Maggie Haberman Pushes Back On Trump’s ‘You Have No Cards!’ Rant: ‘That’s Half-Not-True’

CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman told anchor Kaitlan Collins that President Donald Trump’s rant that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “has no cards” is “half-not-true.”

Trump and Zelensky clashed in the Oval Office Friday after their meeting devolved into a stunning outright shouting match as Zelensky angered Trump.

It ended with Zelensky’s ejection from the White House and the diplomatic world in a state of shock. Trump repeatedly ranted to Zelensky that “You have no cards!”

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins asked Haberman about the breaking news of a pause on Ukraine aid, and Haberman addressed Zelensky’s “cards” in her response:

COLLINS: What have you learned about how Trump and his national security officials came to this decision? They’ve been talking about it. But it wasn’t until later this afternoon. Because Trump said today that he had not personally been involved in this, and now this decision has been made.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Kaitlan, my understanding is, this was a pretty quick decision. This is where they were headed, over the weekend. We all saw what happened, you were there, on Friday. There has been lots of blame being issued by the White House toward President Zelenskyy for what took place.

And Trump was pretty declarative about it, on Friday, in the Oval Office, which is, You don’t have any cards, to Zelenskyy. That’s half true. That’s half not true. There are Europeans who could step up. Obviously, that’s not the only thing that Zelenskyy wants.

But this is what Trump has wanted for a while. He thinks that it doesn’t hurt him with his base. I will say, Kaitlan, it is true that support for the effort in Ukraine has dwindled since this first began in 2022. At the same time, support for Russia and support for Putin is not high.

And so, Trump is testing the bounds of how far he can go with this. We know that he has long-questioned aid to Ukraine. He has not treated Ukraine as a necessary ally in Europe. He has not, you know — he has seen this all as if it is a financial prospect, and he has seen it all through economic lenses. And he has asked virtually no concessions from Putin, while asking many from Zelenskyy.

So, whether this actually changes anything remains to be seen. But this is where this was always headed in the form of, as you say, a pause, not completely ending everything, especially since it’s been congressionally-approved. But it’s what Trump can do in his power.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.