Two things can be true at once. Vladimir Putin is a dictator in all but name in Russia, with aspirations of reconstituting the Soviet Union. And Volodymyr Zelensky is an ungrateful idiot who apparently tried to treat Donald Trump like Joe Biden – and is finding out the hard way that that was a bad idea.

First, let’s address the Putin issue. Unequivocally, Putin started this war. For President Trump to suggest otherwise is just wrong. He can argue that Zelensky and Ukraine should have come to the negotiation table sooner, but to say Ukraine started it is a colossal untruth that should be corrected by every single administration official.

Trump on Ukraine:

"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

— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) February 18, 2025

Mr. President, we were all there when Joe Biden gave the green light to Putin and told him that taking a little bit of Ukraine was okay, before Russia invaded the country. It’s been almost three years since that invasion. A lot has happened since, with plenty of blame to be spread into different areas, but Trump should be more forcefully pointing the finger at Biden, as he has in the past, for letting this all happen in the first place.

Stroking Putin’s ego now may get him to the negotiating table, but it stinks up the room. Trump needs to be absolutely crystal clear that Putin has ambitions that include making sure all opposition to him dies in prison or falls out windows. He is not, in any way, shape, or form, the “good guy” in this situation, as Douglas Murray reminded everyone.

Putin cannot be trusted. This isn’t just a statement of fact. It is also something that 81% of American voters agree on.

Putin has invaded multiple countries in violation of every international treaty. He has interfered in multiple elections in his nearest neighbors. He has violated international agreements, including the INF Treaty with the US.

He has lied to American presidents and European leaders his whole career. He has lied to Trump even since Trump has been back in office. Most recently Putin promised that he wouldn’t target Ukrainian energy facilities.

Yet just this week he carried out a massive missile and drone attack against multiple energy facilities in Ukraine. It is almost as though Putin’s word doesn’t count for very much and he doesn’t care if you know it.

But on the opposite side, there is Volodymyr Zelensky. Now, Donald Trump has a lot of history with Ukraine and Zelensky. A LOT OF HISTORY. And if we know anything about Trump, he is a master at holding a grudge. And Zelensky did himself no favors during the presidential election – remember how he was in Pennsylvania with Governor Josh Shapiro at an ammunition plant, throwing his support behind Kamala Harris, criticizing any plan of Trump’s that didn’t give back all of Donbas and Crimea, and calling J.D. Vance “too radical.” He backed the wrong horse, and now he has to deal with Donald Trump – again.

And yet somehow, Zelensky has failed to realize that Trump 2.0 is not going to be like Joe Biden, or even Trump 1.0. Zelensky had apparently offered President Trump a “rare minerals” deal in early February, which would then create some security guarantees. But now, he’s changed his mind – and irritated the entire negotiating team.

During an interview with Catherine Herridge, Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out, very concisely, the problems that the administration is having with Zelensky.
https://twitter.com/AutismCapital/status/1892806427808522684
The full post reads:

NEW: Marco Rubio claims that President Zelenskyy acted two-faced with him and President Trump and warns him not to hustle the United States.

RUBIO: “We discussed mineral rights with Zelenskyy and said we want to be in a joint venture with you because we think we need a security guarantee. We need to be paid back some of the $200B in taxpayer money we’ve given you. He said ‘Sure, I need to run it through my legislative process.’

I read two days later he’s saying he rejected the deal. That’s not what happened in that meeting. We’re trying to help these guys. Ukraine doesn’t directly impact the daily lives of Americans, there should be some gratitude here.

When you see him accusing the President of disinformation, that’s highly counterproductive. President Trump isn’t going to take that. He’s not going to get gamed. He hopes Zelenskyy isn’t trying to hustle the United States, that’s not going to be productive here.”

If Zelensky is now trying to play bait-and-switch in order to get a better deal, while trashing Trump in the media… this is not going to end well, for him. It also explains why Trump has been calling him “a dictator” and been very obviously mad about Ukraine. But if Zelensky has been deliberately snubbing and pissing off multiple administration officials, as has now been reported, then I don’t know what he thinks he should expect. Joe Biden is gone, and Zelensky’s “Bank of America” card is looking like it has an expiration date. Being respectful and grateful to the president who is trying to bring the war to an end seems like a better move than talking smack.

So much of what is happening here could have been solved years ago. If Joe Biden had been even remotely engaged in his own presidency, and didn’t have a crap foreign policy that involved shoveling more and more money into an endless war that he had no interest in negotiating to a close, then the Trump 2.0 team wouldn’t be having to clean up this mess. The logical endgame is that Ukraine will lose Donbas and Crimea to Russia, and Russia will be angry that Ukraine will get security guarantees from Europe and NATO, and this rare minerals deal will happen, and also bring more security assurances. In the end, no one will be happy with what they got. Which is pretty much diplomacy in a nutshell. It’s now on Zelensky to stop being an irritant to the talks, and pull his act together.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click