President Donald Trump let a self-described supporter of his in the press pool repeatedly pressure the president of Ukraine about making “concessions” to his Russian counterpart.
Cara Castronuova, the former pro boxer and one-time celebrity fitness coach on the NBC show The Biggest Loser, was called on to ask a question Friday during a meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky has asked for long-range Tomahawk missiles—something that Trump has appeared somewhat open to providing ahead of his planned meeting with Putin in a few weeks in Budapest, Hungary.
As part of her loaded question, Castronuova told Zelensky to his face that Americans “need our Tomahawks, too.”
“President Trump just brokered a peace deal in the Middle East that all Americans, both sides of the aisle, are very proud of,” she began. “But to meet that deal, both sides had to make concessions. Our president has stuck out his neck in many ways to make a peace deal for your war as well. What specific concessions are you willing to make to end this war with Russia? Will you give up joining NATO?”
Castronuova then decided to speak for about about 340 million people: “Americans have foreign war fatigue, and our president, as he said: we need our Tomahawk missiles, too.”
After Trump laughed that “that was some question,” Zelensky replied that there were “so many questions in one.”
“First of all, I think we need to sit and speak,” he began. “Second, we need a ceasefire. Even now, you see in the Middle East, it’s difficult to hold a ceasefire. Everywhere, in every war, it is very difficult. We want this; Putin doesn’t want it. That’s why we need pressure on him.”
“We will speak with the president today about what we need. We understand what we need to push Putin to the negotiation table,” he continued. “As I said previously, we are ready to speak in any kind of format, bilateral or trilateral. It does not matter. What matters is just peace.”
On the topic of NATO, Zelensky said “it is our decision, the decision of the allies to decide where we are.“
Castronuova then interrupted him.
“But are you willing to give—” she said before Zelensky continued.
“The most important thing for people in Ukraine, [who] are under each day attacks, is to have really strong security guarantees,” he said. “NATO is the best. But weapons are very important… Bilateral security guarantees between me and President Trump is very important… We did not speak in detail about it, but this is the most important document, because the United States is very strong.”
Castronuova, who may have been a hard-hitting boxer at one point, has asked questions at White House events that cannot be described that way.
At an April press briefing, for instance, she asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt whether the administration would be releasing Trump’s “fitness plan” because, as she put it, “he actually looks healthier than ever before, healthier than he did eight years ago, and I’m sure everybody in this room could agree.”
Castronuova also spoke to Trump during Friday’s meeting, prefacing her question by gushing over the “honestly excellent job” his cabinet has done.
Castronuova was one of the subjects of a CNN segment earlier this year about MAGA-friendly figures the White House has welcomed with open arms.
“Yes, I am definitely a supporter of President Trump,” Castronuova, who calls herself a reporter, admitted to CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan in April.
She claimed she would have no issue holding Trump to account—“I’m sure things will happen that I disagree with”—but when asked to name anything objectionable Trump had done up until that point, she couldn’t.
“I’m not going to… Let me put some thought into that for a second,” she responded, pausing for a few moments. “Um, I’m just overwhelmed with how well I perceive things to be going.”
That feeling continues.
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