Ex-U.S. Ambassador To Russia Names The ‘Giant Winner’ In Trump-Vance Clash With Zelenskyy

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul on Friday named the “one giant winner” in President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s fiery exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“This is Vladimir Putin,” said McFaul, who served as a U.S. ambassador under President Barack Obama, in an interview with MSNBC’s Katie Phang.

“And the real question now is, ‘Was that by design or was that a mistake?’ Because sometimes when I hear President Trump, I think he’s doing everything he can to appease Putin and that is not in America’s national interest.”

McFaul’s take reflected those shared by right-wing figures who predicted that the Russian dictator would benefit from the contentious White House meeting.

The clash in the Oval Office follows weeks of Trump being increasingly critical of Zelenskyy and echoing Putin’s talking points.

Trump recently referred to the Zelenskyy as a “dictator without elections” and falsely claimed that he “started” the war in Ukraine, which was sparked by Russia’s invasion of the country three years ago.

McFaul, earlier in the interview, told Phang that he’s never seen such a “colossal failure of American diplomacy” as Zelenskyy left the meeting without signing a deal to provide the U.S. with access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.

He added that the agreement could’ve set the preconditions to a “genuine” negotiation for a peace deal on the war but the meeting instead became a “shouting match.”

McFaul told Phang that he wasn’t sure if the blowup was an “ambush on purpose but it sure felt that way,” adding that it’s “unheard of” for the vice president to ever speak at such meetings.

“Maybe it played well with their base but it’s not going to play well with the American people and that’s where I think Trump needs to pump the brakes a bit,” said McFaul, who pointed to polling showing that most Americans don’t trust Putin.