U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky looks on during a meeting in New York on September 25, 2019, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images
He loves him, he loves him not?
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continues to keep people guessing over his position on Ukraine — and over his opinion of the country’s wartime leader, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In Trump’s much-hyped interview with X owner Elon Musk on Monday, the former president raised eyebrows when he said that “there’s nobody that feels worse about the Ukraine situation than I do,” given his previous hints that he could cut Ukraine’s vital war funding if elected to the White House in November.
The GOP candidate also described Zelenskyy as “very honorable” in his handling of a telephone call that led to Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.
During the now-infamous phone conversation in July 2019, Trump told the newly elected Zelenskyy — then a political novice — that he would like him to “do us a favor” by helping to investigate Trump’s Democratic political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had business dealings in Ukraine.
The call prompted allegations that Trump had improperly sought help from Ukraine to boost his chances of reelection in 2020, and Trump was impeached in late 2019 as a result. He was acquitted after a two-week Senate trial in early 2020, however, and vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
At the time, Zelenskyy said there was no blackmail involved in the call with Trump.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, capital of Ukraine, on July 23, 2019.
Hennadii Minchenko | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Speaking to Musk during an interview streamed on social media platform X on Monday, Trump referenced the incident, stating: “Zelenskyy, he was very honorable to me because when they went with the Russia hoax and they said I had a phone call with him, he said it was a perfect phone call, it was a great phone call.”
Trump added, “He could have grandstanded and said, ‘Oh, he was very threatening.’ [But] He said, no, it was a very nice phone call.”
Zelenskyy the ‘salesman’
The praise for Zelenskyy was a far cry from earlier this year, when Trump characterized the president as “maybe the greatest salesman of any politician that’s ever lived,” suggesting Ukraine’s requests for — and receipt of — U.S. military aid packages were based on Zelenskyy’s deftness and skills as a diplomat, rather than on Ukraine’s actual needs.
“I think Zelenskyy is maybe the greatest salesman of any politician that’s ever lived,” Trump said in June, segueing from characterizing the Green New Deal as a “scam” straight into a description of Zelenskyy.
The former White House leader said of the Ukrainian chief, “every time he comes to our country, he walks away with $60 billion,” referring to a major U.S. aid package wrangled over by Republicans and Democrats, and finally agreed in April.
Trump corrected himself, MSNBC reported at the time, saying that he “likes” Zelenskyy — before returning to his critique of the Ukrainian leader.
“[Zelenskyy] just left four days ago with $60 billion, and he gets home, and he announces that he needs another $60 billion. It never ends. It never ends,” Trump said.
Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University on August 9, 2024 in Bozeman, Montana.
Michael Ciaglo | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Referring to the war in Ukraine, Trump concluded that he’d “settle” the crisis during his post-election presidential period. “Gotta stop it,” he said.
Trump’s ambivalence about the merits of continuing support for Ukraine has come into sharp focus in recent months, particularly as voter polls suggested he could win another term in the White House.
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is slightly ahead of Trump in several swing states, according to the latest poll by The New York Times and Siena College in early August — suggesting that the election race is wide open, however.
Another phone call
With a close eye on the U.S. presidential contest, Ukraine is having to tread a fine line between its current backers in the Democratic Party and the prospect of a potential Trump presidency in which the U.S. financial and military largesse — aid that has largely allowed Kyiv to continue to fight Russia since February 2022 — could be curtailed or have new conditions attached.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a coordination meeting on the security situation and state border protection, which was attended by representatives of the Military Command, the State Border Guard Service, and the Heads of Military Administrations of Volyn, Zhytomyr, Rivne, Kyiv, and Chernihiv regions in Volyn Oblast, Ukraine on July 30, 2024.
Ukraine Presidency | Anadolu | Getty Images
After receiving the Republican nomination in July, Trump said he had spoken again to Zelenskyy and had a “very good” conversation.
“I appreciate President Zelenskyy for reaching out because I, as your next President of the United States, will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives and devastated countless innocent families,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“Both sides will be able to come together and negotiate a deal that ends the violence and paves a path forward to prosperity,” he said. Trump has so far not said how he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine, and there have been concerns that he and his team could pressure Kyiv to concede territory.
For his part, Zelenskyy said on X at the time that he and Trump had agreed “to discuss at a personal meeting what steps can make peace fair and truly lasting.”