President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has revealed that his principal is “very frustrated” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Waltz spoke to reporters during the White House briefing on Thursday.
He was responding to a question about whether Trump believes Zelensky or Russian President Vladimir Putin bears more responsibility for the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“Trump’s goal here is to bring this war to an end, period, and there has been ongoing fighting on both sides — it is World War I-style, trench warfare,” Waltz told reporters at the White House briefing.
“So some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv, frankly, and insults to President Trump, were unacceptable.”
He added: “Look, President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelensky — the fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered. I think he will eventually get to that point, and I hope so very quickly.”
“But President Trump is, as we made clear to our Russian counterparts—and I want to make clear today—focused on stopping the fighting and moving forward. We could argue all day long about what’s happened in the past.”
This comes less than a day after Trump falsely called Zelensky a “dictator without elections.”
Trump’s comment prompted Zelensky to respond that the U.S. president “lives in a disinformation space” and is “(helping) Putin out of his isolation.”
