Trump's Go-To Response for Ukraine and Beyond: 'I Don't Know'

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

The president has taken to passing the buck when asked about the chaos his administration is unleashing on America and the world

By Ryan Bort

Donald Trumphasn't been happy with Vladimir Putin lately, and he took out his frustrations with Russia's president this week by announcing that the United States would resume sending military aid to Ukraine. When he was asked on Tuesday who ordered the aid to be paused in the first place, Trump delivered what has become one of his go-to responses whenever he's pressed about the chaos his administration is unleashing on the nation and the world.

"I don't know," he said.

The pause on aid to Ukraine was apparently ordered last week by beleaguered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who reportedly neglected to tell the White House about the move, leading to internal scrambling. Trump was asked whether he approved the pause while sitting next to Hegseth during a Cabinet meeting. The president only offered that the U.S. needs to keep sending "defensive weapons" to Ukraine because "Putin is not treating human beings right." When asked who ordered the pause, Trump said he didn't know. "Why don't you tell me?" he added.

The U.S. sending military aid to Ukraine as it continues to fight a Russian military invasion is a pretty big deal, obviously, and it's unconscionable that the administration can be this reckless about how it's managing the situation. The administration seems to be reckless about just about everything, though — from its approach to foreign wars to its unconstitutional deportation agenda — and the president has largely taken to passing the buck when pressed on the dysfunction.

Trump's apparent indifference was on full display after his administration illegally sent Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a brutal prison in El Salvador. Several federal courts, including the Supreme Court, ruled that this shouldn't have happened and that the administration needed to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. The administration for weeks refused. Trump was repeatedly asked basic questions about his opinion of the case and the law, and repeatedly declined to answer, referring reporters to "my lawyers," meaning the Justice Department. Trump wouldn't even commit to upholding the Constitution.

"Your Secretary of State says everyone who is here — citizens and noncitizens — deserves due process. Do you agree?" Kristen Welker of NBC News asked Trump in May.

"I don't know, I'm not a lawyer. I don't know," Trump replied before speaking about the need to deport criminals.

"Don't you need to uphold the Constitution as president of the United States?" Welker asked.

"I don't know," Trump said.

The administration sent Abrego Garcia and hundreds of others to prison in El Salvador without due process in March, ignoring a federal judge who ordered the planes to return to the U.S. The deportations were carried out under the Alien Enemies Act. The justification was so dubious a Trump-appointed judge slapped it down, and the Supreme Court ruled that the administration could not use it to deport people without due process. When Trump was asked about invoking the 1798 wartime act, he — you guessed it — said he didn't know about it.

"I don't know when it was signed because I didn't sign it," Trump told reporters in March. The White House claimed Trump was referring to the original signing of the act over 200 years ago, not the proclamation he very much did sign after he took office. The explanation didn't quite jibe with Trump adding that "other people handled it" before praising the job Secretary of State Marco Rubio was doing "getting criminals out of the country."

Trump's shoulder shrugs in the opening months of his second administration have come in response to the relatively trivial, like when he claimed he had "nothing to do with" an AI-generated image imagining him as the new pope appeared on his Truth Social feed, and more serious matters, like when he told reporters at the White House that he hadn't been briefed about U.S. soldiers who had gone missing in Lithuania, despite search operations already having been underway for hours. The soldiers were dead, and Trump ultimately opted to watch a golf tournament instead of attending the return of their remains.

There's more. Trump said "I don't know about it" when asked about the administration's move to drop federal corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams; replied "I don't know" when asked about his administration's plan to deport people to Libya, referring a reporter to Homeland Security; and conceded "I don't know anything about it" when asked about a bombshell story in The Atlantic about Hegseth discussing highly sensitive attack plans against rebels in Yemen on an unsecured Signal chat that he didn't know included the magazine's editor-in chief. One would think Trump would have been informed of the security lapse by his administration rather than reporters after the story had been lighting up the internet for several hours.

Hegseth is also at the center of Trump's latest shoulder shrug over the pause in military aid to Ukraine, of course. Shawn McCreesh of The New York Timesasked the president on Wednesday whether he had been able to figure out who ordered the munitions shipments to be halted, after he said a day earlier that he didn't know who did it.

"I haven't thought about it, because we're looking at Ukraine right now, and munitions," Trump responded. "But no, I have not gotten into it."

McCreesh followed up. "What does it say that such a big decision could be made within your government without you knowing?"

"I would know," Trump said. "If a decision was made, I will know. I'll be the first to know. In fact, most likely, I'd give the order, but I haven't done that yet."

Trump then quickly pivoted to another reporter to get a new question.