Trump Makes It Clear He Would Royally Screw Ukraine in a Second Term | Vanity Fair

Donald Trump made it more than a little clear on Thursday that should he retake the White House come November, Ukraine will be completely and thoroughly screwed.

Speaking on an episode of the PBD Podcast that came out today, the ex-president falsely claimed that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy “let that war start,” despite the fact that it was Russia who invaded the sovereign country. “I think Zelenskyy is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “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.”

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To be clear, it was Russia that invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and not the other way around.

Trump has claimed, on multiple occasions, that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war immediately, though he’s never given specifics on how exactly that would work. He’s also previously suggested that it’s Zelenskyy’s fault that the war has continued, saying at a campaign event in North Carolina, “We continue to give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal.”

Trump’s take on the situation is presumably informed by his affection for Russian authoritarian Vladimir Putin, whom the ex-president has been a huge fan of for many years. As a reminder, during his first term in office, Trump sided with Putin over his own intelligence officials; has called Putin a “genius” and “savvy” for invading Ukraine; has defended Putin over (credible) accusations that the Russian president has had journalists and dissidents murdered; and once publicly called on Putin to help him take down Joe Biden. Earlier this month, it was reported that Bob Woodward’s new book reveals Trump has spoken to Putin more than half a dozen times since leaving the White House and—at the height of the pandemic, when COVID tests were in short supply—sent a stash to the Russian president. (A spokesperson for Trump denied the reporting, though the Kremlin confirmed the tests were sent.) On Tuesday, Trump said, of Putin, “Russia has never had a president that they respect so much.”

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