With help from Daniel Lippman and Paul McLeary
You know President DONALD TRUMP has struck a nerve when both his conservative former national security adviser JOHN BOLTON and liberal Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.) issue similar statements condemning the president for his fiery (and misleading) comments on Ukraine.
Sanders said the “Putin-Trump alliance means abandoning our allies” while Bolton said Trump’s characterizations of Zelenskyy and Ukraine are some of the most shameful remarks ever made by a U.S. President.
Your trusty NatSec Daily authors and POLITICO’s team across the Atlantic have been collating widespread reactions to Trump’s blistering rebuke of Ukraine as it seeks to bring Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table for peace talks.
So how to cut through the signal and noise? There are broadly four types of reactions here that help give a sense of where different power bases in both Washington and Europe stand on these talks. We’re watching all four to see how they can influence the coming negotiations.
THE PANICKERS: This entails many European officials and Democratic lawmakers. Their view: Trump has now gone full pro-Russia, repeating Kremlin talking points and throwing Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY under the bus ahead of critical peace talks — despite the almost universally-held consensus that Russia started this war and it can only end with Russia’s capitulation, not Ukraine’s. Sanders and Bolton both reflect this view, with Sanders referring to it as a “Putin-Trump alliance.”
Bolton didn’t pull any punches: “Trump’s characterizations of Zelensky and Ukraine are some of the most shameful remarks ever made by a US President,” he said in a post on X. No surprise here, none of these critics have any real cache within the Trump administration, and it’s unclear if their public broadsides can influence the president’s tack in any way.
THE SUBTWEETERS: Despite the overall vibes on X, a broad plurality of Republican lawmakers and even heavy hitters inside the Trump administration are still pro-Ukraine and pro-NATO, though some have decided that openly confronting the president will only backfire. Their critics call it cowardice, their supporters call it pragmatism — a way to keep lines to Trump open behind the scenes and whisper in his ear on Ukraine policy. If they’re angry or uncomfortable with Trump’s comments — which many likely are — they won’t say it publicly. “Ukraine is a hill I would die on because I think it is so existential that we get this right. So I’m taking the approach that we get more bees with honey,” Rep. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-Pa.), a co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, told POLITICO at the Munich Security Conference this past weekend.
Some have reacted by openly criticizing Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN but staying away from mentioning Trump in their statements. This includes Republicans with powerful posts in Congress, such as Senate Armed Services Committee Chair ROGER WICKER and in the House, Reps. JOE WILSON (R-S.C.) and DON BACON (R-Neb.). They still have influence with Trump, but some in the MAGA world view them with suspicion.
THE PRO-UKRAINE TRUMP DEFENDERS: We spoke to several people — including two administration insiders and two senior Republican Congressional aides — who broadly support Ukraine but also support Trump’s negotiating style. Their view falls back on the maxim: Take Trump seriously but not literally. One pointed to an X post from former conservative U.K. Prime Minister BORIS JOHNSON, who said: “Trump’s statements are not intended to be historically accurate but to shock Europeans into action.” This camp unsurprisingly includes a wide swath of administration insiders.
They say that they believe top Trump officials, including Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO and national security adviser MIKE WALTZ, see Putin as a liar and a war criminal and understand the stakes,” but also trust Trump’s ability to negotiate by criticizing and praising both sides at different points to get them to come to the table for meaningful talks.
THE UKRAINE SKEPTIC TRUMP DEFENDERS: This includes MAGA factions of the GOP that are deeply skeptical of continued U.S. assistance to Ukraine, who have as much — if not more — clout in this administration than the pro-Ukraine defenders. Vice President JD VANCE embodies this view. He offered Zelenskyy some less-than-cordial advice on how to manage ties with the U.S. president going forward. “The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the President will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,” Vance told the Daily Mail in an interview today.
‘We obviously love the Ukrainian people. We admire the bravery of the soldiers, but we obviously think that this war needs to come to a rapid close,’ he said.
ABOUT THAT ‘RIVIERA’ PLAN: Arab countries are making it clear to Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO that they’re really not on board with displacing millions of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as the international community looks to rebuild the enclave devastated by war.
During Rubio’s visit to the United Arab Emirates, President SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN ZAYED AL NAHYAN told America’s top diplomat that his country would not support Trump’s plan to remove Palestinians from the territory as the international community works to make the enclave livable again, according to Emirati state media.
