President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance alternated scathing criticisms of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, signaling a shifting, albeit unified, front in relations between the administration and officials in Kyiv.
Things have been growing somewhat contentious between Zelensky and President Trump, with the latter having insisted on a rapid and reasonable end to the ongoing war with Russia.
A leaked document from earlier this week reportedly outlines Trump’s demand for a $500 billion “payback” from Ukraine in any negotiated peace deal to end the war with Russia. According to the Telegraph, which viewed the confidential document, that price includes some level of control over Ukraine’s ports, infrastructure, oil, gas, and critical minerals.
That news, along with signs that the White House has been negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has left Ukraine in a “panic” that they are being left behind.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently sat down with a Russian delegation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as they engaged in a “positive, upbeat, constructive” discussion on how to move forward.
The president made it clear to reporters at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday that Ukraine had a chance to get into the negotiations game and blew it.
“They’ve had a seat for three years and a long time before that,” Trump chastised. “This could have been settled very easily — just a half, a half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without the loss of much land, very little land.”
He accused Zelensky of holding Ukraine under “martial law” and urged his people to demand new elections.
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It’s quite clear that handling Ukraine with kid gloves is a thing of the past. Zelensky responded by throwing a bit of a temper tantrum and stealing from the Biden-Harris playbook by suggesting anything contrary to the needs of their nation is akin to “disinformation.”
“Unfortunately, President Trump, I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for, the American people who always support us, unfortunately lives in this disinformation space,” Zelensky told reporters early Wednesday.
That response didn’t go over well in the White House.
President Trump unloaded on Ukraine’s leader on Truth Social Wednesday morning, blasting Zelensky as a “modestly successful comedian” who somehow managed to draw the United States into a conflict that has cost the United States “$350 billion.”
“On top of this, Zelenskyy 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,'” he continued.
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Trump went on to label Zelensky as “a dictator without elections” who better step up to the plate and help end the war before it’s too late.
“Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going,” the President concluded. “I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died.”
BREAKING: President Trump calls Zelensky a “dictator” refusing to hold elections, says the Ukraine president “probably wants to keep the [America] ‘gravy train'” going as peace talks continue pic.twitter.com/0jbx7lCo94
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) February 19, 2025
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Vice President Vance piled on Ukraine’s president by noting that whoever is feeding him “bad advice” on dealing with Trump by “badmouthing” him in public is not exactly doing him any favors.
“The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the President will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration,” Vance explained.
He then reiterated American foreign policy relating specifically to Ukraine again, slowly for those who don’t seem to be getting it.
“We obviously love the Ukrainian people. We admire the bravery of the soldiers, but we obviously think that this war needs to come to a rapid close,” Vance insisted. “That is the policy of the President of the United States. It is not based on Russian disinformation.”
Zelensky will get nowhere trying to run headfirst into the Trump-Vance brick wall of peace. He must know that. But seeing him try to act like the Democrat party by screeching “Russian disinformation” is going to isolate Ukraine in the negotiations even further.
Zelensky should help deliver peace if he wants to be taken seriously as a leader. Until then, he is, as Trump suggests, simply a comedian turned oligarch.
