Ric Grenell, the Trump administration’s special presidential envoy for special missions, slammed Obama and Biden-era diplomat Susan Rice for the Democratic Party’s years of foreign policies that he said landed the U.S. in two different wars under the Biden administration alone.
‘Your guy couldn’t even talk to Putin. For 3.5 years! Your policies helped usher in a war in Ukraine, Gaza…and Rwanda if you remember,’ Grenell posted to X on Saturday afternoon.
‘And then you lied about Libya – it wasn’t caused by a video,’ he continued, referring to claims in 2012 that an anti-Islam video led to the Benghazi terror attack on U.S. government facilities in the Libyan city. ‘You made that up…. Donald Trump handed you peace in the Middle East and Europe – you handed us two wars. We see you,’ he added.
Grenell was responding to a post from Susan Rice, who served as an Obama administration national security advisor and U.N. ambassador, that claimed conservatives ‘are up to the same old tired crap’ following President Donald Trump’s tense meeting with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelenskyy on Friday.
The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway had posted to X speculating that Rice and other Democrats may have ‘personally’ advised Zelenskyy on acting ‘hostile and to try to goad Trump into blowing up’ during the meeting, sparking Rice to weigh in.
‘You clowns are up to the same old tired crap,’ Rice posted to X. ‘When your guy screws up and royally embarrasses himself and the U.S., you try to change the subject and lie about a favorite target to distract and deflect. For the record, I have never met Zelenskyy and never spoken to him. Ever. Or advised him or anybody around him. It’s a shame that you contend that it is in the U.S. national interest to sell out Ukraine and suck up to Putin.’
Hemingway shot back, ‘Thank you for your response. Where would we place this denial, compared to your oft-repeated lie that the Benghazi debacle was due to a YouTube video, and your lie that you ‘knew nothing’ about the unmasking of Trump officials before being forced to admit you did it widely?’
Last week, Rice joined MSNBC and declared ‘there’s no question’ that the Trump-Vance meeting with Zelenskyy ‘was a setup.’
‘It’s a very sad day and an embarrassment for the United States on the world stage. But let’s step back and analyze what’s happened here. I think there’s no question that this was a setup,’ she said on MSNBC.
‘Soon after [Zelenskyy] got there, the vice president of the United States lit into him and started a confrontation. Now, I’ve been in countless Oval Office meetings with heads of state, presidents and vice presidents, as national security advisor, as U.N. ambassador, and in other roles. I can tell you that the vice president or the secretary of state or anybody else, they don’t jump in, hijack a conversation without the express blessing of the president of the United States. So JD Vance did that deliberately. Donald Trump knew what he was going to do,’ she continued.
Ahead of his meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy also met with a group of bipartisan Senate lawmakers, including Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Chris Coons, D-Del., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Zelenskyy reportedly told the group that he would not ‘support a fake peace agreement’ during that meeting.
‘Just finished a meeting with President Zelensky (sic) here in Washington. He confirmed that the Ukrainian people will not support a fake peace agreement where Putin gets everything he wants and there are no security arrangements for Ukraine,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., posted to X on Friday morning.
Zelenskyy joined Trump and his team in the Oval Office shortly after the Senate meeting, where political fireworks were on full display following Zelenskyy taking issue with Vice President JD Vance arguing the path to securing peace between Russia and Ukraine was through the U.S. engaging in diplomacy.
‘You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people,’ Trump said at one point during the meeting. ‘You’re gambling with World War III. You’re gambling with World War III. And what you’re doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country.’
Vance also interjected, asking Zelenskyy whether he had ‘said thank you once this entire meeting.’
Congress has appropriated $175 billion since 2022 for aid to Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, though exact monetary figures on how much the U.S. has provided to Ukraine vary based on what is considered aid.
Total European assistance to Ukraine between January 2022 and December 2024 totals $138.7 billion, according to German think tank the Kiel Institute. The U.S. contributed $119.7 billion during that same timeframe, Fox Digital previously reported.
‘Your people are very brave,’ Trump continued in the meeting. ‘But you’re either going to make a deal or we’re out. And if we’re out, you’ll fight it out. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but you’ll fight it out. But you don’t have the cards. But once we sign that deal, you’re in a much better position. But you’re not acting at all thankful. And that’s not a nice thing. I’ll be honest. That’s not a nice thing.’
Zelenskyy traveled to the U.K. over the weekend, meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who told local media that he had spoken with Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron regarding the U.K. and France taking the reins on crafting a plan for peace that will eventually be presented to the U.S.
European leaders are meeting in London on Sunday to continue peace talks.
