Trump Criticizes Zelensky and Praises Putin in New Interview

Newsmax Donald Trump has praised Vladimir Putin while attacking the leader of the country that the Russian tyrant has spent more than four and a half years bombing.

“[Volodymyr] Zelensky’s not a good guy for us to deal with,” the 80-year-old president said of his Ukrainian counterpart in a Thursday night interview with Newsmax.

“No, I’m not a big fan of Zelensky.

He destroyed that country.” “Putin hates Zelensky, and Zelensky hates Putin,” he went on.

“It should end soon.

I think they both would actually like to see it end.

But I find Zelensky more difficult to deal with than Putin.” Trump’s comments came ahead of bombshell revelations on Friday that this week’s orders to limit Ukrainian access to vital frontline communications systems, provided by billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, had come directly from the White House .

Relations between Washington and its nominal ally in the war between Russia and Ukraine are at their lowest point since Trump and his vice president, JD Vance, berated Zelensky, 48, in the Oval Office last February for not being grateful enough for U.S. support against Putin’s invasion.

Trump announced a shock deal earlier this month to purchase almost 2 million tons of Russian diesel in a frantic bid to lower fuel costs driven by his war with Iran.

That conflict, and its impact on domestic prices, has helped Democrats gain a 9-point lead in the November race for control of the House and Senate.

The move, along with Trump’s calls for Zelensky’s ouster, provoked global outrage after Ukraine spent much of this year attacking Russia’s energy sector to cut off revenue for Putin’s war machine.

Still, Zelensky agreed to a unilateral “energy ceasefire” that Trump had announced on Truth Social last week, apparently without first consulting either Moscow or Kyiv.

But the Ukrainian president then dramatically reversed course on Thursday after the Kremlin repeatedly violated that supposed agreement.

“We’re done,” he told the Financial Times of a three-day stay in attacks on Moscow’s oil infrastructure, just hours before launching major strikes against a refinery in the western Russian region of Ryazan.