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Tag: volodymyr zelensky
Kiev on fire

Backing War Criminal Putin, The Traitor In Chief Betrays Ukraine -- And America

Writing in the New York Times, David Sanger highlighted the extent to which Donald Trump is going all out to support Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine:

President Trump’s intensifying effort in the past few weeks to rehabilitate Russia and usher President Vladimir V. Putin back into diplomatic society is remarkable for its speed, its characterization of Mr. Zelensky as the primary obstacle to peace, and its brazen denial that Russia is continuing the war that Mr. Trump says he is trying to end.
“Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” Mr. Trump said on Monday, speaking to reporters outside the White House as he left for a campaign rally. “They haven’t been doing much,” he said, making no mention of the Russian missiles and jet-powered drones that have been targeting apartment buildings in Kyiv and Ukraine’s surviving electricity grid.
In contrast, he said, “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. They’ve given nothing to us. Remember that.”

As Sanger noted, Trump’s support for Putin is unique in American history. Previous administrations have made deals with erstwhile adversaries, as Nixon did with China, and given up on support for failing allies, as the U.S. did in Vietnam and Afghanistan. But never before have we outright switched sides, let alone supported an aggressor while vilifying that aggressor’s victim.

What makes Trump’s support for Putin even more remarkable is that Russia has, by many accounts, been actively aiding Iran against America in the war Trump started. Who says so? Well, among others, Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And the aid goes beyond intelligence sharing that has helped Iran target U.S. forces. Russia has also reportedly been sending Iran explosives and weapons components.

What would Republicans be saying if a Democratic president were supporting a foreign dictator even as that dictator was helping another nation kill American troops? They would be crying “treason.” But this is all apparently “fine” with Trump.

What’s going on here? It’s important to understand that — as Phillips O’Brien documents — Trump hasn’t “pivoted” away from Ukraine toward Russia. He has been a Putin supporter all along.

Thus when Trump says that “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine,” who, exactly, does he mean by “we”? He cut off all economic and military aid to Ukraine as soon as he took office. Here’s total support for Ukraine, by country, since January 2025:

True, the U.S. continued to share military intelligence with Ukraine while allowing Ukraine to use Elon Musk’s Starshield and permitting European nations to transfer some U.S. weapons to Ukraine. But these actions cost America nothing. The most you can say is that until recently Trump shied away from actively sabotaging Ukraine’s ability to defend itself.

And now even that restraint is gone. According to Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. intelligence sharing was blocked “for some period of time,” although it appears to have resumed for now. Ukraine’s access to Starshield has been limited. And the Washington Post reports that the U.S. has been holding up European transfers of Patriot missiles to Ukraine.

There are two questions here. First, why does Trump love Putin and hate Zelensky? Second, why has he ripped off the mask and gone full pro-Russia in the past few weeks?

On the first question, Zelensky gave a blunt answer in a recent interview with the Financial Times: Trump, he asserted, has an instinctive affinity for autocrats and the super wealthy: “He speaks about it openly that he loves such people and he respects such people.” That’s clearly right.

I would add three points. First, Trump and his inner circle don’t just love autocrats. They hate democracy and rule of law — which means that they hate America and American values.

Second, Putin-worship was widespread on the authoritarian right even before Trump entered the picture, with many celebrating Russia’s anti-wokeness and perceived masculinity. Remarkably, the valorization of Russia’s supposed toughness has survived despite Russia’s repeated military humiliations. So Trump has been following a well-trodden path.

Finally, whatever else you may say about Zelensky, he’s a genuine hero, who showed great personal courage by staying in Kyiv when Russia invaded. And Trump surely resents the fact that Zelensky is everything he is not.

The second question is, why now? Why has Trump chosen this moment to switch from covert, deniable support for Putin to overtly, explicitly taking Russia’s side?

As I suggested yesterday, the answer lies precisely in Trump’s collapsing support at home. Nothing he does now is likely to avert Republican catastrophe in the midterms. Republican politicians have been going out of their way to avoid being seen with him on the campaign trail. Trump officials are already lawyering up in preparation for the probes a Democratic Congress will launch.

