‘Disgusting betrayal’: World reacts with horror to Donald Trump’s tirade against Volodymyr Zelensky
The world has reacted with utter horror to Donald Trump’s latest, extraordinary tirade against the Ukrainian President.
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The world has reacted with horror to Donald Trump’s latest, extraordinary tirade against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, with accusations flying that the American leader is openly siding with Russia against the country it invaded.
A day after raising more than a few eyebrows by saying Ukraine “should have never started” the war – yes, the war Vladimir Putin launched in February of 2022 – Mr Trump escalated his rhetoric even further.
“Think of it,” he wrote on social media.
“A modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the US and ‘TRUMP’, will never be able to settle.
“The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back.
“Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalisation, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us – We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation.
“On top of this, Zelensky admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING’. He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle’.
“A Dictator without Elections, Zelensky better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP’ and the Trump Administration can do.
“Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelensky probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – and so it continues.”
Facts or fiction?
Mr Trump’s post was riddled with inaccuracies.
For example, his claim that the United States has spent $US350 billion on aid for Ukraine. America’s Congressional Research Service published a breakdown of the nation’s contributions last month and put the tally at $US175 billion.
Clearly Mr Trump’s assertion that America has spent “$200 billion more” than Europe on Ukraine cannot possibly be true, given it hasn’t spent $200 billion at all. To address that claim anyway: the US has given more than any single European nation, yes, but significantly less than Europe as a whole. You can read a recent breakdown here.
What of Mr Zelensky’s alleged “admission” that half of the aid sent by the US is “missing”? The Centre for Strategic and International Studies explained that quite well here.
“Was it lost or stolen? The answer is no. Only part of the aid goes through Ukrainian control,” it said.
“A large part pays for activities as a result of the war but not to Ukraine directly. These include the US training of Ukrainian forces, global humanitarian assistance, additional costs of US surge forces in Europe, and intelligence support for both NATO and Ukraine.”
The most striking part of Mr Trump’s statement, though, was his description of Mr Zelensky as a “dictator without elections”. This is a direct echo of Russia’s rhetoric.
Mr Zelensky won Ukraine’s presidential election in 2019 with 75 per cent of the vote. It is true to say there has not been another election since, even though one would have been due in earlyish 2024.
Why? Because Ukraine has been under martial law since Russia invaded in 2022, and the country’s constitution prohibits elections while martial law is in effect. Ukraine’s parliament has repeatedly affirmed Mr Zelensky’s extensions of martial law, and all its political parties support a delay, for the next round of elections, until six months after martial law is lifted.
This is not without precedent elsewhere in the democratic world. The United Kingdom, for example, suspended its elections during World War II – Mr Zelensky is essentially in the same position as Winston Churchill.
Finally, while the true death toll in Ukraine is difficult to gauge, it is most certainly not in the “millions”, plural, as claimed by Mr Trump.
‘A disgusting betrayal’: World shellshocked
Mr Trump’s latest remarks have earned little support, even among his political allies.
“Would you call Ukrainian President Zelensky a dictator, as President Trump has?” a reporter asked Republican Senate leader John Thune during a press conference.
“The President speaks for himself. What I want to see is a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome,” Mr Thune replied. That is not a “yes”.
“I think right now there’s a negotiation going on. And let’s see where that ultimately leads.”
“Are you at all concerned about the President’s rhetoric blaming Ukraine for starting the war?” another reporter asked.
“I think what I am in support of is a peaceful outcome and result in Ukraine,” said Mr Thune.
Other reactions, to Mr Trump’s tirade, were less measured.
“Trump’s characterisations of Zelensky and Ukraine are some of the most shameful remarks ever made by a US president,” said John Bolton, who served as Mr Trump’s national security adviser in the White House during his first term.
“Our support of Ukraine has never been about charity. Our way of life at home depends on our strength abroad.”
(Let me balance this out with a remark from Mr Trump’s current national security adviser, Mike Waltz: “Not everyone has gotten the message that the era of endless grinding war, with death and destruction on all sides, that era is over.”)
“Vladimir Putin is a vile dictator and thug,” said Republican Congressman Mike Lawler.
“He is not our friend, nor our ally. While I support the effort to end the war in Ukraine, any deal towards peace must include Ukraine at the negotiating table.
“With respect to elections, of course Ukraine should have free and fair elections. But that demand, coming from Putin and Russia, is both comical and self-serving.”
