Fox News host Brian Kilmeade broke sharply with President Donald Trump on the air Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026, denouncing the president’s agreement to import Russian diesel and insisting that Moscow alone bears responsibility for the war in Ukraine.
The remarks on “Fox & Friends Weekend” set off a prolonged argument with co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, who defended the arrangement and pointed to Trump’s suggestion that it may be time for an election and a new leader in Ukraine — a comment the president made after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the fuel deal with Moscow.
“The president got ticked off because Zelenskyy came out and said, ‘Do not buy five hundred million tons of diesel,'” Kilmeade said, adding that it was understandable for the Ukrainian leader to be frustrated by money flowing to the country that launched the war unprovoked.
“They are the bad guys. And there’s no way Zelenskyy turned down any plausible deal,” he said, arguing that Russian President Vladimir Putin would never take part in a practical peace effort capable of ending the fighting, which has raged at full force since 2022.
“There’s one person who’s responsible: Vladimir Putin,” Kilmeade continued. “That is it. And he’s getting his ass kicked.”
Inside the Russian Diesel Deal
Trump laid out the terms in a Truth Social post on Friday, Oct. 9, saying Russia would immediately supply the United States with 300,000 tons of diesel, followed by another 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”
“Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my Greatest Priority,” the president wrote.
The announcement came less than a month after Trump approved bipartisan measures to sanction Russia and countries that buy energy from it. He appeared prepared to set that legislation aside in hopes of pushing down fuel prices before November’s midterm elections.
Kilmeade also traced the shortage back to Washington’s own military entanglements, saying the diesel supply dried up when Iran struck Gulf states’ oil facilities and refineries, and that Russia had suddenly become the new focus. The deal would not even be under discussion, he argued, if the joint U.S. and Israeli war on Iran had not brought the Gulf oil market to a standstill.
A Clash Over Drones and Casualties
Campos-Duffy repeatedly defended the administration, saying there was a reason Trump was buying fuel from Russia and noting that Zelenskyy had kept striking Russian refineries despite the president urging him to stop. Ukraine is dependent on the United States, she said, and was told not to do it.
Kilmeade pushed back, asking whether the Ukrainian president could be blamed for targeting the war machine killing his people and bombing apartment buildings. He went on to praise Ukraine’s use of drone technology to hold off a far bigger and more powerful adversary, calling it a response to being rocketed.
That drew an immediate objection from his co-host, who claimed 30,000 young men on each side are dying every month. “We should not be practicing drone, you know, technology, and using these kids as Guinea pigs,” Campos-Duffy said. Asked which kids she meant, she answered that she was talking about the soldiers.
When Campos-Duffy said Trump had made clear he wanted peace in Ukraine, Kilmeade shot back: “Tell Vladimir Putin!” She responded that peace was likely precisely because Trump was now working with Russia, blaming Zelenskyy’s arrogance for the shift.
Breaking Ranks on Moscow
Kilmeade closed the exchange with his bluntest warning of the morning. “It would be the biggest mistake of [Trump’s] administration to work with Russia. That is the modern Hitler of our generation,” he said, describing Putin as the source of the region’s problems and warning that he is now helping Iran in ways that could kill American troops and destroy U.S. bases.
The flare-up was striking coming from one of the network’s most reliably conservative voices and a loyal Trump ally. Kilmeade has repeatedly split from Trump-aligned media on Eastern Europe, placing the blame for the war squarely on Moscow in earlier broadcasts and radio interviews, where he has said flatly that Putin is the bad guy and that Ukraine cannot lose.
The on-air dispute laid bare the philosophical divides running through Trump-aligned conservative circles, and it prompted viewers on social media to ask whether a political civil war is now playing out live among the network’s top hosts.