At this point, then, Trump effectively has nothing left to lose on the political front — and his political bankruptcy has freed him to become his worst self, indulging himself by doing what he always wanted to do — which includes supporting corrupt, murderous dictators.

And there will be much more of this to come. Trump can’t and won’t make America great again. But he can betray everything America stands for, and he’s doing it as we speak.

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and former professor at MIT and Princeton who now teaches at the City University of New York's Graduate Center. From 2000 to 2024, he wrote a column for The New York Times. Please consider subscribing to his Substack.



Whose National Interests Are Served By Trump's Global Bullying? Not Ours

Whose National Interests Are Served By Trump's Global Bullying? Not Ours

With Donald Trump as president, international humiliation has become a condition of being American.

Trump arrived at the NATO summit in Ankara fresh from his gross interference with World Cup officiating. His bullying call to the FIFA chief evidently resulted in the suspension of Folarin Balogun's red card, restoration of the star player to the US National Men's Team roster, and a poor outcome in their Monday match against Belgium -- eliminating the United States from the tournament amid imprecations against the "Trump curse."

As usual, Trump instantly set to work insulting America's traditional allies, renewing his absurd demand to annex Greenland and denouncing NATO, which he said "is never there for us" because its European leaders have no use for his war on Iran. He knows that he is lying about the all iance's fidelity to its parnership with the US, proved with blood and sorrow during the war in Afghanistan, the only time in history when NATO's Article 5 requiring mutual defense has been activated.

Trump's principal complaint against NATO is the reluctance of its member states to support the war that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been waging on Iran. But while preparing to depart Turkey, he demonstrated again why our allies won't join in that idiotic endeavor, when he declared an end to the Iran "ceasefire" that had scarcely been in effect. Like his initiation of the war, that announcement came without consulting the allies whose cooperation he has demanded. Of course, this was exactly how Trump behaved during his first term, when he ended the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action that President Barack Obama had negotiated -- with the assistance and participation not only of our European allies but China and Russia as well.

Having dismissed European interests and views back then, only a president as arrogant as Trump would assume that they would join in lockstep when he attacked Iran amid this year's bilateral negotiations. No doubt the Europeans were as shocked by that perfidious strike as the Iranians themselves -- and they just as certainly were appalled by the absence of strategic planning that has led to the Strait of Hormuz closure, destabilizing the Mideast, many thousands of deaths, and the pointless disruption of the world economy.

For the moment, Trump reaffirmed the US commitment to NATO with today's unanimous declaration by its leaders of “our ironclad commitment to our collective defense under Article 5." He even offered a vague commitment to allow Ukrainian production of Patriot missiles, although it will be the Europeans and Canadians who provide $80 billion in new military aid to Kiev.

Trump probably knows that US law prohibits him from simply quitting NATO, and he may not want that fight with Republican senators on the eve of midterm elections. Nobody should be surprised, however, when he returns to spiteful attacks on the Western nations that have been our faithful friends for decades. He will keep undermining our relationships with those countries for as long as he is president. His ego and ignorance won't allow him to act in our real interest -- and those countries won't serve up the corrupt deals to enrich him that he has come to expect, as he flies around in the "Air Force One" that landed in Washington as a Qatari bribe.

If too many Americans don't grasp these realities, be advised that the Europeans, and people around the world, assuredly do. They look upon the United States and its leadership with a mixture of scorn and pity. Yes, "America is back," as Trump and his stooges bray -- back to the disgrace inflicted on our reputation by atrocity and misadventure in places like Iraq and Indochina.

Who is served by all of the chaos and ill feeling that Trump exacerbates with every dim utterance? That would be our adversaries in Moscow and Beijing, who despise NATO as a beacon of democracy in a dark time.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism (St. Martin's Press, 2024). The paperback version, with a new Afterword, is now available wherever books are sold.


