Newsman: Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership of his country and said while President Donald Trump is working to end Russia’s war, “Zelenskyy has different aims in mind.”
“President Trump is committed to peace and to freedom,” Gabbard told host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’re seeing this big divergence here between his position, his commitment to these values and the interests of the American people and the interests of President Zelenskyy and these European leaders.”
A White House meeting between the two leaders collapsed during a press conference at the Oval Office on Friday after a remark by Zelenskyy indicating skepticism of diplomacy with Russia drew the ire of Vice President JD Vance. Trump and Vance then delivered a striking takedown of Zelenskyy in front of reporters. And Trump asked Zelenskyy to leave the premises, declaring on his social media platform Truth Social afterward that the Ukrainian president “is not ready for peace.”
Gabbard on Sunday echoed that claim.
“President Zelenskyy has different aims in mind,” she said. “He has said that he wants to end this war, but he will only accept an end apparently that leads to what he views as Ukraine’s victory even if it comes at an incredibly high cost of potentially World War III or even a nuclear war.”
Democrats and European leaders called the Oval Office meeting an ambush.
Put Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a staunch Ukraine ally, in that camp.
“I saw the meeting as a despicable display of bullying by the President of the United States and the Vice President of the United States against somebody whose country is at war with Putin, a brutal assault by Putin, who’s lost thousands and thousands of Ukrainians,” Van Hollen told Bream, also on Sunday. “Who wants peace more than anybody, but he also wants to make sure that it’s a durable, sustainable peace.”
The US Intelligence chief Gabbard put the responsibility on Zelenskyy to repair the damaged Ukraine-U.S. relationship.
“When President Zelenskyy directly challenged President Trump and Vice President Vance in front of the media and the American people, he really showed his lack of interest in any real, good faith negotiations,” Gabbard told Bream. “This has created a huge rift in the relationship.”
And now?
“There’s going to have to be a rebuilding of any kind of interest in good faith negotiations I think before President Trump is going to be willing to reengage on this,” Gabbard said.
Tulshi Gabbard also assailed Zelenskyy’s leadership over his country, telling Bream that Kyiv had canceled elections and silenced its political opposition. Trump in February called Zelenskyy, who was elected in 2019, a “dictator without elections” and American negotiators have discussed the prospect of new elections in Ukraine in peace talks with Russian counterparts.
“We could go down a whole laundry list of issues that are against the values of democracy and freedom,” Gabbard said, “So it really begs the question as Vice President Vance said again in Munich, it’s clear that they’re standing against Putin, obviously that’s clear. But what are they actually really fighting for? And are they aligned with the values that they claim to hold in agreement with us?”
