President Donald Trump will have to “trust but verify” Russian President Vladimir Putin when they meet this Friday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
When asked if Trump believes that he can trust Putin, Whitaker said “Ronald Reagan taught us you have to trust, but verify. And so I think, in any situation with competing national interests, whether it’s the United States, Ukraine, Russia, or any of our allies, you just can’t take people at their face value. You’re going to look at actions.”
Whitaker emphasized that during previous discussions with the Russian president, “Trump has mentioned that he would have a good conversation with Vladimir Putin, and then, that night, rockets and drones would attack the major cities in Ukraine. And so it’s going to be about actions. Words are cheap.”
The NATO ambassador added that in other conflicts around the world where Trump “has come in and helped negotiate a resolution of it, it has been a verification that the hostilities have concluded … You cannot just completely trust words on a sheet of paper.”
With Trump set to meet Putin in Alaska on Friday to talk about ceasefire terms, Whitaker said there is also a possibility that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be invited, saying the “decision is going to be made by President Trump … if he thinks that is the best scenario to invite Zelenskyy, then he will do that.”
Whitaker pointed out that it is only Sunday and the meeting with Putin is not until Friday, so “there’s time to make that decision.”
He also stressed that “we need this war to end. We could save thousands of lives with a deal. And I think that, by both sides communicating, by President Trump meeting in Alaska on Friday with either one or both of the combatants, I think this is exciting. And I think President Trump’s really the only one that could make this happen. He’s the sole reason that I think this meeting is happening on Friday. He’s a peacemaker. He’s averaging about a peace deal a month right now. We saw just this week where Armenia and Azerbaijan came together to settle their decades-long conflict.”
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