensky.
Trump has said he wants Kyiv to give some $500 billion worth of rare earth elements to the U.S. as a way of repaying the economic and military aid Washington has provided since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A testy back-and-forth has quickly escalated after Ukraine was left out of talks between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, drawing a rebuke from Zelensky.
Trump responded Tuesday with unfounded allegations that Zelensky “started” the war, with the Ukrainian leader responding Wednesday that the U.S. president was living in a “web of disinformation.”
Trump took to Truth Social hours later, calling Zelensky a “dictator without election” who was doing a “terrible job.”
Vance criticized Zelensky’s retort to Trump, telling the Daily Mail on Wednesday, “The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media … everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration.”
Waltz, in the interview Thursday, also defended the administration’s approach and pushed back on the suggestion that the U.S. is circumventing its allies as it seeks to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
“This notion that the Ukrainians haven't been consulted, I have to push back on that,” Waltz said, noting he’s been talking to his Ukrainian counterpart “on a regular basis” and multiple senior Trump administration officials have already met with Zelensky in Ukraine.
Waltz also said the Trump administration has been engaging with “our European friends,” noting he’s spoken to his counterparts in France, the United Kingdom and Germany, and will be hosting the leaders of the former two next week.
“So we are consulting our allies. We're consulting the Ukrainians. There's a term for this in diplomacy. It's called shuttle diplomacy, because bringing everybody to the table at once just hasn't worked in the past,” Waltz said. “So we've engaged one side, we've engaged the other side, and then we're going to have a process moving forward under President Trump's direction and leadership.”
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