Firing off an angry message on his social media platform, Trump labeled Zelensky a “dictator without elections,” blaming him for strong-arming the United States into spending hundreds of billions of dollars “to go into a War that couldn’t be won.” It turned into a daylong series of taunts, which Trump amplified during a speech Wednesday night in Miami, where he declared: “Zelensky better move faster. He’s not going to have a country left.”
Both accusations parroted Moscow’s own irony-laden talking points about the war and Ukraine’s president, who declared martial law at the onset of Russia’s invasion, which prevented scheduled elections. Trump’s post was hardly an isolated attack. For years, Trump has viewed Zelensky skeptically, questioning his decisions and — in an episode made famous during Trump’s first impeachment — pressing him to open an investigation into his then-rival Joe Biden.
