Trump unleashes unhinged tirade against 'dictator' Zelensky, claiming Ukraine only went to war to get US money

[highplainsdem]

Source: Independent

President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to throw America’s lot completely in with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the three-year-old war the Russian leader started against Ukraine by issuing a bizarre social media threat against Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and accusing him of continuing war against Moscow as a way to soak American taxpayers.

In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump accused Zelensky, who he called a “modestly successful comedian” in a reference to his previous career as a sitcom star and entertainer, of having “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start.”

He also claimed Zelensky — who recent opinion polls show as holding support from a majority of Ukrainians — “refuses to have Elections” and falsely accused the Ukrainian leader of being “very low” in polls while accusing him of having “played” former president Joe Biden “like a fiddle” for military assistance funds approved by the U.S. Congress over the last three years.

“A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left,” Trump wrote.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-ukraine-war-zelensky-rant-b2701005.html

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Earlier GD thread about this:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220047596

[AnnaLee]

1. What seems like just another desperate attempt

Trump does so many immoral acts that he preempts them with an attempt to make American's hate his target. And ..... it works.

Why?

[DFW]

2. This is the 21st century version of the famous announcement:

"Seit fünf Uhr wird zurückgeschossen!" Since 5 AM fire is being returned!

Hitler invented a fictitious agression from Poland in order to rationalize his invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. He had planned to invade POland for a while, and didn't much care if anyone believed his excuse for it or not.

Putin was likewise planning to invade and conqure the Ukraine, and didn't care one bit whether anyone believed his phony reason for doing it or not.

One thing is exactly the same in both cases: in 1939, Germany was the unprovoked invader in a blatant territory grab, and in 2022 Russia was the unprovoked invader in a blatant terrotory grab.

[Efilroft Sul]

17. Gleiwitz. I'm betting Trump's looking into a similar operation for his own benefit.

https://www.historyhit.com/gleiwitz-incident-explained/

[Dave Bowman]

3. Dictator? He's projecting bigly.

[generalbetrayus]

4. At least Orange Julius Caesar had two reasons to run for President again:

(1) to stay out of jail, and
(2) to get all the US money he possibly could.

[maxsolomon]

5. This is what he really thinks.

He is a profoundly ignorant person, at head of a party of profoundly ignorant people, elected by profoundly ignorant people.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Isn't spouting fantastical lies a sign of mental illness?

[Rebl2]

10. He's

been a liar all his teen and adult life. It is a normal habit now it seems.

[CuriousSavage]

7. JFC!!

I find myself deliberately withdrawing from the news and the daily barrage of bullshit. I think this will help preserve my energies for the battle ahead but (screaming) HOLYSHITWHATAFUCKINGMFUCKIN... gahhh... There are few words in normal vocabulary that just can describe this man. There are entertaining descriptions, dismissive descriptions. What do call such a flawed, absolutely useless, dumb, vile, and just plain mean piece of shit that has become the most powerful man in the world? What are we (the USA) that allowed this to happen?

This latest about Ukraine is so transparent, so lazy, so blatant. Yet, how are so many millions fooled? After just 2 months, I cannot imagine what the next week will bring, let alone the wreckage after 3.8 more years to go. Fears of war, famine and widespread suffering do not sound so crazy these days. This country and the world will not be same.

[travelingthrulife]

13. It hasn't even been one month yet and we are smoking ruins.

[blue-wave]

8. Just when

Ukraine might be turning the tide of war, Trump turns on Ukraine. The Russians are using Donkeys (yes it's true) to move supplies around the fronts lines, with troops using bicycles and scooters. Many wounded Russian troops are sent back to the front, some with crutches.
Ukraine is holding the lines or pushing back the Russians with small offensive operations, especially around Pokrovsk. My sense tells me that Russian lines might be about to break. If you want to stop this war, now is the time to increase military aid to Ukraine. Slava Ukraini!! Heroyam Slava!!

[LudwigPastorius]

9. Stroke out already you fat, orange, traitorous piece of shit!

[Mike 03]

11. This is the one that pretty much broke me

Nothing he's done has brought tears to my eyes until today. Not sure I can take any more of it.

[58Sunliner]

12. Ugly, malignant, lying pos.....

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. Scholz says Trump's comments about Zelenskyy 'wrong and dangerous'

Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was “wrong and dangerous” of US president Donald Trump to call Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator”.

“It is simply wrong and dangerous to deny President Zelenskyy his democratic legitimacy,” Scholz said in quotes carried by the German newspaper Spiegel.

What is correct is that Zelenskyy is the elected head of state of Ukraine … The fact that proper elections can’t be held in the middle of the war is reflected in the Ukrainian constitution and electoral law.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/19/russia-ukraine-war-volodymyr-zelenskyy-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-europe-latest-news?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-67b628ed8f087e0f012c73a2#block-67b628ed8f087e0f012c73a2

Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock also hit back at Donald Trump’s latest comments calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator”, branding them “absurd”.

Baerbock told broadcaster ZDF:

If you look at the real world instead of just firing off a tweet, then you know who in Europe has to live in the conditions of a dictatorship: people in Russia, people in Belarus.

