February 21, 2025

WATCH: Marco Rubio Reveals Why the Trump Administration Is So Ticked at Zelensky.

Unfortunately, it seems like Zelensky got very used to being able to play the press during the Biden years, to essentially receive blank checks with no real mechanism to ensure Americans are paid back. Believing he could carry over that strategy to the Trump administration was a huge mistake. Donald Trump does not care about pressure from the mainstream media or Europe. He certainly doesn’t have any qualms about having a war of words with Zelensky if the Ukrainian president chooses to make unfortunate comments to the press in an attempt to “hustle” the United States, as Rubio described it.

Not that Zelensky listens to me, but I repeatedly warned this would happen. His mouthing off during the presidential campaign was unnecessary and arrogant. To continue that arrogance by expressing such entitlement after Trump’s election has only made matters worse. I get that some on the right want Trump to be the bigger man here and ignore Zelensky’s sleights, but I’d counter that with this question: Have you ever met Donald Trump? That’s not meant as a criticism but as a recognition of reality. That’s how he operates, and Zelensky should have been smart enough to not push his buttons. Now, everything is up in the air, and no amount of crying to CNN or the EU is going to help.

Fleet Street has been running headlines this week such as “Starmer says Zelensky is no dictator after calling Ukrainian leader in Trump rebuke,” which seems odd, since after Zelensky cancelled elections in 2023, Newsweek reported, “Ukraine Sure Doesn’t Look Like a Democracy Anymore.”

And he continues to do some rather dictator-adjacent things, such as blocking social media Websites: Not Smart: Zelenskyy Just Blocked Truth Social in Ukraine.

Flashback to September: Zelensky joins Putin, campaigning and advocating for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania.

President Trump was nearly murdered a mere week ago by a dirtbag who proclaimed a fanatical devotion to Ukraine’s war. Now Zelensky has turned up to try to knock President Trump out another way? He should sit this one out. This is nothing if not a bad look. But the irony of it is amazing. Both Zelensky and Putin, locked in a multi-billion-dollar war financed on the Ukraine side by the U.S. are now openly supporting Harris together.

Complete with Zelensky at a WWII-style bomb-signing ceremony with Democrat PA Gov. Josh Shapiro:

To really grind the metaphors hard, the handwriting was very much on the wall for the doomed Harris campaign by then; perhaps Zelensky should have been smart enough not to go all-in on backing it.

UPDATE: No wonder Starmer is praising Zelensky. Game respects game:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll