(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is reportedly worried that Donald Trump, who has repeatedly called for peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, might regain the U.S. presidency in 2024.
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Zelenskyy expressed concerns that President Trump could curtail aid to his country.
“In a situation like this, when there is support, you are afraid of changes,” he said.
Trump has claimed he could end the war “within 24 hours”—something Zelenskyy said he doesn’t understand.
“Zelensky said he couldn’t understand Trump’s claim he could end the war in 24 hours, as Trump hadn’t done so while in office, when Russia was already occupying Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine,” the Journal, which interviewed Zelenskyy for about an hour, wrote in an article June 3.
The Journal’s article did not mention that Russia’s annexation of Crimea happened during the Obama administration in 2014, after the U.S. State Department supported a coup against Ukraine’s pro-Russia government.
Nor did the Journal explain that Putin’s further invasion of Ukraine happened more than a year after Joe Biden took office. The article only gave a passing mention to the fact that “Trump’s presidency came before the full-scale invasion.”
When asked how Trump would have handled Putin’s aggression, Zelenskyy reportedly replied, “I’m not sure how Trump would have acted.”
Zelenskyy did say he believes Biden’s full-throated support is due to the president’s “emotional attachment to Ukraine.” Again, the article simply parroted this point, failing to mention Biden’s other attachments—namely, financial—to the embattled country.
Along with its other omissions, the Journal’s article failed to mention the waning popularity of U.S. aid for Ukraine among American voters. A February Associated Press-NORC poll revealed that 48% of Americans favor providing U.S. weapons to Ukraine—which is still a plurality, but is far less than the 60% of Americans who supported aid in an earlier poll in May 2022.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was made House Speaker this year after promising that the GOP would put an end to “blank checks” for Ukraine—though he has since backtracked on that promise.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
