Trump calls Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ as US rift with Ukraine deepens
Trump calls Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ as US rift with Ukraine deepens
US president warns Ukrainian leader he ‘better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left’
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Trump calls Zelenskyy a ‘dictator’ as US rift with Ukraine deepens
US president warns Ukrainian leader he ‘better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left’
Donald Trump has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and warned that he “better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left”, in a deepening rift between the two leaders.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, the US President hit out at his Ukrainian counterpart hours after Zelenskyy accused Trump of living in a “disinformation bubble” and disputed his $500bn bill for aid to Kyiv.
The bitter exchange comes after Trump upended decades of US policy by convening bilateral talks with Moscow on the Ukraine war without inviting Kyiv and blaming Zelenskyy for the 2022 Russian invasion.
In his most overt threat yet to end the war on terms favourable to Moscow, Trump wrote: “A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left.”
He added that Zelenskyy had “talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won”.
Speaking in Kyiv earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskyy, who was sidelined this week from high-profile talks between the US and Russia in Riyadh over the conflict, blasted Trump for pushing “a lot of disinformation coming from Russia”.
“Unfortunately, President Trump, with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly . . . is living in this disinformation bubble,” he said.
He made his comments as Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the US-Russian rapprochement and argued that European leaders had excluded themselves from the talks.
Zelenskyy’s retort was prompted by Trump’s remarks from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday, in which the US president falsely claimed Kyiv had started the conflict, the largest on European soil since the second world war.
Trump added he was “very disappointed” that Ukraine was “upset about not having a seat” at Tuesday’s talks in Saudi Arabia.
“Today I heard: ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited’,” the US president said. “Well, you’ve been there for three years . . . you should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”
Zelenskyy’s comments came a day after the US and Russia agreed to “lay the groundwork for future co-operation” on ending the war, in their first high-profile talks since Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.
Amid a dramatic reversal of decades of US policy towards Russia, Trump last week announced that he had spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war, without consulting Kyiv or its European allies.
In his first comments since his conversation with Trump, Putin said he “highly appreciates” the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, which he said “made the first step to resuming our work on all sorts of issues of mutual interest”.
“The US negotiators were totally different — they were open to a negotiating process without any biases or judgments about what was done in the past,” he said. “They intend to work together.”
Putin said Russia would not “speculate” on US-European relations, but claimed EU leaders had “insulted” Trump during his election campaign and said “they are themselves at fault for what is happening”.
Putin said he would meet Trump “with pleasure” but that any summit required substantial preparation.
On Wednesday, Zelenskyy pushed back against Trump’s suggestion that elections should be held in Ukraine, after the US president claimed that his Ukrainian counterpart had an approval rating of just 4 per cent.
Pointing to polling from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, which in February found that 57 per cent of Ukrainians trusted their president, Zelenskyy said: “So if anyone wants to replace me right now, that will not work.”
Putin has long sought regime change in Kyiv.
The Ukrainian president also disputed Trump’s claim that Ukraine owed the US $500bn worth of rare minerals and other resources for past military assistance.
Kyiv has spent $320bn on its war efforts against Russia, with $200bn coming from international military assistance, Zelenskyy said.
“The United States has contributed approximately $60bn so far, with an additional $31.5 billion in financial assistance,” he said. “That’s $67bn in weaponry and $31.5bn in direct budgetary support.”
US state department data broadly supports Zelenskyy’s figure for US military support for Ukraine.
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Fix your fucking country, Americans. I'm legit getting a nervous eye twitch from reading the news these days.
You should have had that nervous eye twitch for the last 40 years, the U.S. was doing plenty of fucked up shit even when we were projecting calm security. The first Trump presidency was the wake-up call to the rest of the world to start cutting ties with us, it actually blows my mind how little there was in place internationally for when he won again. Sanctions should have been placed on us, trade agreements dissolved, we should be getting isolated right now. I'm sure we'll get there eventually, but it might be too late by then.
It is just getting started. You have not seen anything yet. We have if we are lucky 3 years more of this. If unlucky this is how it will be going forward.
If we're really lucky, 2. If we take congress then they can at least limit his powers or, with a strong enough change, remove him from office. Now, if this happens I don't expect him to actually accept it and there will still be a fight, but the only real factor that matters at that point is if the military sides with him or the constitution. Right now, he doesn't have the military support to successfully perform a self coup.
Imagine if the republicans get wiped out in both houses and the dems have enough seats to overcome filibusters and make constitutional amendments.
If we are lucky this is only how bad it will be. I strongly suspect it is going to get much worse before it gets better.
The outright corruption and country-killing isn't really having that much impact yet, but it will. And just wait for the global economic crisis.
However, if things get bad enough there's a better chance of people rising up and things changing for the better. Or if things stay sane enough somehow, the midterm elections changing everything.
Or if things stay sane enough somehow, the midterm elections changing everything.
Assuming those mid-term elections are permitted to happen...
This is what around half of the voting public wants. I'm going to be doing what I can to try to fight against this (for as long as I remain anyway), but the rest of the world needs to plan as if the U.S. is an enemy state and an active threat. We should be given no benefit of the doubt. No trust. Assume the worst and then try and think about how it could be even worse and go with that.
as if the U.S. is an enemy state and an active threat
I'm sorry but there isn't going to be a big moment any time soon unless he tries to stop the 2026 elections or does something like declaring martial law. There's a good possibility there will be 4 more years of this.
He probably won't stop the elections, he'll just "putinize" them further.
Yup and we have to be ready. We can use the filibuster to prevent anything binding.
No we can't. Nor unless republicans stop universally falling in line.
Did I miss an election that gave the Republicans 60 votes in the Senate?
They can kill the filibuster at any time.
Also this is assuming that anything Congress does will mean anythibg.