New Quinnipiac Poll Shows Majority Reject Trump On Key Issues

New Quinnipiac Poll Shows Majority Reject Trump On Key Issues

Barely more than 50 days into his second term, President Donald Trump appears to be failing in the eyes of a majority of American voters on nearly every major issue — from the economy to immigration to the war in Ukraine to trade to his handling of the federal workforce and more —according to a new poll released Thursday by the highly-respected Quinnipiac University.

"A noticeable uptick of discontent can be seen over President Trump's handling of a range of issues: from Ukraine to the economy to the federal workforce," Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a statement.

A majority of Americans, 53 percent, disapprove of the president's performance overall, with just 42 percent approving. That's a significant swing (11 points) on the disapproval side from Quinnipiac's January 29 poll, which found 46 percent percent of Americans approved of the new president's performance, and 42 percent disapproved.

Fox News host Jessica Tarlov gave an overview of the poll's results, telling viewers (video below), "So basically, he is underwater on everything."

On one of the most strongly-negative questions, 60 percent of voters oppose President Trump's plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. Just one in three support it. Another major negative is Trump's position on trade with Canada: 58 percent of voters disapprove of his handling of that issue, just 36 percent approve. That is closely followed by trade with Mexico (56 percent disapprove).

Historically, the economy has been one of Trump's strongest approval areas. That is no longer the case.

A majority of voters, 54 percent disapprove of Trump's handling of the economy — just 41 percent approve.

"In the Quinnipiac poll released today, one percent of voters describe the state of the America’s economy as excellent. That’s not a typo," observed Democratic strategist Matt McDermott.

On that topic, Quinnipiac reported, a whopping "76 percent describe it as either not so good (45 percent) or poor (31 percent)."

According to Quinnipiac's numbers, voters thought President Joe Biden's economy was better in his last full month (December) than they think President Trump's is now.

Quinnipiac University's December 2024 poll found 34 percent described the economy "as either excellent (three percent) or good (31 percent) and 64 percent described it as either not so good (31 percent) or poor (33 percent)."

Immigration, also once a strong area for Trump, no longer is.

Nearly half of voters, 49 percent, disapprove of Trump's handling of immigration issues, while 46 percent approve.

Other negatives include his handling of the Russia - Ukraine war (55 percent disapprove), the federal workforce (also 55 percent disapprove), foreign policy (53 percent disapprove,) and the military (48 percent disapprove).

Nor did Trump's Oval Office dressing down of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky go over well with the American voter.

"Fifty-eight percent of voters disapprove of the way President Trump handled the recent meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, while 35 percent approve."

Trump's overall approval rating (42 percent) is actually one point below what voters gave President Zelenskyy (43 percent).

Meanwhile, six in ten voters (61 percent) think Trump is not hard enough on Russia, while half (50 percent) think he is too tough on Ukraine.

In fact, the only issue where Trump's overall favorable outweighed his unfavorable rating is trade with China, which has not made many headlines recently. On that issue, 46 percent approve, 44 percent disapprove, a narrow margin.

But even in areas not directly tied to Trump's approval rating, voters oppose the President's position, at least in part.

"More than half of voters (57 percent) think that children who have not received standard vaccinations should not be allowed to attend schools and childcare facilities, while 35 percent think that children who have not received standard vaccinations should be allowed to attend schools and childcare facilities," Quinnipiac found.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Where Would Trump Be Without His Spineless Enablers?

Where Would Trump Be Without His Spineless Enablers?

It's amazing how men who prided themselves on strength and toughness will submit to a gangster.

In 2022, after Russian tanks rolled across an international border into Ukraine and missiles pierced the quiet of cities like Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earned worldwide acclaim for his courage and heroism. No one was more pro-Ukrainian than Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who exulted in an arrest warrant the Russians had issued against him:

"I will wear the arrest warrant issued by Putin's corrupt and immoral government as a Badge of Honor."

