President Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, is being criticized for changing his political stance on Russian leader Vladimir Putin since going to work for the Trump administration. Waltz once stated that Putin was a war criminal and a “monster,” characterizations Waltz said this week, that are “very different than what I make now.”
As seen below during testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Waltz was asked by U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MA) about a comment he made about Putin four years ago, while Waltz was a U.S. Congressman from Florida during the Biden administration.
Van Hollen said: “When you were in the House, you said the President Biden needed to make clear that ‘Putin is an absolute war criminal.’ Do you stand by your statement that Putin was an absolute war criminal?”
Waltz replied: “Statements I made as a member of Congress [are] very different than what I make now as an Ambassador to the U.N., working for President Trump and representing the United States.”
[NOTE: Waltz’s previous statements specifically included convictions about how the U.S. Executive Branch should proceed at the U.N. In September 2022, seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Waltz said on Fox News: “I think the rhetoric matters a lot here. Putin is a monster. We are seeing war crime after war crime be exposed as these areas are liberated, and Biden this week in the U.N. needs to be that clear that Putin is an absolute war criminal.“]
VAN HOLLEN: When you were in the House, you said Biden needed to make clear that ‘Putin is an absolute war criminal.’ Do you stand by your statement?
MIKE WALTZ: Statements that I made as a member of Congress are very different than what I make now working for President Trump. I… pic.twitter.com/4Vu7TQt3pT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 16, 2026
When Van Hollen asked Waltz, “So are you retracting?”, Waltz answered, “I support President Trump in everything he is doing in trying to end this awful conflict.”
Van Hollen responded: “I find it very interesting, Mr. Ambassador, that you called upon the former President, Biden, in no uncertain terms to condemn Putin as a war criminal, and you won’t call upon President Trump to do the same thing, as you know, he has refused to do, what you called upon President Biden to do.”
Many Trump administration critics on social media responded to the exchange with criticism of Waltz, implying his fealty to the President and his agenda had subverted his principled objection to Putin’s conduct and alleged crimes. One commenter suggested that Waltz’s prioritization of Trump loyalty had a distorting effect, writing: “No, @USAmbUN, you work for the American people, not at the pleasure of a wannabe tinpot dictator.”
Waltz added about his past remark vis-à-vis his new role as Trump’s representative: “It’s quite difficult to mediate the end of the war if you take such maximalist approaches and now being a diplomat and a mediator and fulfilling his goals, working for him and his agenda, is very different [than] when you’re elected a Senator or a Congressman.”
Van Hollen replied, “It was a simple question. You’re not asking this President to do what you asked the last President to do.”
After the exchange with Waltz, Van Hollen addressed Waltz’s reluctance to characterize Putin with the terms he’d used freely as a lawmaker, writing on social media: “Today, he refused to even utter those words himself. As one of Trump’s top diplomats, his reversal speaks volumes.”