I think Trump will try to amend the 22nd Amendment and he will become dictator of the US.
I don't think he'll bother with amendments.
Good luck? He needs
7566 votes in the Senate just to start.Edit - I hate fractions. It's mutual.
Bro have you not been paying attention? The new administration is governing without any respect for the law, they just do things and say they’re all powerful. And so far, nobody is stopping them. Nobody really has the power to, anyway.
Nobody but The People
The People are largely idiots who let him be in charge twice.
I don't disagree with you. But ultimately it's our (we, the people) responsibility.
They're claiming a bunch of things but all they've actually managed is data access, a money stop, and firings. The big claims are being tested in court right now.
You are making way more assumptions about functioning government than recent trends would predict.
He's consolidating all power in the executive. All bets are off on anything functioning the way it's "supposed" to.
There's a giant difference between hiring and firing in the civil service and declaring a new Constitutional Amendment without Congress or the States approving it.
He's reinstating corrupt officials. He's piling in sycophants into every corner of the government. He's declaring he alone has the ability to interpret laws. He's killing major federal departments. He's ignoring policy. He's ignoring court orders. He's literally calling himself a king.
We are way, way beyond "firing civil servants", and it is just going to get worse.
I don't think he will amend the constitution. I think at the moment it doesn't matter and it will be ignored. We are now actively in the greatest constitutional crisis in American history.
Understand that the shit has gotten very, very real. All this other stuff that we've counted on all our lives is gone unless something massive happens REALLY SOON.
I agree the biggest constitutional crisis of our life is already underway. I do not agree that we've reached the panic stage. Protest, organize, and be ready to vote in 2026. That's what we do right now.
A piece of paper means nothing if people with guns disregard it.
There's more guns than people in this country. Picking up a gun to disregard paper is a very dangerous game.
There's more guns than people in this country.
We know, you Americans can't stop talking about it.
But Americans also claim that all those guns are supposed to keep the government from getting corrupt and taking away their rights.
I don't see the most corrupted government in your country's history being scared to act because of all those armed citizens.
That's because it's also the silver spoon brigade who've never faced a consequence a day in their life.
Is it? There have barely been any protests on the streets. People are infinitely far away from violently rising up against this regime.
Maybe where you are? I've seen several since the beginning of the month. And nobody should be doing violence right now. We do not have the organization, moral high ground, or legitimacy for that.
Do not count on that. Him and his fellow traitors are capable to things you can't even imagine.
I don't know, I've studied coups and I have a pretty active imagination. In fact I generally have to calm myself down. Which is part of why I know the minutia here.
The end run would be a Saddam Hussein moment, where he had members of his legislature arrested for treason while they were gathered for a speech by him. The particulars wouldn't necessarily match but the idea would be to reduce the Senate to it's quorum number and hold the vote then.
The problem with that course of action is 2/3 of the states must then also vote for it. And that's not a realistic scenario. Especially if he tries to conduct mass arrests to affect the number of sitting legislators there too. Because at that point he's lost all legitimacy and triggered massive protests or a civil war. At which point we refer to case G anyways. (The Go To Hell plan, when everything fails)
Note - it is 66 Senators, not 75. I hate fractions.
at the rate the Senate's spine is deteriorating i suspect it to slip by their scoliotic corpse within a couple years.
If that happens then yeah the country is cooked. But it's not very likely.
I admire your baseless optimism.
Optimism makes the world go round. Nobody goes to the illegal declaration of Independence convention without optimism. Nobody marches in the street without optimism.
Having that possibility, that hope, is the core of making shit happen. Pessimism shuts shit down before it even begins. Realism can at least lead to doing a duty you're pretty sure will kill you.
Is that regardless of like 20% of democrats being assassinated? Could they get the numbers if enough of the no votes are eliminated?
If they outright kill legislators en masse then Trump better be heading to a bunker staffed by loyalists. Because he just blew the air horn to start a civil war, with exactly zero moral high ground or legitimacy.
They would simply blame Mexicans and DEI. Use it to garner more power. Who would be able to stop them, or prosecute in any meaningful way?
We would. That's where the people have to step up. The military would. Political leaders not aligned with trump would.
tell us what to do!! we tried voting and our educational system is so sabotaged that we do not know what else is possible
I'm not trying to be glib, but read this. You don't fix big, systemic problems by working only within the system.
Get organized. Join local groups. Print flyers. Protest. It's how people have been doing it for hundreds of years.
tell us what to do
It's your bloody country.
I would hope you should understand it better than we do.
again, the sabotaged education system guarantees that we do not
LOL
Please bomb us, we need punishment to learn anything
He said himself, it's not a crime if you are saving America!
Bombing has historically not been the best way to change a country's stance on anything really.
What? How about.... Nazi Germany? Imperial Japan?
Bombing them didn't really change the opinions of the Germans though. It just reinforced their stance on the "total war" and they kept going until they were obliterated. I guess a point could be made about Japan though.
On the Japan front, they were already fairly demoralized and the most important factor is simply that, while the US had nukes, no one else did. With mutually assured destruction, that's off the table.
So the Germans kept their stance on Jews etc. post war?
That's obviously not what I mean. I meant the act of bombing will not change anyone's political orientation. Total destruction and occupation might. But that's not what this thread is about.
No need to change political opinions if we're all dead. We even color code the more evil states red for your convenience!
Great way to get your country and allies nuked, however.
ok so what do you suggest
Crank the organized protests up to 11 and be prepared to fight once the next election is cancelled.
Strikes. The only thing that works and is non violent. The rest is just reminders that the working class can stop working. Or reminders that one can do a Luigi.
You have guns, fucking use them
can you be more specific
Use your imagination
i imagine you're probably an idiot
And you're a coward
go to the us and do what you're suggesting before you call me a coward
armed uprising