Trump calls Zelensky a dictator, stirs geopolitical tensions

Donald Trump criticized Zelensky for refusing to hand over part of Ukraine’s natural resources to the USA, which he had previously valued at $500 billion. “We had a deal based on rare earth metals and other things, but Ukraine broke it,” Trump said during a speech in Miami at the Future Investment Initiative event organized by Saudi Arabia.

President Zelensky had already declared that he “cannot sell Ukraine” and would not sign any documents negotiated without Ukraine.

Trump also repeated false information, claiming the USA spent $350 billion on aid to Ukraine, which is $200 billion more than in reality. The U.S. President also threatened Volodymyr Zelensky again, saying he might lose all of Ukraine. Additionally, he accused the Ukrainian leader of being a dictator and falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war. The American President once again stated that Russia wants to end the war and suggested that Kyiv and Zelensky are standing in the way.

“A dictator without elections, Zelensky better act fast, or he won’t have a country,” wrote the American President on social media.

In the opinion of retired Col. Maciej Matysiak, for some reason, Donald Trump began using terms typical of Russian propaganda and disinformation in his speeches and statements.

“We don’t know for what reasons. Whether it is Trump’s discussions with Putin or whether the U.S. President holds such beliefs and is now speaking openly about them? Or maybe something entirely different? We don’t know. We only see the result, which is disastrous. And it puts the entire quasi-negotiation process in a disastrous position,” retired Col. Maciej Matysiak, former deputy head of SKW and expert for the Stratpoints Foundation, told WP.

In his opinion, Trump has effectively stood beside Putin and brought him back from obscurity.

“It’s also possible that due to the lack of a deal on resource deposits, he is acting like an offended businessman and developer. In the background, there might also be his grudges from his first presidency and President Zelensky’s reluctance to implicate Joe Biden’s son. Trump is a politician who holds grudges. I’ll emphasize again—we don’t know. We see the effect. I hope these extreme hypotheses don’t turn out to be true because they reflect even worse on Trump and the increasingly tense situation,” Matysiak assesses.

Similar sentiments are expressed by Mariusz Marszałkowski, an expert at the Defence24.pl portal.

“Trump expects a quick fulfillment of his campaign promise regarding ending the war in Ukraine. It was supposed to be 24 hours, then 100 days, and later 6 months. The ticking clock is already affecting his behavior,” Marszałkowski comments.

And as he notes, the American President must also present an economic success.

“A success in contrast to Biden, who—according to Trump—funded a war that cannot be won. And now the U.S. President declares that he will recover that money. However, he is quoting unrealistic amounts. The $500 billion he mentions in the context of rare earth resources is an amount that Americans did not give to Ukraine,” the Defence24.pl expert reminds us.

As he calculates, summing up all the support packages, both military and civilian, that the USA has given to Kyiv, this has been $130-170 billion.

“Of which a large part of this amount has not yet been ‘consumed’ by Ukraine. The $30 billion are just being implemented under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which are supposed to be ordered in the industry. And some of the contracts have a completion deadline in 2026,” Marszałkowski tells WP.

On Wednesday, Finance Minister Andrzej Domański commented on the amount of aid. “President Trump must have been misled regarding European support for Ukraine,” Domański stated on the platform X. “Let me explain: European support for Ukraine is greater than American and will continue to grow. Europe has allocated €134 billion for this purpose, while our American friends – €114 billion,” the Polish finance minister wrote.

According to retired Col. Maciej Matysiak, saying that the USA spent $200 billion more than Europe on aid to Ukraine is misleading and disinformation.

“In my opinion, Elon Musk plays the role of a messenger here, responsible in the White House for seeking financial savings in American administrative spending. In the meantime, there’s a certain fascination visible in Trump’s governance in a dictatorial style. And inspirations from Putin or the Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to whom Trump smiled and patted, saying: my friend Kim. This does not mean that the American President is a dictator. But the style of governance without any restraints or safeguards is closer to him, evaluates the former deputy head of the Military Counterintelligence Service.

According to Matysiak, there is one conclusion from this.

“Europe must think for itself. And not think with American goals. It must take actions to secure the sovereignty of the Ukrainian nation and ensure that Ukraine can negotiate from a position of strength. This does not mean severing relations with the United States, as they remain a strategic partner for Europe,” emphasizes the former military officer.

And Mariusz Marszałkowski, an expert at Defence24.pl, points to another aspect.

“What Trump is doing now regarding Ukraine could obviously be a form of negotiation with Putin. He may want to win over Russia, end the war in Ukraine, and pull the Kremlin away from China. And that’s why he treats Ukraine as a so-called junior partner who has to agree to everything,” he assesses.

As he adds, the American President first tried to do this “with white gloves” by signing, among other things, an agreement on rare earth metals.

“That didn’t work. Trump then moved to aggressive and public deprecation of Zelensky. The rhetoric of the American leader is not so dangerous because it can change at any moment. What might be more dangerous is the suspension of American aid to Ukraine. And seeing what Trump is doing, anything is possible,” summarizes the Defence24.pl expert.