“What world is he living in?” wondered Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.
“It is not only contrary to the facts and the truth, but utterly despicable. A disgusting betrayal of a country that has bled and fought and died for freedom.
“The President’s surrender is pathetic and weak.”
Veteran British broadcaster Andrew Neil described Mr Trump’s post as “very worrying”.
“Every claim he makes is demonstrably untrue,” Mr Neil said.
“More worrying than that, every one is a Kremlin talking point or piece of Russian propaganda. Why does Trump slag off Zelensky yet never have a harsh word to say about Putin? Bizarre and distressing.”
Fox News’ chief political analyst, Brit Hume, described it as “music to the ears of Putin”.
Responding to Mr Hume, anti-Trump Republican strategist Sarah Longwell asked: “When will the Trump apologists realise what they’ve enabled?”
“Dictator is a term Trump applies exclusively to democratically elected leaders. He refuses to say this about actual dictators,” argued Jonathan Chait, a senior writer for The Atlantic.
“I never thought I would see the leader of the American nation siding with the Kremlin in a war of aggression,” said Tom Nichols, one of Mr Chait’s conservative colleagues.
“I genuinely don’t think Putin could have even imagined Trump falling into his lap on Ukraine quite so hard, and so fast, as he has in the last week,” wrote Max Seddon, head of The Financial Times’ Moscow bureau.
“However sympathetic you are to the populist cause, however ‘realist’ on Ukraine, it is impossible to defend the head of the world’s most powerful nation putting out reckless, semi-literate screeds like this,” said Freddie Sayers, publisher of conservative magazine The Spectator and editor-in-chief of the website Unherd.
“For those of us who have lived and covered this war from 2014, it is hard to imagine a more counterfactual, distorted and frankly offensive interpretation of the last decade,” wrote Andrew Roth, global affairs correspondent for The Guardian.
“If you’d asked AI to write a piece of Russian propaganda in the style of Donald Trump, this is what you’d get,” said the former British MP David Gauke, a Conservative.
“President Zelensky is not a dictator. He is the democratically elected leader of Ukraine who bravely stood up to Putin’s illegal invasion,” said the current Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch.
David French, a conservative American commentator, called Mr Trump’s words “a Russian propagandist’s dream”.
“It’s not just that Trump has a flawed strategic vision. Lots of presidents have had flawed strategies. It’s also that he’s full of malice and spite towards Ukraine,” said Mr French.
“So he will lie and lie and lie.”
Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney, who was chased out of office because of her opposition to Mr Trump, brought up former president Ronald Reagan.
“Trump, with his devotion to Putin, abandonment of Ukraine, and lies about history, is the antithesis of everything Ronald Reagan stood for,” said Ms Cheney.
“He is aligning America with the enemies of the very freedom that generations have fought and died to defend. History will not be kind to those who are helping him, especially those who call themselves Reagan Republicans while they pretend not to see what’s happening.”
Speaking on a Democrat-friendly podcast, hosted by two political staffers, the notoriously coarse former Chicago mayor and US ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, lived up to his reputation.
“Right now the Russians are literally – they’re doing funny dances. They are so happy,” said one of the hosts, the Republican consultant (but Trump critic) Mike Murphy.
“Their number one goal since the Second World War is to split up NATO, and screw up the Atlantic alliance, which of course Trump is a huge asset for.”
“Since Joseph Stalin, that has been the singular goal, and an American president achieved Joseph Stalin’s wet dream,” Mr Emanuel responded. Charming.
“Donald Trump is the worst negotiator because his only goal is vanity. His own.”
He accused Mr Trump “serving every Russian foreign policy goal”.
One person who did very much enjoy Mr Trump’s musings was former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.
“If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US President, I would have laughed out loud,” said Medvedev.
“Donald Trump is 200 per cent right. Bankrupt clown.”
(The “clown” here is Mr Zelensky.)
‘We cannot allow it’: Zelensky responds
Mr Zelensky himself has not replied directly to Mr Trump, though he alluded to the US President’s arguments in fresh remarks of his own.
“There must be confidence that in a few months or years, Putin won’t return with his war,” Mr Zelensky said.
“We cannot allow Putin to deceive everyone again. Before any potential negotiations, all partners must clearly understand that strong security guarantees are the priority for lasting peace.”
Twitter: @SamClench
Originally published as ‘Disgusting betrayal’: World reacts with horror to Donald Trump’s tirade against Volodymyr Zelensky
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