David Sacks: Zelensky's Grift Ends When War Ends, Why Would He End It When He's Profiting So Much?

 White House crypto czar David Sacks called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "an actor playing Winston Churchill" in an interview with FOX News host Jesse Watters on Monday.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS: So there's nothing wrong with having other countries apologize to us. Trump's crypto czar and co-host of the All In podcast, David Sacks, is here now. How you doing, David?

DAVID SACKS: Good, good, good to see you, Jesse.

WATTERS: Or should I call you czar?

SACKS: David's fine.

WATTERS: All right. What is going on in Zelensky's head?

SACKS: Well, you know, it's always hard to know exactly. I mean, Zelensky had one job. All he had to do was show up, be respectful, sign the minerals deal, shake hands for the cameras.

And instead, he turned out to be, he acted not like Churchill, but an actor playing Winston Churchill. He acted like a spoiled Hollywood actor. He acted entitled, he acted ungrateful, he acted peevish, petulant, combative.

And now he, of course, he's gonna have to come crawling back and offer an apology. But I think that when someone shows you who they are, believe them.

WATTERS: So there's no way you can deal with a guy like Zelensky. He's got to leave before anything gets signed.

SACKS: Well, I'm not saying we shouldn't deal with him, but I think that Zelensky has powerful motivations not to make peace. I don't think he really wants to make peace. He says that the war needs to keep going on.

He basically says the war needs to go on forever. And I think there's good reasons for that in his mind. Number one, if the war is over, he loses power, right?

He canceled elections there. He's in the sixth year of a five-year term. And if he stands for elections, he's very unpopular there, despite what the fake polls from USAID say.

And he'll be vulnerable to political retaliation from his political opponents. He needs this war to justify his rules. So I think that's number one is, if he gives up power, his own safety is at risk.

Number two is the gravy train here. I mean, we've been sending hundreds of billions of dollars over to Ukraine. And these Ukrainian elites there, these oligarchs have been feasting on that money.

And Zelensky is at the top of that pyramid. And that whole grift ends if the war ends. And I just think that that gives him a powerful incentive to want to keep this whole thing going.

Why would he end it when he and his cronies are profiting so much from this war?

WATTERS: Do we have evidence that these oligarchs or Zelensky are like stashing yachts in the There's definitely been Ukrainian officials who've been caught leaving the country with suitcases full of cash.

SACKS: And even before this war, Jesse, this was considered the most corrupt country in Europe. There's been plenty of evidence of American weapons reaching the black market as well. There's tons of stories about this.

There's been a lot of articles about it. So I don't think there's any doubt there's been massive amounts of corruption. The only question is how much.

WATTERS: Yeah, we got to send Doge over to Ukraine and get to the bottom of that.

SACKS: We need to audit. Absolutely. Yeah.

WATTERS: Last question real quick. When you have the Democrats in the ear of Zelensky before he blows this meeting up, do you think that they're trying to sabotage this piece?

SACKS: For sure. I mean, the Democrats have become the party of forever war. Remember, this was Joe Biden's war.

He easily could have ended this war in the first month if he had agreed to the Istanbul Accords, which said that all Ukraine had to do was stay neutral to basically agree not to become part of NATO. And Biden said that was unacceptable. And that's why the war continued.

And then Biden said that we've got to support Ukraine in this war for as long as it takes, as much as it takes. And that's what the Democrats are doing. They want this war to go on forever.

They want to keep spending hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. They want to keep funding organizations like USAID. They just want this to keep going and going.

But that's not in the American interest. What benefit are we getting out of all this money that we're sending to Ukraine? What benefit are the Ukrainians getting?

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are dying. They're not winning this war. They're losing this war.

What is so wrong with letting President Trump try to negotiate a peace deal? All right.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/03/03/david_sacks_zelenskys_grift_ends_when_the_war_ends_why_would_he_end_it_when_hes_profiting_so_much_from_the_war.html