As we reported earlier, the German minister said “no one but [Vladimir] Putin started or wanted this war in the heart of Europe”, adding that “we are working with all our might to further strengthen Ukraine”.

“We are at an existential waypoint for security and peace in Europe,” Baerbock said, adding that the goal was “achieving lasting peace for Ukraine - safe and protected from future Russian aggression”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/19/russia-ukraine-war-volodymyr-zelenskyy-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-europe-latest-news?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-67b62b4b8f0844adc3af4d22#block-67b62b4b8f0844adc3af4d22

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. "I've heard Donald Trump's comments before - from anti-Western Russian state TV"

Vitaliy Shevchenko
BBC Monitoring's Russia editor

It’s extraordinary to what degree America’s rhetoric on Ukraine now coincides with Russia’s, and how different it is from Europe’s, Nato’s and Ukraine’s.

First, we were told by US officials that Ukraine should forget about joining Nato or reclaiming territory occupied by Russia, and now Donald Trump says that it was Ukraine that started the war and that Volodymyr Zelensky is an unpopular "dictator" whose mandate has expired.

I’ve been hearing these points of view for years – from the most virulently anti-Western commentators on Russian state TV.

To hear them from a US president at what is certainly one of the darkest hours in their history amounts to nothing short of a betrayal for Ukrainians.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c62e2158mkpt?post=asset%3Af7f0629b-81be-49b9-871a-e1377228fb13#post

[Quanto Magnus]

16. Lying liar lies....

what a surprise....

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. MaddowBlog-Ignoring backlash, Trump leans into false claim about Zelenskyy being a 'dictator'

Presidents only get so much political capital, and Trump has decided to invest his finite capital into supporting Putin's authoritarian regime in Moscow.
https://bsky.app/profile/stevebenen.com/post/3limgqblntc2i

Presidents only get so much political capital, and Trump has decided to invest his finite capital into supporting Putin's authoritarian regime in Russia.

Maybe the White House could try explaining why.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/ignoring-backlash-trump-leans-false-claim-zelenskyy-dictator-rcna192955

As Wednesday came to an end, and much of the world tried to come to terms with the fact that the White House had effectively switched sides, aligning the United States with our adversary and against our ally, Trump leaned into his offensive again. NBC News reported on comments the Republican made at the Future Investment Initiative Institute’s PRIORITY Summit in Miami Beach, Florida.

“President Zelenskyy talked the United States of America into spending $350 billion to go into a war that basically couldn’t be won,” Trump said. “The only thing he was really good at was playing Joe Biden like a fiddle. He played him like a fiddle.” Trump repeated his characterization of Zelenskyy as a “dictator” and asserted without clear evidence that Zelenskyy is refusing to hold an election because he is losing the support of his citizens.

The American president delivered the unscripted remarks with the confidence of a man who didn’t appear to care at all about the geopolitical or electoral consequences.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3likwvp5ywd2p

Link to tweet

It’s worth emphasizing, of course, that Trump’s rhetoric isn’t just dangerously bizarre, it’s also wildly at odds with reality. The American president’s anti-Ukraine lies have also drawn international rebukes from traditional U.S. allies, and even some congressional Republicans have carefully expressed disagreement with Trump’s radical nonsense.

There’s even reason to believe the White House is not on board with the broad American mainstream. The latest national poll from Quinnipiac University asked respondents, “Do you think the United States should trust Russian President Vladimir Putin, or not?” At a point in our history in which the public is deeply divided on many issues, 81% of Americans don’t agree on much, but in this survey, 81% of people said the United States should not trust Russia’s authoritarian leader. (Click the link for more information on the poll’s methodology and margin of error.)

And yet, there was Trump in the Oval Office last week, telling reporters on camera that he trusts Putin.
https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:iu4j537hox5huj4bwnwgub4z/post/3li3jupn5i52d

Link to tweet

.....But he’s doing it anyway. Presidents only get so much political capital, and for reasons Trump has never made any meaningful effort to explain, he’s decided to invest his finite political capital into supporting the authoritarian regime in Moscow.

Maybe someday, the White House can explain why.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. Zelenskyy is not a dictator

The constitution that Ukraine has prohibits elections when you declare martial law because of the state of war is in effect

Link to tweet

General Jack Keane who was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by Trump: Zelenskyy’s polling is 57% favorable.. The constitution that Ukraine has prohibits elections when you declare martial law because of the state of war takes place.. The fact that their constitution is driving this— the parliament, bipartisan support for all of the extensions they have had to the martial law. They are acting democratically in my judgement and abiding by their constitution and also the parliament is supporting it which represents the people throughout the country. These are democratic actions taking place in a democratic country.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. More Americans say Trump is a Dictator than say Zelenskyy is

https://bsky.app/profile/rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social/post/3lip462qovs2i

Link to tweet

[Jit423]

21. Why would they need to go to war to get US money when Ukraine sits on top of a wealth of underground riches? nt

[vapor2]

22. this man is a sick puppy,, is there any light at the end of the tunnel???