Brian Kilmeade Doubts JD Vance Is 'In on Ukraine' the Way Marco Rubio Is

Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said Vice President JD Vance is not committed to Ukraine. His guest, Gordon Sondland, who was President Donald Trump's ambassador to the European Union, agreed that Vance stands apart from other Republicans who could succeed Trump. The two men said Secretary of State Marco Rubio would "absolutely" back Kyiv.

The exchange on The Brian Kilmeade Show is a sign of how Republicans who support Ukraine view the party's 2028 field. Vance leads the field in PolitiKool's polling average with 38.5 percent. Rubio is second with 19.1 percent.

Brian Kilmeade and Gordon Sondland on Ukraine After Trump

The two men had been talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin's hold on power. Sondland said "now is the time to make a deal while Donald Trump is in the White House." He predicted that after Trump, "Democrat or Republican new president will support ... Ukraine unconditionally."

Then he began to walk that back. The recording is muddled at this point, and the two men talk over each other. Kilmeade said, "I don't think he's in on Ukraine," referring to Vance. "He's the only one," he added.

Sondland agreed with the exception. "I'm sorry you're right Marco absolutely," he said, after saying that "if Marco is president no question."

Kilmeade then mentioned Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as other possible candidates. Neither man said how those two would approach Ukraine. Both men were giving their own views of Vance and Rubio. Neither cited anything the vice president has said or done.

The remarks came in the same interview in which Kilmeade said Trump shows Putin too much respect. Kilmeade has questioned the administration's Ukraine policy before, warning earlier this month that a cutoff of intelligence to Kyiv would be the worst move since Afghanistan.

JD Vance and Marco Rubio's Records on Ukraine Aid

Vance has a long record of skepticism about Ukraine. He appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room in February 2022, days before Russia's full-scale invasion, and said he did not "really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other," the Kyiv Independent reported. In the Oval Office on February 28, 2025, he joined Trump in berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asking him, "Have you said 'thank you' once?"

The contrast with Rubio is not as clean as Kilmeade and Sondland suggested. On April 23, 2024, the Senate passed the foreign aid package that included Ukraine aid by a vote of 79 to 18. Vance and Rubio both voted no, and so did Cruz. Rubio has said that "what we are funding here is a stalemate war, and it needs to be brought to a conclusion," the Kyiv Independent reported.

Republican Voters Shifted on Ukraine in 2025

Republican voters moved toward Kilmeade's position last year. A Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey fielded July 18-30, 2025, found 51 percent of Republicans favored sending military aid to Ukraine, up from 30 percent that March. The survey is 15 months old and does not capture where Republican voters stand now.

In the same interview, Sondland said Trump got no ceasefire in return for a diesel deal with Russia, and said, "why we didn't get anything out of in return for this gesture is a mystery to me."

What to Watch For Next

The open question is whether Ukraine becomes a dividing line in the primary, or whether the party's hawks decide that the leading candidate's record does not disqualify him.