Former president says Ukrainian leader is ‘one of the greatest salesmen ever’ as he secured billions of dollars of military aid from US
Joe Barnes in Washington
17 October 2024 8:41pm BST
Donald Trump has blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Republican presidential candidate said the Ukrainian leader, 46, should never have allowed the war to happen.
Speaking to podcaster Patrick Bet-David, he said: “I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen.
“Every time he comes in we give him $100 billion. Who else got that kind of money in history? There’s never been. And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help him because I feel very badly for those people.
“But he should never have let that war start. That war is a loser.
“Ukraine, remember, is not Ukraine anymore.”
‘The country is rubble’
Trump added, speaking to the PBD podcast, that Ukraine’s cities had been “knocked down to the ground,” adding it looked like a demolition crew had “went through”.
“If we had a president with half a brain, it would have been easy to settle [before it started],” he said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if he was serving in the White House.
He also previously said that “the people are dead” and “the country is in rubble”.
The former president has also claimed that he would be able to negotiate an end to the long-running conflict if he is re-elected, although he has not gone into the details of his strategy.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, triggering the largest land war on European soil since the Second World War.
Trump has repeatedly complained about US military support for the war-torn nation on the campaign trail ahead of the Nov 5 election.
He has also previously suggested that Mr Zelensky was at fault for the war mounted by Vladimir Putin.
Concerns over Trump’s relationship with Putin
The former president’s latest remarks come after a new book fuelled concerns over his relationship with the Russian leader.
When Trump met Mr Zelensky last month at Trump Tower, the American said he had a “very good relationship” with Putin.
It was then reported by Bob Woodward, the veteran journalist, that Trump had spoken to Putin as many as seven times since losing the 2020 presidential election.
In his book, War, Mr Woodward also claimed that Trump had sent American Covid tests to Moscow during the pandemic for Putin’s personal use.
Their apparent close relationship has been used by Kamala Harris’s campaign to suggest Trump would force Ukraine to cede land in a peace deal if he wins the upcoming election.
Reduction in US military aid for Ukraine
Meanwhile, a senior Nato official said European governments were bracing for a reduction in American military aid, regardless of who takes over the White House next month.
The Western military alliance has made plans for European governments to take a greater share of the burden of supporting Kyiv for when the next US leader takes office.
“It is a fair assumption that regardless of who wins the US election that the US share of contributions in Ukraine will probably decrease in relative terms,” the senior official said.
“That is also because Europe is significantly increasing the share it is providing in Ukraine.
Nato has been long planning to “Trump proof” the alliance’s donations of weapons to Ukraine to aid its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
While the alliance has not directly contributed to Kyiv’s armed forces, its 32 member states have accounted for 99 per cent of foreign aid to the war-torn country.
Congress has passed five bills setting aside $175 billion to support Ukraine since Putin launched his invasion in February 2022.
In comparison, European Union countries and the United Kingdom have pledged roughly the same figure.
Under Nato plans to address the imbalance, largely aimed at placating previous complaints by Trump that Europe is not pulling its weight in terms of support for Ukraine, a new command centre will oversee the distribution of $43.3 billion in aid from the alliance.
The amount will cover both shipments of weapons to Kyiv and the training of its latest recruits.
It will likely be split between Nato member states according to the size of their economies, meaning the US will still pay the largest chunk but the likes of Germany, France and the UK will have to step up their contributions.
In 2014, the kremlin’s overseas influencing operation went into another gear. We had seen in 2008 the actions of ruZZian agent (and now convicted criminal) Sarkozy who was chosen to “negotiate” “peace” in Georgia after the putler invasion. What in fact happened was that putler got 20% of Georgia and took over the rest of it by inserting “Georgian Dream”; owned by a ruZZian oligarch with a Georgian name: BidZina Ivanishvili.
The EU consolidated putler’s gain by producing an official report that incredibly blamed putler’s invasion on Mikhail Saakashvili. Total success for the dwarf nazi.
Can you see a pattern emerging here?
In 2014, there emerged the “alt-right”; a powerful movement that was and is simply code for pro-ruZZia. But it’s not just pro-ruZZia, it is consumed with a hatred of Ukraine and Ukrainians that is off the scale. That hatred today is epitomized by a truly vile creature named Marjory Taylor-Greene.
The alt-right merged with QAnon and the magaputler shitheads and virtually obliterated the Reagan Republicans.
The figurehead for this movement is of course comrade Trumpkov, who started talking about the partition of Ukraine in 2014. His house mags Breitbart and Hateway Pundit took up his case with great enthusiasm.
In 2022, Trump congratulated putler on his genocide in the most grovelling terms imaginable. The full horror of this can be seen here :
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/23/trump-putin-ukraine-invasion-00010923
In 2023, Trump went a step further and stated that “Putin’s gonna take all Ukraine” on live TV.
This year he’s incorporated the “Zel salesman” slur into his stump speech. His asshole son called Zel a “welfare Queen” and his biggest fan; Ted Nugent, to wild cheers at a Trump rally said :
“I want my money back! I didn’t authorize any money to Ukraine to some homosexual weirdo!” Nugent yelled. “I want my money back!”
The likelihood that Orban is not a ruZZian agent is almost zero. His biggest fan Trumpkov is a ruZZian agent. Whether actual or defacto is immaterial: the effect is the same.
