White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has slammed the “pathetic” people criticizing President Donald Trump ahead of his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
“I think it’s pathetic that some of the chatter that we see from these so-called experts who have zero accomplishments on their own resumes to point to,” Leavitt told Fox News’ Fox & Friends on Thursday morning. “President Trump knows what he’s doing.”
Trump and Putin are set to meet in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine. Trump issued an ultimatum in July saying he would impose sanctions on Russia if the Kremlin did not agree to a peace deal in 50 days, though he has since shortened the timeline.
ADVERTISEMENT
One of the president’s most vocal critics on Russia is John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, whom he fired in his first term. Bolton has argued that Putin already scored a strategic win by arranging talks in Alaska, which was once part of the Russian empire.
“Putin has already won. He is the leader of a rogue state, and he’ll get a picture on U.S. soil with the president of the United States,” Bolton told The Atlantic, echoing a point he has made in several TV appearances.
The critique has infuriated Trump, who lashed out at the “very unfair media“ on social media Wednesday.
“Constantly quoting fired losers and really dumb people like John Bolton, who just said that, even though the meeting is on American soil, ‘Putin has already won.’ What’s that all about? We are winning on EVERYTHING,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Speaking to Fox & Friends, Leavitt echoed Trump when host Lawrence Jones asked how she would respond to “people in liberal media and liberal circles, people that the president fired” who suggest Trump will be “embarrassed” in Alaska.
“You’re being very kind, and I won’t be so kind, and I’ll just name some of those people, such as John Bolton, who I think has made a disgrace of himself on television and in the newspapers, claiming that he knows better than President Trump,” Leavitt said. “No, he doesn’t, and neither do any of these so-called foreign policy experts who have never solved a foreign policy conflict in their lives.”
Bolton declined to comment on Leavitt’s remarks.