Meanwhile, Egypt reiterated its position that Palestinians should not be uprooted from Gaza amid the redevelopment. In Madrid, Egyptian President ABDEL FATTAH EL-SISI told reporters that “we stressed the importance of the international community adopting a plan to reconstruct the Gaza strip without displacing Palestinians — I repeat, without displacing Palestinians from their lands.”
All this comes as Israel and Hamas continue to work toward another hostage release this weekend that will see the militant group return the remains of several Israeli hostages who died on Oct. 7 and while in captivity.
TRUMP’S BRAZILIAN CRUSADE: Zelenskyy isn’t the only foreign official in Trump’s crosshairs today. As The New York Times’ Jack Nicas reports, his media company and social media platform Rumble are suing the Brazilian judge prosecuting ex-President JAIR BOLSONARO for allegedly conspiring to launch a coup following his 2022 election defeat.
The lawsuit pertains to orders from Brazilian Supreme Court Justice ALEXANDRE DE MORAES to suspend the Rumble accounts of a Bolsonaro booster Moraes has indicted on misinformation charges. But the timing of the suit filed in a Tampa federal court, just hours after Moraes approved an indictment against Bolsonaro, is notable.
Allies of Bolsonaro have lobbied for the U.S. to protect the leader, whose efforts to overturn a fiercely contested election drew direct comparisons to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and Trump’s efforts to cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 elections. Bolsonaro, who has denied wrongdoing, has been ordered to surrender his passport amid the investigation into his role in the efforts.
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FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — SBU COMES FOR USAID: All emails sent from a USAID email address now have a “Sensitive But Unclassified” mark at the bottom of the emails, sparking small ire among employees who consider it a way to stop information from getting outside of USAID, three people familiar with the matter told our Daniel Lippman and Robbie.
It’s “a blatant attempt to stop leaks and curb the information getting out,” said one of the people, a USAID employee. They also noted that the State Department’s own guidance on such marks says that emails containing it should meet certain criteria like being about personnel matters or confidential contractor information, and not be used in a blanket fashion. The State Department’s press office did not respond to a request for comment.
GREEN BERETS TO MEXICO: The Pentagon has sent a team of Green Berets to Mexico to train with Mexican Marines as part of a larger focus on security along the United States’ southern flank, which includes the Trump administration designating several Mexican criminal cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The designation, presidential adviser ELON MUSK wrote on X Wednesday, “means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”
The small group of Army special forces troops from the 7th Special Forces Group based out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, likely number under a dozen or so, and will focus training on “improving mutual readiness to address shared security challenges,” Lt. Col. ALLIE SCOTT of the Army Special Operations Command, told our own Paul McLeary in a statement.
The deployment keeps with the views of Waltz, who as a member of Congress in 2023 introduced a bill alongside Rep. DAN CRENSHAW (R-Texas) that would have created an Authorization for Use of Military Force to target Mexican drug cartels. Waltz has long championed a “Plan Colombia”-like effort in Mexico that would mimic the yearslong American military and diplomatic aid program to stamp out extremist groups and drug kingpins and buttress the federal government.
The deployment of the elite troops is in keeping with the mission of the Army’s Green Berets, which trains with foreign militaries and friendly militia groups across the globe, with each Group focusing on local language and cultural skills in the regions they’re assigned. The 7th Group has long focused on training with militaries in Central and South America.
CNN reported this week that the CIA has been conducting drone surveillance missions over Mexico. Mexican President CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM said Wednesday that the drone flights were being conducted in collaboration with the Mexican government.
FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — WEST POINT’S CURRICULAR CHANGES: To comply with Trump directives to rid the federal government of critical race theory, West Point has canceled a lesson on “gender and race in international relations” as part of an international relations class, a person familiar with the matter told Lippman.
The class was scheduled to be held on March 31 but was canceled “to best align this course with recent guidance from the Secretary of Defense,” according to an email to class participants obtained by NatSec Daily.
The U.S. military academy in New York recently ended official support to numerous campus groups catering to diverse groups like the National Society of Black Engineers Club and Society of Women Engineers Club.
A spokesperson for West Point said the academy is reviewing its curriculum in response to a memo from the defense secretary.
SENATE’S KOCH FIGHT: Trump allies are working to stop efforts from some Republicans to sink the nomination of ELBRIDGE COLBY to be undersecretary of Defense for policy, per our own Gregory Svirnovskiy.
