This morning, Trump posted this on his official Twitter/X account:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 19, 2025
That was a picture of a post on TruthSocial and if you don’t feel like squinting to read all of that, here’s a cut and paste of the same text, only with line breaks inserted for clarity:
Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 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, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle.
The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back. Why didn’t Sleepy Joe Biden demand Equalization, in that this War is far more important to Europe than it is to us — We have a big, beautiful Ocean as separation. On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is ‘MISSING.’
He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden ‘like a fiddle.’
A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do.
Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues…..
Readers will pardon if we crow a bit, but we have been pointing out that Zelensky was a dictator for years (with a minor typo in this case):
Recommended
* elections
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) October 1, 2023
The cut off text from the first post says:
It’s one dictator versus another, and I don’t see why we should give a crap who wins.
To anyone who says that Ukraine is at war, and therefore can’t hold an election, we will point out that America held elections in 1862 and 1864. Of course, we didn’t attempt to open polling places in Confederate territory in those years, and we wouldn’t expect Ukraine to open polling places in any areas occupied by Russia on election day, but we didn’t cancel elections entirely back then, and we shouldn’t excuse the same behavior in Ukraine right now.
Indeed, Conservatives should focus on these issues precisely because it puts leftists in such an uncomfortable position. The same leftists who wet their pants in terror hallucinating that Trump will criminalize the opposition and suspend elections in 2028 are perfectly fine with Zelensky taking the same actions now. Indeed, the same people who see Nazis everywhere in American politics are perfectly fine with actual Nazis fighting for Ukraine (scroll through to the discussion of ‘Azov’).
We will also note that Trump also said that the war ‘never had to start.’ This echoes something Trump said last night:
Trump on Ukraine:
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) February 18, 2025
"I think I have the power to end this war. And I think it's going very well. But today I heard, 'Oh well we weren't invited.' Well you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years. You should've never started it. You could've made a deal" pic.twitter.com/NVwzfPNXvX
Many have reasonably read this as Trump saying that Ukraine started the war and, of course, factually that wouldn’t be true. Russia invaded. They started the war.
But, frankly, Trump is not a very disciplined or exact speaker, especially when he is speaking off the cuff. So, while part of that passage was clearly directed as Zelensky or Ukraine as a whole, when he said ‘You should've never started it’ the ‘you’ he was referring to was probably Putin—without clearly stating that he was talking about Putin. But we could be wrong.
On to reactions:
We are so back. https://t.co/PIhH1L9MFf
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) February 19, 2025
If Zelensky isn't calling you right now he will be in the next 10 minutes.
— FOOL NELSON (@FOOL_NELSON) February 19, 2025
I thought about it, and it's clear you're lying.
— Oleg Kostour 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇺🇸 (@OlegKostour) February 19, 2025
1) Lying about Zelensky's approval rating which is higher than your own
2) Lying about how much America contributed (despite MAGA resistence)
3) Lying about how much Europe contributed (more than America)
America and Russia… pic.twitter.com/JYqEqKVAkd
-Total US spending is less than 3% of your annual defense budget
— ikonal (@Iko_Nal) February 19, 2025
-Europe is buying billions worth of stuff from the US so they can send it to Ukraine or replenish their stocks or strengthen their military
-Constitution of Ukraine forbids Zelensky to have Elections while under…
The cut off text:
-Constitution of Ukraine forbids Zelensky to have Elections while under siege. Do you want Zelensky to ignore their Constitution? Would YOU ignore your constitution?
-Zelensky said that of all the money PROMISED, Ukraine only received half.
-Russia started this war
-Zelensky popularity is higher than yours
-Stop lying. You look like Putin's puppet.
We have a few responses to that. First, that’s not a denial that he is a dictator. That’s just arguing that it is okay for him to be one.
Second, the English translation of their constitution that this author has read prohibits holding an election during martial law. But nothing in their constitution requires martial law, nor prevents them from, say, suspending martial law for a day while they hold elections. So while their constitution seems to allow the suspension of elections, it doesn’t seem to require it.
Third, this author supports any leader ignoring any law that says that he or she has to be a dictator. Sometimes the law is just plain bad and/or tyrannical, especially in other countries.
Fourth, is he attempting to measure a person’s popularity in a country that has no freedom of expression? And if we can have accurate opinion polls in Ukraine, why can’t we have elections? Seriously, we doubt opinion polls at the best of times. As we have frequently joked, according to polls, Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election.
Finally, as for the claim that '[t]otal US spending is less than 3% of your annual defense budget,' again, that is not a denial. And we are over $30 trillion in debt and the cuts have to start somewhere. If you cut a little here, and a little there, pretty soon you will find that you are cutting a lot.
Just a reminder Mr. President, Zelensky still has your head of @DNIGabbard on a kill list, along with @TuckerCarlson and many other US citizens. They also killed Gonzalo Lira an American citizen and journalist who was living in the country calling out all of this early on in the… pic.twitter.com/bdAFET9edz
— Hank Rearden (@HankRearden_37) February 19, 2025
The cut off text:
They also killed Gonzalo Lira an American citizen and journalist who was living in the country calling out all of this early on in the war.
They have also threatened you multiple times as well. They should be put on a terrorist list and all aid should be cut along with diplomatic commutations.
We covered this kill list before, here, and we noted at the time it wasn’t clear that this was affiliated with the official Ukrainian government and we haven’t heard anything to change that assessment. Still, it is concerning.
"moderately successful comedian" 🤣 https://t.co/xkOLdRvox9 pic.twitter.com/BmtKxtFBZG
— Dr. Z (@Zilosophy_4all) February 19, 2025
Well, that’s just disturbing.
Quick fact check on this one courtesy of @ElDavis_Jr and me: The U.S. has not, in fact, committed more money to Ukraine aid than all of Europe. https://t.co/k3Ssca2ibt https://t.co/4Bxe8xzayX pic.twitter.com/d6CFNNlGL6
— Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky (@jeffwilen) February 19, 2025
Committed <> spent. If you’re going to check someone’s facts, you start by checking their actual assertion, not a different claim that the person didn't make.
Almost every ‘fact’ in this statement is a lie. Or ‘fake news’ as someone might say. https://t.co/0UOZMbM0wI
— Andrew Neil (@afneil) February 19, 2025
It’s a fact that Zelensky is not standing for election. So why should we care which dictator controls Ukraine?
But finally for some perspective, we think this realism from Mirror Universe Spock is spot on:
2. The US has significantly outspent the EU for Ukraine's defense and neither US nor EU are not willing to put troops in Ukraine to make a difference in the pace to ending the war.
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) February 19, 2025
4. American's voted to end the transfer of treasure globally. The Ukraine conflict doesn't impact most American's daily life. It's losing popular support. Trump knows this and sees it as a mandate to end our continued spending on the war.
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) February 19, 2025
5. I'm 100% against Russian aggression and expansion. They started this and should pay the price. But, at this point, I don't see a way to roll them back without a much more significant investment of American & EU blood and treasure.
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) February 19, 2025
So, this is where we are.
Like it or hate it, the pro-Ukraine side doesn’t seem to have any realistic endgame in mind.
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