Former Pentagon official Steven Bucci sharply criticized remarks made by Donald Trump Jr. during a panel at the 2025 Doha Summit, where the former president’s son disparaged Ukrainian leadership, questioned the integrity of U.S. support, and claimed Americans have no appetite for continued aid. Appearing on Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan Proft, Bucci said the comments were not only ill-informed but risk undermining American credibility at a critical moment.
Don Jr. had painted Ukraine’s political class as corrupt oligarchs siphoning off Western money while the poor fight and die, and argued that the United States should no longer be “the big idiot with a checkbook.” He described seeing Ukrainian-plated supercars in Monaco as proof of misappropriated aid and insisted Ukraine ranks near the bottom of Americans’ policy priorities. The comments, framed as the “real truth” ignored by policymakers, were intended to underscore broader skepticism about U.S. engagement in Eastern Europe.
Bucci was blunt in response. “With all due respect to the president’s son, he’s not a pollster,” he said, dismissing Don Jr.’s anecdotal surveys as meaningless. “It’s fictional. That kind of stuff is never accurate.” He described the portrayal of Ukrainian leaders as both glib and dangerous, arguing that it feeds a narrative that the Ukrainians are not worth supporting and risks confirming the worst caricatures pushed by Russia and its sympathizers.
More importantly, Bucci stressed that the stakes in Ukraine extend beyond dollars and domestic political appetite. “There is more skin in the game here than Donald Jr. is indicating,” he said, emphasizing both the strategic threat posed by Russia and the moral failure of abandoning a nation that was invaded without provocation. He cautioned that frustration with the slow pace of diplomacy and battlefield stalemate should not translate into pressure on Ukraine simply because Russia refuses to change course. “That is Chamberlainesque,” he warned. “To say, ‘We can’t move Putin, so let’s force Ukraine to give up’—that’s delusional.”
Bucci acknowledged that U.S. aid to Ukraine should be monitored more rigorously but said mismanagement risks are not unique to this conflict. Throughout modern American military history, he argued, oversight tends to suffer during active operations. The answer, he said, is better accountability, not strategic withdrawal.
The conversation also turned to the new National Military Strategy released by the Trump administration—a document that, somewhat unusually, drew praise from the Kremlin for signaling a more restrained U.S. global posture. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican critic of President Trump, complained that the document was harsher on Europe than Russia. Bucci said Bacon’s framing reflects political posturing more than strategic analysis. National security strategies, he emphasized, are public-facing summaries rather than detailed policy roadmaps, and Moscow’s celebratory reaction is largely performative. “The Russians will grab anything they can point to and say, ‘See, Trump agrees with us,’” he said. “They read everything, including what they steal.”
The final third of the interview focused on the controversy surrounding U.S. drone strikes on cartel narco-boats. Several Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Seth Moulton and Sen. Tammy Duckworth—both veterans—have accused the Trump administration of committing “murder” on the high seas and violating international law. Moulton warned that such strikes could soon be turned against Americans; Duckworth labeled them “war crimes.”
Bucci called these charges irresponsible and legally incoherent. “If we’re not at war, as she says, how can it be a war crime?” he asked. He said the actions fall into an unresolved area of federal authority involving the War Powers Act and preemptive national defense, an area long debated by both parties. He pointed out that drug-running vessels in international waters are treated as hostile actors and that use of lethal force is justified when they continue their mission despite warnings. “These guys are pirates,” he said. “They can be shot.”
He also noted that Democrats are ignoring the precedent set under Barack Obama, whose administration dramatically expanded the use of drone strikes. If current actions are found illegal, Bucci said, Obama-era operations could easily face the same scrutiny.
Bucci criticized what he described as selective outrage and political theater. He observed that critics have avoided attacking Admiral Mitch Bradley, the military leader who authorized the so-called “double tap”—a second strike after the target boat failed to sink. Instead, he said, they accuse President Trump personally of murder while skipping over the actual chain of command. “It’s completely disingenuous,” he said.
Despite legal debates that will unfold over time, Bucci believes public sentiment remains overwhelmingly supportive of confronting cartel operations aggressively. He warned, however, that the exaggerated rhetoric used by opponents harms U.S. credibility and gives foreign adversaries an easy narrative to exploit.
“These unserious arguments don’t help us domestically or internationally,” he said. “They’re breathless, overwrought, and they don’t reflect the reality of how these operations work.”