Putin says Trump getting ‘real information’ as Trump lambasts Zelenskyy
“Trump started receiving real information, and it changed his approach,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said of US President Donald Trump adopting Kremlin talking points on Ukraine.
A day after top American and Russian diplomats held high level talks for the first time since Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago, US President Donald Trump lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on social media, calling him a dictator who resists holding elections in war-time.
“A Dictator Without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump warned in a post on Truth Social. “In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia.”
Trump’s parroting of Kremlin talking points and insults of the Ukrainian leader reached such a level that allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed joyful disbelief.
“If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US President, I would have laughed out loud,” former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter, after citing Trump’s tweet calling Zelenskyy a dictator. “Trump is 200 percent right.”
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz suggested that Trump had grown frustrated with Zelenskyy for not immediately signing a US contract presented to him last week that would have granted the United States control of fifty percent of Ukraine’s mineral rights. According to the Ukrainians, the contract did not contain any reciprocal commitment from the US side for future security assistance.
“I think the frustration really stemmed just in the last week from this bizarre pushback and escalation of rhetoric over…what we see as an absolute opportunity,” Waltz told Fox News today. “We believe the American taxpayer deserves to recoup much of their investment.”
Vice President JD Vance, meantime, suggested that Zelenskyy had irritated Trump by trying to correct Trump’s false claims.
Chief among them, Trump asserted yesterday that Ukraine, rather than Russia, had started the war three years ago. “You should never have started it,” Trump told journalists at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, referring to the Ukrainian president. Trump also said that Zelenskyy had only 4% approval rating.
(It was, of course, Russia that launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Polling today shows that about 57% of Ukrainians trust Zelenskyy.)
Zelenskyy, responding to Trump’s false claims, said that he respects Trump and the American people, but can see that Trump is echoing Russian disinformation.
“We have seen this disinformation,” Zelenskyy told reporters today. “We understand that it is coming from Russia.”
“President Trump—I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for…--unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Vance seemed to suggest that Zelenskyy should not have attempted to correct Trump’s disinformation.
“Zelenskyy is getting really bad advice, and I don’t know from whom,” Vance told British journalist Raheen Kassam today. “The idea that [Zelensky’s] going to litigate his disagreements with the president in the public square … This is not a good way to deal with President Trump.”
Vance also asserted that it is now US policy that Ukraine hold elections before any Ukraine-Russian negotiations to end the war. That is a position that the Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded, that Europe experts say is a Kremlin ploy to interfere to try to install a more Russian-friendly government in Kyiv and to stall for time.
“The idea that you cannot have elections in the midst of a war is…kind of a preposterous idea,” Vance said. “And the President has made very clear that he thinks that should happen. So…that is American policy.”
On demand for Ukraine elections, Trump falling for Kremlin ‘rope a dope’
Putin’s demand for Ukraine to hold elections before he would sit down with Zelenskyy for negotiations to end the war is another tactic to try to buy time, and meddle in Ukraine to try to install a more Kremlin friendly regime, said former US Ambassador to Poland Daniel Fried.
“The trouble with that is it is playing into the typical Kremlin tactic of rope a dope,” Fried, speaking from a trip to Warsaw, told me today. “If you are Donald Trump and you set out to end the war, don’t let the Russians stick in another factor, which takes three months down the road.”
“By allowing Putin to throw in extraneous issues, it is frustrating Trump’s own plan” to try to end the war quickly, Fried, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, said.
(And when is the last time that Putin, who jails and kills political rivals like Alexey Navalny, held free and fair elections, Fried added.)
European allies rally to Zelenskyy defense
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are both due to travel to Washington for talks with the White House next week, Waltz told Fox.
Zelenskyy said he held calls with both leaders today, as well as with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.
The British Prime Minister pushed back on Trump’s characterization of Zelenskyy as a dictator, and on Trump and Kremlin demands for Ukraine to hold elections during war time as a pre-condition for a ceasefire talks.
“The Prime Minister expressed his support for President Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s democratically elected leader and said that it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime as the UK did during World War II,” a Downing Street spokesperson said, the (UK) Times’ Larisa Brown reported.
Zelenskyy said his national security team was preparing for talks tomorrow with Trump’s Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg, who arrived in Kyiv today.
“It is crucial that this discussion, and our overall cooperation with the U.S., remains constructive,” Zelenskyy said in a video posted to Twitter. “Together with America and Europe, peace can be more secure, and that is our goal.”
Rare Republican pushback on Trump
Some Republican members of Congress expressed rare disagreement with Trump for blaming Ukraine and not Putin for the war.
“When it comes to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I blame Putin above all others,” Graham tweeted today.
“Vladimir Putin is a vile dictator and thug, who has worked in a concerted effort with China and Iran to undermine and destabilize the United States, Europe, Israel, and the free world,” Mike Lawler, a moderate Republican congressman from a ‘swing’ district in New York, wrote on Twitter. “He is not our friend, nor our ally.”
Former Democratic congressman Tom Malinowski said Congress – and the Europeans – have options to shape and constrain Trump’s approach to negotiations.
“To my friends in Congress (on both sides of the aisle)…remember you have power and do something,” Malinowski wrote.
“Make clear now that you’ll vote to block approval if Trump’s ‘deal’ betrays our values and allies,” he suggested. “Put a provision in the next government funding bill that prohibits spending funds to withdraw US troops from Poland and the Baltic States unless Russia is no longer a threat.”
“If pro-Ukraine Republicans are too chicken to legislate, they can still speak out,” he said. “Tell the administration now your minimum conditions for a just deal, from real security guarantees for Ukraine, to no permanent bar on NATO membership, to the return of kidnapped kids.”
“Our European allies can act too,” Malinowski wrote. “The most powerful step they can take it to actually seize the $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets they’ve frozen before Trump tries to surrender them. That would immediately give Europe leverage in negotiations.”
Meantime, a Quinnipiac poll out today shows that the American public remains overwhelmingly skeptical of Putin. Asked, should we trust Putin, only 9% of those surveyed expressed support; while 81% opposed.
Trump undercutting initial success in advancing peace talks
Trump adopting the Kremlin narrative about Zelenskyy weakens his efforts to try to rapidly end the war that were showing some promise, said the Atlantic Council’s Fried.
“Trump’s policy efforts to end the war on reasonable terms was gaining traction,” Fried said. “Then he undercuts it…by diving into the Kremlin narrative about Zelenskyy.”
“The outlines of the Trump plan have promise,” Fried said. “To get a ceasefire in place, with security guarantees for Ukraine,” and stepped up European support.
“It would be a big win,” he said. “To get there, he has to stare down Putin. Putin dodges and weaves.”
“Why undercut your own message, of peace through strength, when his first preliminary efforts show some promise?” Fried wondered. “It makes no sense.”
Putin says Trump now getting “real” information
Putin, for his part, suggested today that Trump should be even tougher on Europe and Ukraine.
“I’m surprised by Trump’s restraint towards allies who behaved rudely,” Putin told Russia 24.
Putin said Trump recently changed his approach to adopt a more Kremlin-friendly one because he was finally getting “real” information.
“Trump started receiving real information, and it changed his approach,” Putin said. “That takes time.”
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