{"id":243649,"date":"2025-02-21T09:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T09:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/trump-flips-the-script-on-the-ukraine-war-blaming-zelensky-not-putin\/"},"modified":"2025-02-21T09:14:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T09:14:15","slug":"trump-flips-the-script-on-the-ukraine-war-blaming-zelensky-not-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/trump-flips-the-script-on-the-ukraine-war-blaming-zelensky-not-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Flips the Script on the Ukraine War, Blaming Zelensky Not Putin"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/19\/multimedia\/19dc-prexy1-lfwp\/19dc-prexy1-lfwp-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Trump Flips the Script on the Ukraine War, Blaming Zelensky Not Putin\" title=\"Trump Flips the Script on the Ukraine War, Blaming Zelensky Not Putin\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Russian forces crashed over the borders into Ukraine in 2022 determined to wipe it off the map as an independent state, the United States rushed to aid the beleaguered nation and cast its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as a hero of resistance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Three years almost to the day later, President Trump is rewriting the history of Russia\u2019s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Ukraine, in this version, is not a victim but a villain. And Mr. Zelensky is not a latter-day Winston Churchill, but a \u201cdictator without elections\u201d who somehow started the war himself and conned America into helping.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump\u2019s revisionism sets the stage for <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/18\/us\/politics\/trump-russia-putin.html\" title=\"\">a geopolitical about-face<\/a> unlike any in generations as the president embarks on negotiations with Russia that Ukraine fears could come at its own expense. By vilifying Mr. Zelensky and shifting blame for the war from Moscow to Kyiv, Mr. Trump seems to be laying a predicate for withdrawing support for an ally under attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The sharp exchange of words between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky this week signaled how much has changed with the inauguration of a new president in Washington. Even for Mr. Trump, who has never been a fan of Ukraine and has long expressed admiration of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, the vitriol expressed toward Mr. Zelensky drew gasps of surprise on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A day after falsely declaring that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/19\/world\/europe\/trump-zelensky-ukraine-comments.html\" title=\"\">Ukraine started the war<\/a>, Mr. Trump doubled down on Wednesday with a remarkable broadside against the leader of an ally, built on a lie. \u201cThink of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn\u2019t be won,\u201d <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/114031332924234939\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Mr. Trump wrote on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was a striking distortion of reality. Mr. Zelensky did not talk the United States into giving him money \u201cto go into a war.\u201d He and his country were attacked, and only then did the United States under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. respond with expansive financial assistance. And even then, it has been only about a third of what Mr. Trump claimed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But Mr. Trump went on, characterizing Mr. Zelensky not as a defender of democracy but an enemy of it. \u201cHe refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden \u2018like a fiddle,\u2019\u201d Mr. Trump wrote. \u201cA Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While Ukraine has suspended elections during the war, Mr. Zelensky was in fact originally <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/04\/21\/world\/europe\/Volodymyr-Zelensky-ukraine-elections.html\" title=\"\">elected by a landslide in 2019<\/a> in a contest deemed free and fair by the international community \u2014 unlike Mr. Putin, an actual dictator who has stayed in power for a quarter-century through elections widely deemed to be farces. And Mr. Zelensky <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/kyivindependent.com\/ukrainians-trust-in-zelensky-increases-to-57-survey-shows\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">enjoys a 57 percent approval rating<\/a>, according to a new poll, higher than Mr. Trump\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The president\u2019s \u201cdictator\u201d jab came just hours before he referred to himself online regarding a domestic issue as \u201c<a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/19\/us\/politics\/trump-king-image.html\" title=\"\">the king<\/a>,\u201d followed up by a White House official who posted an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Taylor47\/status\/1892292465194889397\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">illustration of Mr. Trump in royal garb<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The president\u2019s attack on Mr. Zelensky, while sparing any harsh words for Mr. Putin, provoked outrage among European leaders, Democrats in Washington and even a few Republicans who were willing to speak out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMr. President, Ukraine did not \u2018start\u2019 this war,\u201d Mike Pence, his former vice president, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Mike_Pence\/status\/1892271536394162229\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said online<\/a>. \u201cRussia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Charles M. Kupperman, who served as Mr. Trump\u2019s deputy national security adviser in his first term, compared the president\u2019s actions to the British prime minister who tried to appease Adolf Hitler by agreeing to give him part of Czechoslovakia. \u201cTrump\u2019s name will be remembered in history as a surrender artist just like Neville Chamberlain,\u201d Mr. Kupperman said in an interview.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Moscow, on the other hand, seemed delighted. Dmitri A. Medvedev, a senior adviser to Mr. Putin who served as caretaker president for four years, cited Mr. Trump\u2019s comments about Mr. Zelensky being a dictator without elections. \u201cIf you\u2019d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the US president, I would have laughed out loud,\u201d <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MedvedevRussiaE\/status\/1892289659603910745\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">he wrote online<\/a>. Mr. Trump, he added, \u201cis 200 percent right. Bankrupt clown.