Fox host Brian Kilmeade: “Vladimir Putin, I think, to a degree, is embarrassing President Trump”
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt: “I say let Putin have Crimea, he already took it a long time ago”
Published
Citation
From the April 25, 2025, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): The way the Ukrainians are fighting has embarrassed Russia to no end. In fact, they're grabbing people off the streets and out of malls because they can't get them to volunteer, and they've literally run out of prisoners for a country of a hundred and fifty million. And they've lost over a million to a brain drain who say, 'I don't wanna stay in this country because I don't wanna get drafted, and we're going into the, we're going into the ditch.' They also have had to do a deal with North Korea as well as Iran to get weapons to fight. So they do have the advantage of time because they don't have to get reelected. There's not a, there's no pressure from parliament on Vladimir Putin.
CHARLIE HURT (CO-HOST): You mean Russia has that advantage.
KILMEADE: Russia has the advantage. But Russia, they should understand this, and they pride themselves on their intelligence. President Trump gave them an opportunity. He said, I know what you've done. I know what you've done in Belarus making a vassal state. I know what you've infiltrated Moldova. I know you took portions of Georgia. I know that's three times you've invaded Ukraine. I'm gonna give you a fresh start. Stop it. Knock it off, and we'll bring you back into the SWIFT system generally, and maybe we'll start economic ties, especially when it comes to refining rare earth. We'll just do it. Just stop. And he, Vladimir Putin, I think, to a degree, is embarrassing President Trump. When he bombed Kyiv in this brutal attack, the worst — you're watching it now.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Worst in a year.
KILMEADE: The worst in a year. And killed these innocent people, and you see the cover of the New York Post today. I don't know if we have it built. I can hold it up if you want. Just a woman sitting there. Here we go. This is, this is what Trump is trying to do. To help this woman. He's saying, 'I wanna stop this, and I want Russia to understand you're not gonna take back Eastern Europe.' And if you think that NATO is gonna be broken up, you have not talked to a NATO general secretary. They both love Trump because behind closed doors when they maneuver, they know Trump is a huge ally to NATO because he's making them pay their own way. Now they are going to all agree to get to 3%. And they've added two other nations with this invasion. So NATO is not going away. Trump is giving Russia an open door to end this war. If he is going to embarrass the president, the president let him know yesterday, he blasted him. It's going to get worse.
...
EARHARDT: A lot of lives at stake here, which is more important than -- I say let Putin have Crimea, he already took it a long time ago. Don't even say it's his occupied territory, just say y'all can continue to live there. But end this war, whatever it takes, just end the war.