‘Security’s Going to Be Squarely With Europeans’ – They Must ‘Own This Conflict’: Trump Adviser

As US President Donald Trump flew to New Orleans to watch the biggest football game of the year, his national security adviser, Mike Waltz, on Sunday went on television to expand on an interview given to the New York Post that sketched out an idea of trading security guarantees for Ukraine’s rare metals.

Speaking on Air Force One on Friday, where Waltz was also aboard, Trump mentioned a proposed $500 million agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The deal would grant the US access to rare earth minerals and gas in Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees in a potential peace settlement.

He then asked Waltz to arrange meetings to end the war.

“Let’s get these meetings going. They want to meet. Every day people are dying. Young, handsome soldiers are being killed. Young men, like my sons. On both sides. All over the battlefield,” he told his national security adviser.

But speaking with NBC News on Sunday, Waltz struck a slightly different tone about security guarantees, stating that Europe should take responsibility for these matters after the war.

“I think an underlying principle here is that the Europeans have to own this conflict going forward. President Trump is going to end it, and then, in terms of security guarantees, that is squarely going to be with the Europeans.”

In Friday’s interview, Trump mentioned that he had spoken recently with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin, something the Kremlin said on Sunday that it would neither confirm nor deny.

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Waltz did not directly answer whether there had been such a phone call but said that the US, Ukraine, and its allies will be in a strong position when all parties sit down to negotiate.

“Russia’s economy is not doing well,” Waltz said. “[Trump] is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction… We need to get all sides to the table to end this war. And this has come up in conversations with President Xi, with Prime Minister Modi, with leaders across the Middle East. Everybody is ready to help President Trump end this war. Let’s get all sides to the table and negotiate.”

He stressed that future aid to Ukraine would be tied to that “rare earths” deal that Trump had alluded to on Friday.

In terms of “the future of US aid to Ukraine. We need to recoup those costs, and that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians in terms of their rare earths, their natural resources, and their oil and gas, and also buying ours.”

As his national security adviser was giving interviews, Trump started off the day on Sunday hitting the links with golf legend Tiger Woods, and then boarded Air Force One to become the first sitting US president to attend the Super Bowl.