Furthermore Trump and his team have obviously decided that there are votes to be gained by spewing lies and hate at Zelenskyy.
Selected comments from DT readers
A. Kremtroll writes:
Christopher Sempos
Cast your mind back to October 1962. The US learns that the Soviet Union has installed nuclear missiles in Cuba. [The Soviet Union’s action was in response to the US placing nuclear missile systems in Turkey and possibly Italy and its plans to invade Cuba and overthrow Fidel Castro’s Communist government.]
On October 22nd US President Kennedy ordered a blockade to prevent additional Soviet missiles from being placed in Cuban. At the same time the US began calling up reserves and preparing for war with the Soviet Union. If you remember it, it was a frightening time we did expect WWIII.
Fortunately, An agreement was finally reached where Russia would remove all its missiles. The US promised not to invade Cuba and it secretly removed all its nuclear missiles from Turkey.
With that as background, why would you expect Russia to permit Ukraine to join NATO? Think of it – NATO missiles right on the Russian border!
NATO is responsible for this tragic war. That is the sad truth.
David R Crawford
Reply to Christopher Sempos
Fiction.
Proof – Putin did not invade Finland for having the temerity to apply to join NATO. Nor Latvia or Estonia for that matter.
Referring to an event 60+ years ago when geopolitics has immensely changed is just false.
Where is your blame for Putin for starting the war?
Another dirty, filthy kremtroll:
Michael Simpson
Trump makes a very good point, Zelensky is certainly a great salesman, and we all know about salesman….Mr Z has managed to get many Billions in support of his ego, while Ukraine, as a Country, has been utterly destroyed, economically and morally…
As Trump says, this war should never have been allowed to start, unfortunately Bojo was in desperate need of changing the focus from his lies, law-breaking , partying etc…so the Clown stoked the fires to get this war going, and NATO, Europe have all been sucked in to a war against Putin, who, incidentally is strongly supported by China and India….
So guess what, the already redundant Nato is on another loser…
David R Crawford
Reply to Michael Simpson –
Rewrite of history.
Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014. Unprovoked and confirmed by Prigozhin to be because his oligarch pals wanted to loot and plunder the country.
Zelensky is elected in 2019. How can the war be his fault?
Putin is 100% to blame for the war. Why have you blamed just about everyone else bar Putin?
Another kremtroll scum :
Memento vivere
Ukraine is the money laundering capital of the world.
Kent Gent
Reply to Memento vivere
Nonsense; the whole of Russia is a gangster state. That’s fine for your dictator friends Iran/ North Korea & China but you are on your own & isolated. No sane person would visit Russia.
Ron Thompson
So according to Trump, Ukraine isn’t Ukraine any more because Putin has destroyed some of it.
Nonsense, of course. Britain became more defiantly British when Hitler tried to destroy it.
Then he tries to victim blame Zelensky for the Russian invasion.
Trump once again being Putin’s useful idiot, parroting Russian propaganda.
Elizabeth Wells
Trump is utterly deranged. Encourage Putin if you want more wars, stop him if you don’t. Give Ukraine all the weapons it needs and permission to use them wherever necessary to reject Putin’s aggression.
david hinson
Oh yes, poor little Putin was forced into invading a neighbouring Country and slaughtering many thousands because that nasty Zelensky chap wouldn’t surrender.
Trump is often a blithering idiot, and on this issue it’s even more plain than usual.
Jon Ball
Trump and Putin are soul mates.
Gangster Narcissist Capitalists.
If the Donald gets back into the White House the United States’s NATO treaty obligations would be meaningless. Trump is the epitome of the unreliable ally.
In one way he is consistent. He will always let you down.
M Bilewycz
Trump is Putin’s stooge.
Nothing proves it more than his absurd and outrageous claim that Zelensky is to blame for the war.
Those are Putin’s own words.
Trump cannot be allowed to win the presidency.
He will split NATO, and has indicated he will not support Taiwan if China attacked.
He even wants a trade war against the UK.
The man is dangerous.
Staunch Jock
Putin has kompramat on Trump, that is why he is taking this pro Russian stance. What he is saying is totally absurd. The only person responsible for the war is Putin.
Sean Peters
I wonder if we will ever find out what Putin has on Trump.
How the mighty have fallen – they once thought of themselves as the shining city on the hill and through Trump have been reduced to a sycophantic lapdog for the world’s dictators.
Alphahunter Central
Trump is holding a grudge against Z. as the latter never dug out dirt on Joe Biden’s Ukranian business. Blackmailing him using military aid at the time didn’t work.
Trump is consistent in that way: self-centered, egotistical, divisive. And limited.
Trump is a filthy snake, vomiting poison everywhere he slithers.
The Great Ronald Reagan would NEVER have uttered such dirt or stooped so low in the face of a war criminal and mafia boss as Trump does at every opportunity he gets.
At what point of the orange felon’s many lies and loves for dirty dictators will his fanboys start being ashamed?
Trump just stated that South Korea is now cut off from russia and china after the Norks blew up the bridges connecting the two countries, and he can solve the problem. Seeing that South Korea have never had a physical connection to either of these countries, I can’t wait to see his solution.
He will likely blame South Korea for all the trouble and somehow he’ll include Ukraine in the mix.
No doubt!