I strongly encourage you to read Marc Caputo’s detailed assessment of the exchanges between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Trump Administration at Axios. Here’s how he quotes the White House:
In the White House’s view, Zelensky grew too accustomed to former President Biden’s open-ended support for Ukraine’s war effort, the full-throated backing of NATO countries and the positive press that went with it. So he overstepped.
- “Zelensky is an actor who committed a common mistake of theater kids: He started to think he’s the character he plays on TV,” a White House official involved in the talks said. “Yes, he has been brave and stood up to Russia. But he would be six feet under if it wasn’t for the millions we spent, and he needs to exit stage right with all the drama.”
- “We created a monster with Zelensky,” another official involved in the negotiations said. “And these Trump-deranged Europeans who won’t send troops are giving him terrible advice.”
- “In the course of a week, Zelensky rebuffed President Trump’s treasury secretary, his secretary of state and his vice president, all before moving on to personally insulting President Trump in the press,” another administration official said.
- “What did Zelensky think was going to happen?”
Read the whole thing.
I wanted to add one more thing, via Holman Jenkins at Wall Street Journal:
Tweeted a former minister in the Zelensky government last week: “We just didn’t want to admit it. The difference between Biden and Trump is that Trump says out loud what Biden was thinking and doing.”
or, said another way, from the Ukrainian point-of-view the U. S. actions have been consistent from the Biden Administration to the Trump Administration. It’s their words that have been different.