Last Friday, after mad king Donald and his scheming viceroy, JD Vance, performed a tag-team ambush on Zelensky in the Oval Office, Graham sounded a different note. "Somebody asked me if I was embarrassed about President Trump. I have never been more proud of the president. I was very proud of JD Vance for standing up for our country."

Disgusting. A politician whose identity was forged as a hawk and staunch defender of liberty and democracy now praises the most powerful man in the world for sandbagging the beleaguered leader of a bleeding ally, a victim of aggression? That's standing up for America?

Ditto Marco Rubio, that gelding who has likewise transformed himself from a champion of freedom into an obedient toady to the man whose project is to destroy the Western alliance.

We live in an upside-down world where the far greater man, Zelenskyy, is being hounded to apologize to the gangster who behaved abominably.

Consider that even before the Oval Office debacle, Trump and his team had been grossly disrespectful and abusive toward Zelensky and Ukraine. Trump called him a "dictator" (though he declined to say as much about Putin). Trump then repeated Putin's propaganda that Ukraine, not Russia, had started the war. Vance told a European audience that he feared "the threat from within" far more than Russia or China. And then Trump proposed a "deal" that amounted to extortion, demanding the right to mine rare earth elements (which Trump called "raw earths") on Ukrainian soil in return for ... nothing. It was a shakedown. As Trump unguardedly admitted when he lost his temper, he regards Ukraine as a target for extortion because they "don't have any cards."

It was the most shameful moment in American history in at least a century, and a special shame attaches to the explainer class of analysts who, without even the excuse of fearing voters, perform pirouettes on their principles.

Marc Thiessen used his perch as a Washington Post columnist to excoriate not Trump for this blatant betrayal of 80 years of American world leadership but Zelensky.

As recently as June 2023, Thiessen had seen his role differently — that of guide to help MAGA types remain on the side of Ukraine. He outlined an "America First Case for Supporting Ukraine." But now, when the leader has pivoted, so has Thiessen. "The blowup was Zelensky's fault," he wrote. Thiessen excoriated Zelensky for resisting a deal without security. "He summarily dismissed Trump's idea of an immediate ceasefire — something that is extremely important to Trump, who is committed to stopping the killing — because he said Putin had already broken ceasefires 25 times."

But that's a key stumbling block, isn't it? Trump is demanding a ceasefire without security guarantees for Ukraine, which is an open invitation to Putin to sign the deal and then regroup and attack again as he has done repeatedly. Thiessen was quick to accuse Zelensky of disrespect but didn't notice the key part of an exchange he himself highlighted. When Zelensky noted that Putin had broken previous agreements, Trump interrupted to say, "He never broke to me. He never broke to me." Putin's agreement was not with Trump. But Trump's narcissism, solipsism and moral obtuseness were painfully obvious in that exchange.

Thiessen further scolded Zelensky for contradicting Trump in front of "the entire world." Well, it was Trump's decision to invite the cameras, not Zelensky's. As he boasted afterward, it was "great television." Thiessen was referring to a moment when Trump was repeating Russian disinformation about how all of Ukraine's cities have been destroyed. Zelensky was the soul of restraint saying, "No, no, you have to come, Mr. President, you have to come and to look."

Trump is as deaf to such appeals as he was indifferent to the photos of starving Ukrainian POWs Zelensky had brought along. Throughout the latter part of the meeting, when it became heated, Trump's favoritism toward Putin showed through. He scowled when Zelensky called Putin a war criminal, and when a member of the press asked whether Trump saw himself as "in the middle" between the warring parties or "on Ukraine's side," Trump said he was not on Ukraine's side and went on to scold Zelensky for his harsh words about Putin.

"It's wonderful to speak badly about somebody else," he noted sarcastically, "but I want to get it solved." Later, he said about Zelensky, "You see the hatred he's got for Putin. It's very tough for me to make a deal."

Trump is a soulless sociopath. This is not news. But without the Vances, Rubios, and Thiessens of the world, he would not be quite the danger to the Atlantic alliance, peace and security that he is.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism, is available now.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.


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