Vice President JD VANCE, Musk and DONALD TRUMP JR., have all voiced their support for Colby in recent days, as more interventionist Republicans have expressed concerns about his views on Middle East foreign policy. Colby has said the U.S. should focus less on the Middle East —and less on Russia’s war in Ukraine — so it can save its strength for countering China and its influence in Asia.
The campaign from Trump allies is also targeting other major Trump boosters on Capitol Hill. MAGA activist and Turning Point USA co-founder CHARLIE KIRK accused Senate Intelligence Chair TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) on Sunday of “working behind the scenes” to imperil Colby’s DOD confirmation.
It’s worth noting that Cotton is not alone — Sen. ROGER WICKER (R-Miss.) told Roll Call Colby poses “a concern to a number of senators.”
DOGE’S AVIATION ADVENTURE ANXIETY: Europeans are antsy about Trump’s decision to allow DOGE access to the Federal Aviation Administration. And they’re pulling no punches about the tech mogul.
As our colleague Tommaso Lecca reports, aviation professionals, experts and politicians on the other side of the Atlantic are warning that the world’s richest man doesn’t have a good track record when it comes to safety and worry that involving his SpaceX company in U.S. air traffic safety could backfire.
“It’s obvious that Elon Musk’s business is not about safety, but about his money, which is OK. He’s a businessman,” said DANIEL LIEBHART, an Austrian air traffic controller and chair of the aviation section of the Vida union. “But when it comes to air traffic control … it’s about people’s lives. And their safety should be the No. 1 priority.”
Their comments follow a spate of incidents involving U.S. passenger planes, including the devastating collision between a military helicopter and an American Airlines regional plane in Washington that killed 67 people, as well as an incident involving a Delta Airlines plane, which flipped over during landing at Toronto Pearson Airport.
— DAN CALDWELL is now a senior adviser to Defense Secretary PETE HEGSETH, with a special focus on Ukraine policy, two people familiar with the matter told our Daniel Lippman. Caldwell, an advocate of a realist and restrained foreign policy, was reportedly involved in the DOD transition. He most recently was a public policy adviser at Koch-funded Defense Priorities and is an Iraq war veteran.
— Trump is eyeing AARON LUKAS, who worked with special envoy RICHARD GRENELL when he was acting DNI, as his pick for principal deputy director of national intelligence, per Daniel and our own John Sakellariadis.
— FEDERICO BORELLO has been named as interim executive director of the Human Rights Watch advocacy organization.
— OLA CRAFT, former director of strategic trade and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, has joined law firm Lowenstein Sandler as a senior policy advisor in the firm’s global trade & national security group.
— The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank has added COREY HINDERSTEIN and FRANCES Z. BROWN as vice presidents for studies. Hinderstein previously served as acting principal deputy administrator and deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Brown served as senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council for President JOE BIDEN.
— Elian Peltier, The New York Times: One lake, two worlds: Jet-skis in Rwanda. Bodies ashore in Congo.
— Daniel DePetris, The Telegraph: Europe still doesn’t realise how helpless it’s become
— Joseph Dana, New Lines Magazine: The worldview of the Afrikaner diaspora now haunts the US
— U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 9 a.m.: An axis of autocracy? China’s relations with Russia, Iran, and North Korea
— Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, 9:3010 a.m.: Nominations of TROY EDGAR to be deputy Homeland Security secretary; and DAN BISHOP to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.
— German Marshall Fund of the United States, 10 a.m.: A foreign policy memo for the new U.S. administration
— Center for Strategic and International Studies, 10 a.m.:A discussion on “the latest battlefield tactics in the Russia-Ukraine war.”
— Wilson Center, 10 a.m.: Arabs and Israelis: From October 7 to peacemaking
— New America, 12 p.m.: A virtual book discussion on “No Way But Forward: Life Stories of Three Families in the Gaza Strip.”
— Atlantic Council, 1 p.m.: A discussion on “the future of transatlantic relations in the Western Balkans”
— Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Japan Institute of International Affairs, 2 p.m.: “2025 U.S.-Japan Security Seminar” featuring remarks from Japanese Foreign Minister TAKESHI IWAYA
Thanks to our editor, Rosie Perper, whose actions and statements are indefensible.
Thanks to our producer, Gregory Svirnovskiy, whose diplomatic prowess can solve any conflict.