Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “embarrassing” President Donald Trump with the latest attacks on Ukraine.
Trump lashed out about Russia’s latest strikes on Kyiv Thursday, where at least eight people were killed in the bombing as the White House attempts to broker a deal to end the conflict.
“I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV,” Trump fumed on Truth Social. “Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”
The Fox & Friends co-host and long-time Trump supporter accused Putin of “undermining” the peace talks, which he said was “embarrassing” for the president.
“Vladimir Putin, I think to a degree, is embarrassing President Trump when he bombed Kyiv in this brutal attack,” Kilmeade said Friday morning on the network.
“If he’s going to embarrass the president, the president let him know yesterday, he blasted him,” Kilmeade added. “It’s going to get worse, and there are sanctions queued up.”
Trump repeatedly boasted throughout his presidential campaign and after his White House victory that he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine in one day.
“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done in 24 hours,” Trump said in May 2023.
In a sit-down interview with TIME published Friday, he was quizzed about it and said the comment was made “in jest.”
“Well, I said that figuratively, and I said that as an exaggeration, because to make a point,” Trump told the outlet. “And you know, it gets, of course, by the fake news…Obviously, people know that when I said that, it was said in jest, but it was also said that it will be ended.”
He repeated his claim that the war would “never happened” if he were president in 2022, when Russia first invaded Ukraine.
Trump snapped at a journalist Thursday when he was asked why he is not putting more pressure on the Russian leader during an Oval Office meeting with Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Store.
“You don’t know what pressure I’m putting on Russia,” Trump replied. “They’re dealing. You have no idea what pressure I’m putting on Russia. We’re putting a lot of pressure.”
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is in Moscow and has met with Putin for critical peace talks after the president claimed they were “very close” to a deal.
They discussed the U.S. proposal for peace in Ukraine, which has been billed by Washington as a ‘final offer’ to Moscow and Kyiv. The Kremlin called the talks “constructive and very useful,” according to Reuters.
