Former State Dept official Mike Benz says Trump administration 'means business' in foreign relations

Former Trump State Department official Mike Benz said the Trump administration "means business" and that this gives President Donald Trump an advantage in negotiations with foreign leaders.

Benz made the comment on a recent episode of the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show in which suggested Trump administration and other Republican talking about taking the U.S. out of NATO may be instrumental in encouraging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to reconcile with Trump after a tense meeting between them last week at the White House. 

"This is an administration that means business on every front," Benz said. "They mean business with USAID, they mean business with the Zelensky-Ukraine affair ,and I think that NATO ... would be issuing volleys from every direction at Trump world if he had done this during Trump 1.0."

Benz also pointed to talk on social media this week in which top administration staffer Elon Musk and Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee each voicing support for potentially leaving NATO.

"This was trending," he said. "NATO, I think, fears that Trump may mean business about that as well, which is leading to a cascade of voices that you would not expect necessarily, in NATO and the EU cautioning Zelensky to try to make amends with Trump."

The Foundation for Freedom Online director and former foreign policy consultant went on to say that this dynamic is reflective of how Trump handles negotiations.

"This is actually one of the things that Trump talked about in The Art of the Deal, which was even if you don't necessarily mean it, and I think that in many ways he does, looking a little crazy, or having a sort of reputation as a little bit of a mad man, or someone who will take hard, rash action, actually can lead to the most reasonable, prudent, cool headed result, because people take you seriously," Benz said. 

"And I think the fundamental restructuring of American soft power, of American investment in foreign aid, of American entanglements in foreign wars, has led to, frankly, a new negotiation with foreign bodies that we've been looking for leverage on for a very long time now, it appears the moments here."

While Zelensky has not directly apologized to the president, he has softened his rhetoric in recent posts on X.  In a Tuesday post the Ukrainian leader called the way the meeting ended "regrettable," said that Ukraine is ready to negotiate a peace agreement, and that he would be willing to sign an agreement on a mineral deal with the U.S.