On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker responded to a question on how long President Donald Trump will give Vladimir Putin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by saying that Trump will give Putin “as much time as he thinks is necessary to create the right situation.”
Host Gillian Turner asked, “[I]t’s nearly two weeks since he told Vladimir Putin and the world that he wanted him to sit down one-on-one, face-to-face with President Zelensky, no word as of yet. How much longer do you think President Trump is going to give him?”
Whitaker answered, “Well, obviously, President Trump is going to give him as much time as he thinks is necessary to create the right situation. And I think one of the things you mentioned, in addition to the billion dollars in arms that have been sold directly to Ukraine, there is also, the U.S. is selling about a billion dollars a month through our NATO allies that are being provided to Ukraine. And so, President Trump’s making sure, one, that Ukraine can continue to defend itself, and by giving them some deeper strike capabilities, that, obviously, could help them offensively. They’ve already taken out about 20% of Russia’s oil refining capacity in the last month. And, at the same time, he has so many other cards to play. The Indian sanctions just took effect this week. They clearly are working. India is, most likely, going to change their behavior on buying Russian oil. So, President Trump knows all the cards he has still left to play, but he also understands that he needs to keep Vladimir Putin at the table, as well as Zelensky at the table. And we’ll see. Is it going to happen overnight? Most likely not. But I think we’re on the right path, and both sides are still talking, and that is a good thing.”
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