Brian Kilmeade Defies Trump — Insists He Just Gave Russia ‘a Huge Advantage’

Brian Kilmeade has taken a rare oppositional stance to President Donald Trump, with the Fox News host insisting that immediately suspending all aid to Ukraine did Russia a massive favor and hurt any negotiation in ending the war.

Since last Friday’s historic Oval Office fracas between Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, tensions between the United States and its European allies have been higher than at any time in recent memory.

The situation worsened on Monday after Trump announced he was cutting military aid to Ukraine, which has been vital for the former Soviet State to defend its territory from a Russian military invasion directed by Vladimir Putin.

The Ukrainian aid has also become a controversial political issue domestically, driving a wedge between different sides of just how interventionist America should be in helping democratic allies protect themselves from expansion invaders and bad actors, like alleged war criminal Putin. Trump’s cutting of aid because of Zelensky’s alleged “disrespectful behavior” throws a serious wrench into the Russian-Ukranian peace talks that Trump has ostensibly been trying to lead.

Kilmeade opened his commentary by accurately explaining what happened in that fateful Oval Office meeting, pushing back on the widely promoted pro-Trump and pro-Putin narrative that Zelensky was disrespectful in that meeting.

“Zelensky’s point was Vladimir Putin does the killing; Vladimir Putin did the invading,” Kilmeade said, reiterating a point he’s made repeatedly on the typically pro-Trump Fox & Friends. “Vladimir Putin’s been killing since 2014. And in 1997, we were promised security while he was still acting on the stage somewhere. And he was elected to bring peace with Vladimir Putin. He talked to Vladimir Putin every single time, 25 times. He lied to him in the past, which was his point.”

Kilmeade’s portrayal is accurate and given that hundreds of thousands of Zelensky’s fellow Ukranian citizens have died at the direction of Putin, one would think he would be shown a little grace for not being so quick to accept any diplomacy from the Russian dictator, particularly when past cease-fire agreements were flat out ignored.

“If the president wants maximum leverage for a great negotiation, he shouldn’t do Russia a favor and cut off the aid to Ukraine because he just did Russia a huge advantage,” Kilmeade continued.  “Now, what’s Russia’s incentive to get to the table?”

“And for Zelensky, he should say this is a great deal I had,” he continued. “‘How did he get off the rails?'” he asked as if he were the Ukrainian president. “‘I should put my pride aside, pick up the phone before the speech and say, Mr. President, let’s work this out.'”

Watch above via Fox News.