Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a masterclass in foreign policy reality during an interview with far-left CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, following the tumultuous Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Rubio detailed how the meeting was supposed to be a turning point for Ukraine, an opportunity to move toward negotiations with Russia.
Instead, Zelenskyy took it in an entirely different direction, aggressively challenging Trump’s peace-first approach and attempting to box the President into an all-or-nothing commitment to endless funding and military intervention.
Marc Rubio: You guys only saw the end. You saw what happened today. You don’t see all the things that led up to this. Let me explain.
The President has been very clear. He campaigned on this. He thinks this war should have never started. He believes, and I agree, that had he been President, it never would have happened. Now, here we are.
He’s trying to bring an end to this conflict. We’ve explained very clearly what our plan is here, which is we want to get the Russians to a negotiating table. We want to explore whether peace is possible. They understand this.
They also understand that this agreement that was supposed to be signed today was supposed to be an agreement that binds America economically to Ukraine, which to me, as I’ve explained, and I think the President alluded to today, is a security guarantee in its own way because we’re involved. It’s not us, it’s our interests. That was all explained. That was all understood.
According to Rubio, this meeting could have been avoided had Zelenskyy taken a more cooperative approach rather than insisting on coming to D.C.
Collins predictably refuses to acknowledge the reckless behavior of Zelenskyy, who, instead of seeking a pathway to peace, chose to grandstand and antagonize Trump inside the Oval Office.
Marc Rubio: But they insisted on coming to D.C. This agreement could have been signed five days ago, but they insisted on coming to Washington. And there was a very, and should have been a very clear understanding: don’t come here and create such a scenario where you’re going to start lecturing us about how diplomacy isn’t going to work.
President Zelenskyy took it in that direction, and it ended in a predictable outcome as a result. It’s unfortunate. That wasn’t supposed to be this way, but that’s the path he chose, and I think, frankly, it sends this country backwards in regards to achieving peace, which is what President Trump wants.
At the end of the day, he wants this war to end. He’s been as consistent as anyone can be about what his objective is here.
Kaitlan Collins: But what specifically do you want to see President Zelenskyy apologize for?
Marc Rubio: Well, apologize for turning this thing into the fiasco for him that it became. There was no need for him to go in there and become antagonistic. Look, this thing went off the rails. You were there, I believe.
It went off the rails when he said, “Let me ask you a question,” to the Vice President. “What diplomacy are you talking about?” Well, this is a serious thing. I mean, thousands of people have been killed, thousands.
He talks about all these horrible things that have happened to prisoners of war and children. All true, all bad. This is what we’re dealing with here; it needs to come to an end. We are trying to bring it to an end.
The way you bring it to an end is you get Russia to the table to talk. He understands that attacking Putin, no matter how anyone may feel about him personally, forcing the President into a position where you’re trying to goad him into attacking Putin, calling him names, maximalist demands about Russia having to pay for the reconstruction—all the things that you talk about in a negotiation—when you start talking about that aggressively, and the President’s a dealmaker, he’s made deals his entire life, you’re not going to get people to the table.
Marc Rubio: You start to perceive that maybe Zelensky doesn’t want a peace deal. He says he does, but maybe he doesn’t.
That active, open undermining of efforts to bring about peace is deeply frustrating for everyone who’s been involved in communications with them leading up to today. I think he should apologize for wasting our time for a meeting that was going to end the way it did.
Collins, clearly thrown off by Rubio’s confidence and mastery of the facts, attempted to corner the Secretary of State on previous statements regarding Vladimir Putin’s trustworthiness in negotiations.
But Rubio flipped the script and reminded the audience that President Trump has successfully negotiated some of the toughest deals of his career—and this situation is no different.
Kaitlan Collins: You yourself have said previously that Putin cannot be trusted in negotiations. That was the point that President Zelenskyy was ultimately making during that conversation: that there cannot be an agreement without security guarantees because he was talking about all the ceasefire agreements before, or agreements that Putin has just blown past. Do you still feel that way, that Putin cannot be trusted in these negotiations?
Marc Rubio: Well, I was there yesterday when the President said in front of the media that our approach is going to be “trust, but verify.”
President Trump has made deals his entire life. He’s not going to get suckered into some deal that’s not a real deal. We all understand this. We understand it on our end for certain.
The goal here is to get to a place where we have to explore whether peace is possible. I’ve said this repeatedly. I don’t know. I think it is, based on what they’ve said so far, but we have to explore that. How else is this war going to end?
I ask people, what is the European plan to end this war? I can tell you what one foreign minister told me, and I’m not going to say who it was, but I can tell you what one of them told me, and that is that the war goes on for another year.
At that point, Russia will feel so weakened that they’ll beg for peace. That’s another year of killing, another year of dying, another year of destruction. By the way, not a very realistic plan, in my point of view.
If there’s a chance of peace, even if it’s a 1% chance, that needs to be explored. That’s what President Trump is trying to do here.
[…]
Kaitlan Collins: But you yourself, sir, have said before that you believe Putin is a war criminal, that that is a widely accepted fact. You’ve called him a butcher. You said that as Secretary of State, you do believe it’s important for someone with such global influence as you have to speak with that moral clarity.
Marc Rubio: Yeah. At this moment, as Secretary of State, my job working for the President is to deliver peace, to end this conflict and end this war. Ultimately, that is the job of the State Department.
The State Department doesn’t fight wars. It ends them. It tries to end them. That’s usually, by the way, celebrated. I mean, throughout history, I’ve watched presidents bring about an end to wars and conflicts, and people celebrate that.
They applaud it. I think we should be very proud and happy that we have a president whose prime objective is not to get into wars, but to prevent wars and to get out of wars. That is a very noble, laudable goal.
Everyone should be applauding it, and he should be given the space to do that, not undermined by demands that he call Putin names or that we say things that impede the ability to conduct real diplomacy, as the Vice President said today.
This is the core issue that Rubio laid bare: Zelenskyy isn’t interested in diplomacy—he’s interested in endless war, with the United States footing the bill.
Rubio reminded the press that Trump provided Ukraine with the weapons it needed back in his first term, while Obama and Biden sent them nothing but blankets. Yet Zelenskyy refused to show even the slightest gratitude during the meeting, instead doubling down on his aggressive demands.
“There’s news reports out there from NBC News, at least is one of the place I recall, reporting that Biden had a shouting match with Zelenskyy for not being grateful and not being thankful for everything that was provided back in 2022. Now, that didn’t happen in front of the press. That was leaked, but it got out there. These frustrations are not unique to President Trump.”
WATCH:
WATCH IN FULL: @SecRubio puts on a masterclass as he articulates the Trump Administration’s strategy on Ukraine and the meeting with President Zelenskyy. pic.twitter.com/clJDdMnNAn
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 1, 2025
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