The president says he would rather deal with America’s mortal enemy than the ally it invaded.
Donald Trump praised Vladimir Putin while attacking the leader of the country the Russian tyrant spent more than four and a half years bombing.
“(Volodymyr) Zelensky is not a good guy for us to deal with,” the 80-year-old president said of his Ukrainian counterpart in an interview with Newsmax Thursday evening. “No, I’m not a big fan of Zelensky. He destroyed this country.”
“Putin hates Zelensky, and Zelensky hates Putin,” he continued. “It should end soon. I think they would both like it to end. But I find Zelensky more difficult to deal with than Putin.”
Trump sparked global outrage by announcing a diesel fuel deal with Putin.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Trump’s comments preceded Friday’s explosive revelations that this week’s orders to limit Ukraine’s access to vital front-line communications systems, provided by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, came directly from the White House.
Relations between Washington and its nominal ally in the Russia-Ukraine war are at their lowest level since Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, berated Zelensky, 48, in the Oval Office last February for not being grateful enough for American support against Putin’s invasion.
Washington’s agreement with the Kremlin came after months of Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure.
Trump announced a shock deal earlier this month to buy nearly 2 million tons of Russian diesel in a frantic attempt to reduce fuel costs driven by his war with Iran.
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This conflict, and its impact on domestic prices, helped Democrats build a 9-point lead in the race for control of the House and Senate in November.
The move, along with Trump’s calls for Zelensky’s ouster, sparked global outrage after Ukraine spent much of this year attacking Russia’s energy sector to cut off revenue for Putin’s war machine.
Yet Zelensky agreed to a unilateral “energy ceasefire” that Trump announced on Truth Social last week, apparently without first consulting Moscow or kyiv.
But Ukraine’s president then dramatically changed course on Thursday after the Kremlin repeatedly violated that so-called agreement.
“We’re done,” he told the Financial Times of the three-day attacks on Moscow’s oil infrastructure, just hours before launching major strikes on a refinery in Russia’s western Ryazan region.
Zelensky further accused Trump of capitulating to Putin out of admiration for the Russian dictator.
“He says openly and loudly that he loves these people and respects them,” the Ukrainian leader said. “Because for him, people who can be leaders for 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, that means they can be very strong.”
The rift between Washington and kyiv follows intense pressure from the White House for Ukraine to respect Trump’s impromptu moratorium.
Zelensky said U.S. officials had threatened to cut off the supply of vital military intelligence.
He also said Ukrainian forces subsequently lost access to early warning systems for missile attacks, as well as slowed coverage of SpaceX’s Starshield service.
It remains unclear which White House official ultimately decided to limit the military version of billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite Internet service, or who relayed those orders to the Defense Department, Reuters reports.
Elon Musk claims that the SpaceX Starshield network used in Ukraine is owned and controlled by the US government.
Putin’s forces continued to bomb Ukraine, killing at least 15 people in attacks earlier this week. Three more people died Friday in Russian drone strikes, which also left about 370,000 people without power, although it is unclear whether disruptions to U.S. intelligence or satellite services contributed to the deaths.
Trump has denied threatening to cut off military intelligence, while his officials have told Ukrainian forces that any interruption in military system services was the result of a problem.
Zelensky disputed this version even before it was confirmed that the Starshield outage was due to orders from the White House.
Musk also wrote in an X article on Wednesday that the network used in Ukraine is “owned and controlled by the US government” and that “any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and, ultimately, POTUS.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
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