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There is of course a long history of American presidents growing frustrated with the leaders of foreign allies they were trying to help during wartime. Franklin D. Roosevelt never liked Charles de Gaulle even as U.S. troops fought to liberate France. John F. Kennedy was so alienated by South Vietnam\u2019s Ngo Dinh Diem that his government did not discourage a coup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">George W. Bush and Barack Obama both found Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/08\/12\/world\/middleeast\/for-2-us-presidents-iraqi-leader-proved-a-source-of-frustration.html\" title=\"\">to be mercurial and unconstructive<\/a>. Mr. Biden certainly <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/11\/us\/politics\/biden-netanyahu-gaza.html\" title=\"\">grew angry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> of Israel even as he backed his war on Hamas. For that matter, Mr. Biden\u2019s relationship with Mr. Zelensky <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/24\/us\/politics\/biden-zelensky-ukraine-russia.html\" title=\"\">could be prickly at times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But those presidents still supported the allies\u2019 cause, while it is not clear that Mr. Trump does. And as with so many things, Mr. Trump goes much further than his predecessors in terms of public vitriol against an ally facing an existential threat, employing the kind of language that presidents rarely use about an ostensible friend.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Vice President JD Vance, who in 2022 said that \u201cI don\u2019t really care what happens to Ukraine,\u201d went as far as to warn Mr. Zelensky not to fight back. After Mr. Zelensky complained on Wednesday that Mr. Trump was \u201ccaught in a web of disinformation,\u201d Mr. Vance <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-14413657\/Vice-President-Vance-warns-Zelensky-badmouthing-Trump-public-backfire-Ukrainian-presidents-broadside.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">told The Daily Mail<\/a> that such comments would only backfire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe idea that Zelensky is going to change the president\u2019s mind by bad-mouthing him in public media,\u201d he said, is \u201can atrocious way to deal with this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Trump has never been particularly sympathetic to Ukraine even before the latest fighting. As far back as his first campaign for president in 2016, he signaled that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2016\/08\/01\/world\/europe\/ukraine-trump-crimea-politics.html\" title=\"\">he could accept Russia\u2019s illegal annexation of Crimea<\/a> from Ukraine and expressed admiration for Mr. Putin\u2019s strength.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His disregard for Ukraine later <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/05\/us\/politics\/trump-putin-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">grew into outright animosity<\/a> as he became persuaded that Ukraine had intervened in the 2016 election against him, repeating a propaganda line pushed by Russia, which actually did intervene in the election on Mr. Trump\u2019s behalf. Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, his ally and lawyer who was in touch with Ukrainian figures seeking influence, encouraged this line of thinking, so much so that Mr. Trump increasingly saw Ukraine as a personal adversary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cTrump was driven in his first term by the intense desire to disprove any Russian collusion in the 2016 election,\u201d Mr. Kupperman recalled. \u201cHe wanted to demonstrate he won without any outside influence or interference, and it gnawed at him when it came to allegations that he won because of Russian assistance. Ukraine became one path to demonstrate he won without any such assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That ultimately led to the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/09\/26\/us\/politics\/trump-ukraine-timeline.html\" title=\"\">famous phone call with Mr. Zelensky<\/a> in 2019 pushing Ukraine to help tarnish Mr. Biden, then the leading Democratic candidate for president, by announcing a corruption investigation. Mr. Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine at the same time and only released it under pressure by advisers and Republican senators. Revelations about his actions <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/12\/18\/us\/politics\/trump-impeached.html\" title=\"\">led to his impeachment<\/a> by the House later that year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Russia mounted its full-scale invasion in 2022, Mr. Trump offered little sympathy or support for Ukraine, even as blue-and-yellow flags went up around the United States in solidarity. In the days leading up to the attack, in fact, Mr. Trump <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/22\/world\/europe\/trump-putin-russia-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">praised Mr. Putin\u2019s \u201cgenius\u201d move<\/a> in putting pressure on Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the years since, he has repeatedly questioned Mr. Biden\u2019s decision to devote so much American money to defending Ukraine, much as the commentator Tucker Carlson and others on the far right of the Republican Party have, even while more mainstream party leaders were criticizing Mr. Biden for not doing more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-8\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In response to Mr. Trump\u2019s pressure, House Republicans blocked a new aid request for months, undercutting Ukrainian forces and giving Russian invaders time to regroup and stabilize their positions. Only after G.O.P. allies and foreign dignitaries lobbied him to relent did he permit House Republicans to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/20\/us\/politics\/house-foreign-aid-bill.html\" title=\"\">let the aid go through<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But while many Americans might understandably oppose investing taxpayer dollars in someone else\u2019s war, Mr. Trump goes further by questioning whether Ukraine is legitimately the injured party. Several times in recent days, he has expressed great distress over how many people have been killed and how much of the country has been destroyed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yet in doing so, he points to Mr. Zelensky, rather than Mr. Putin, as the author of all that carnage. \u201cI love Ukraine,\u201d he wrote on Wednesday, \u201cbut Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/19\/us\/politics\/trump-zelensky-russia-ukraine-war.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Russian forces crashed over the borders into Ukraine in 2022 determined to wipe it off the map as an independent state, the United States rushed to aid the beleaguered nation and cast its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, as a hero of resistance. Three years almost to the day later, President Trump is rewriting the history [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/19\/multimedia\/19dc-prexy1-lfwp\/19dc-prexy1-lfwp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8250,137233,163575,187824,164576,209,163421,202,26464,52,1130,128437,128440,34139,3102,8774],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243651,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243649\/revisions\/243651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}