Numerous neoconservative figures have come out of the woodwork to slam President Donald Trump’s efforts to put an end to the war in Ukraine.
Foreign policy hawks such as Republican Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, Former Republican Illinois Rep. turned CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger, former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton and former Vice President Mike Pence, among others, have railed against the Trump administration’s peace talks, with some painting the effort as an abandonment of Ukraine and surrender to Vladimir Putin. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Saudi Arabia Monday to begin peace negotiations with Russia after Trump kicked off the talks in a call to Putin on Feb. 12.
Ukraine has continued to slowly lose ground in the country’s east as Russia continues to utilize its raw manpower. Despite the situation on the ground and billions of dollars in aid burned on a war that has seen no end, the administration’s neoconservative critics seemingly claim that Ukraine can still turn things around.
While both countries have suffered untold casualties in the conflict, Ukraine’s manpower crisis has become increasingly dire. Amid the only-increasing human cost of the war, Zelenskyy expressed his desire for peace Feb. 9.
He also admitted in December that would be “impossible” for Ukraine to recapture territories it’s lost since 2014, according to The Independent.
Sparks started flying in the political universe when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Feb. 12 to NATO allies in Brussels, Belgium, that it was “unrealistic” for Ukraine to join NATO and to return to its pre-invasion 2014 borders. Hegseth further clarified the day after that “everything is on the table” in peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, with Vance echoing the same sentiment.
But many foreign policy hawks were still not happy with Hegseth and Trump.
Kinzinger called President Donald Trump Feb. 13 the “worst negotiator in American history,” while also saying Hegseth was willing to “throw Ukraine under the bus.” Kinzinger is a longtime Trump critic, voting to impeach the president and serving on the January 6 committee while he was in Congress.
Former President Joe Biden was unsuccessful in brokering a peace deal during his term, with Trump’s Putin call ending a three-year effort to diplomatically isolate Russia.
“Mark my words maga, you abandon Ukraine and you will make the Afghanistan withdrawal, and the failure to act in 2014, look like brilliant strategy,” Kinzinger said on X. “Trump will be seen as the worst president in history for foreign policy. A weak weak scared boy [sic].”
Kinzinger has long held extremely hawkish views on Ukraine, introducing a joint resolution in 2022 to allow U.S. soldiers to enter Ukraine. He also insists the U.S. continue backing Ukraine in order to “exhaust” the Russians.
Russia, as of November 2023, has the manpower advantage over Ukraine in nearly every theater of war, with twice as many soldiers and a massive lead in air and land support vehicles, according to Military Times. The country has also drawn on North Korea to bolster its forces, with the hermit nation sending an estimated 10,000 soldiers as of November 2024.
Wicker also pushed back on Hegseth’s comments, saying it was a “rookie mistake” to say Ukraine couldn’t regain its territory.
“Hegseth is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn’t my choice for the job,” Wicker told Politico Thursday at the Munich Security Conference. “But he made a rookie mistake in Brussels and he’s walked back some of what he said but not that line.”
“I don’t know who wrote the speech — it is the kind of thing Tucker Carlson could have written, and Carlson is a fool,” Wicker said.
The U.S. has spent over $170 billion on Ukraine aid since the war began, with Russia’s hold tightening on East Ukraine while the front slowly creeps westward. Manpower has become such a problem for Ukraine that the defense ministry has begun handing out cold hard cash to get young men to join in the fight, according to Bloomberg Feb. 12.
Ukraine has even resorted to shaking down nightclubs to boost recruitment numbers, according to the Wall Street Journal in October 2024.
Former Vice President Mike Pence also came out against the Trump administration’s position, saying that “if Ukraine falls, it will only be a matter of time until Russia invades a NATO ally our troops will be required to defend.”
There’s roughly 3.3 million active duty personnel across the entire alliance, compared to Russia’s 1.5 million. A Russian attack would also invoke Article 5, a commitment that NATO countries will come to the defense of an alliance member in the event of a conflict.
Bolton also railed against the negotiations on CNN last Wednesday, saying Trump had “effectively surrendered” to Putin. Bolton has long been a major neoconservative figure, being a prolific advocate of regime change throughout his career. The former national security advisor declined to comment for this story.
Bolton also is a staunch defender of the Iraq war, defending the U.S. stopping Iraq from its “potential acquisition of weapons of mass destruction” in a National Review column published in 2023. There is still no reliable proof Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction at the time of the invasion.
Additionally, Trump revoked Bolton’s security clearance on Feb. 5 along with many other anti-Trump officials such as Gen. Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The White House, Wicker, Kinzinger and Pence did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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