Days after he ordered the Pentagon to reverse a pause on shipments of American-made weapons to Ukraine amid ongoing Russian aerial attacks, President Donald Trump claims to have no idea who gave the order to cut off munitions deliveries to the key U.S. ally.
Asked whether he had found out who was responsible for the controversial move, which he said he was reversing Monday, Trump told reporters during a luncheon for a quintet of African leaders at the White House that he “hadn’t thought about it.”
“We're looking at Ukraine right now and munitions, but... no I have not gone into it,” he said Wednesday.
The president’s professed ignorance about the decision came less than a day after he bristled at a reporter who asked him who approved the pause during a cabinet meeting, saying in reply: “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”
According to multiple reports, the halt in shipments was approved by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the recommendation of Elbridge Colby, the isolationist-minded defense expert who serves as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
Colby, an ally of Vice President JD Vance who served in a different role at the Pentagon during Trump’s first term, is understood to have ordered the halt in shipments because the current U.S. stockpile is running relatively low after diverting a large number of air defense weapons to Israel for use in that country’s recent war with Iran.
The decision stopped deliveries of needed Patriot missile interceptors and other air defense weapons that Kyiv desperately needs to ward off the scores of Russian drones that have been pounding civilian targets across the country on a nightly basis in recent days.
It raised alarms among lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and even rankled some top White House and State Department officials who were caught unaware by the move.
On Monday, Trump told reporters he would be reversing the decision and resuming deliveries of what he has described as “defensive” weapons.
“We have to, they have to be able to defend themselves,” he said during a dinner meeting alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“They're getting hit very hard. Now they're getting hit very hard. We're going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily, but they're getting hit very, very hard.”
A day later during a cabinet meeting, the president offered relatively harsh and rare criticism of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who he said he is “not happy” with because of the ongoing attacks against Ukraine despite his administration's efforts to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
He accused Putin of “killing a lot of people”, including many of his own soldiers to the tune of “7,000 a week.”
Trump also said there is “no reason” for Russia’s continued attacks on Ukraine and complained that reaching a ceasefire in the three-year-old war Putin launched has been “tougher” than expected, while crediting Kyiv’s forces for bravery as they’ve battled back Russia’s invasion.
“I will say the Ukrainians were brave, but we gave them the best equipment ever made ... we gave them missiles, the latest and the greatest. They were able to shoot down a lot of things,” he said.
The president also acknowledged that many of his supporters might consider it “unfair” that the U.S. has spent billions for weapons bound for Ukraine while still crediting Ukrainian forces for exhibiting valor while using their American-made military supplies against Russia.
“I will say this, the Ukrainians, whether you think it's unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave, because somebody had to operate that stuff. And a lot of people I know wouldn't be operating it, they wouldn't have the courage to do it. So they fought very bravely, but we gave them the best equipment in the world,” he said.
Continuing, Trump said that Putin, with whom he has had a relatively close relationship compared with many of America’s allies, has “thrown a lot of bulls***” at him while continuing to prosecute the war he started in 2022.
“It's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” he said.
He later added that Putin was “not treating human beings right” and is “killing too many people” in Ukraine.
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