Vladimir Putin’s top allies are calling Donald Trump’s bluff after his unexpected show of support for Ukraine.
Trump sent shockwaves through the U.N. after twisting away with his long-held sympathy for Russia to declare that Kyiv, “with the support of the EU, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” adding that they could “even go further than that!”
But the Russian dictator’s supporters predicted TACO Trump would change his mind again the moment it became politically convenient.
Pledging to supply even more weapons to NATO, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “Russia has been fighting aimlessly for three and a half years. This does not distinguish Russia; in fact, it very much makes them look like ”a paper tiger.””
The announcement caught world leaders meeting at the United Nations completely off guard. Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was “a little bit” surprised by the move, but welcomed the president’s change of rhetoric and pledged to work with Trump to turn the tide of the war and force Russia out of Ukraine.
Over in Moscow, however, news of Trump’s latest TACO—the Trump Always Chickens Out nickname based on his record of U-turns—was met mainly with bemusement. Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s personal spokesman, accused Trump of acting purely in line with his “business interests” rather than any genuine affinity for Ukraine, The Kyiv Independent reports. Russian lawmaker Oleg Matveychev referred to the president as a “random phrase generator” whose words are inherently meaningless and full of contradictions.
“It’s a random number generator, a random phrase generator. And there’s been a saying that Trump says exactly what the last person in his office told him to say,” Matveychev told Russian state media.
“Do you really think he’ll say something momentous? Or will his words change anything? Nothing depends on them, nothing will change.”
The harshest critique of all, though, came from Dmitry Medevev, the former Russian president and head of Moscow’s Security Council. Writing on Telegram, the former president accused Trump of slipping into an “alternate reality” and predicted he would change his mind and “return” to Putin’s side in a matter of weeks.
The U.S. president “issued a series of political incantations on the theme of ”How weak Russia is,“” said Medvedev on Tuesday. “After meeting with the clowns in Kiev and Paris, he published a colorful post. It mentions Kiev’s final victory, a return to the former borders, Russia’s failed military economy, queues for gasoline, and a ”paper tiger.”
He suggested that Trump “will return. He always returns,” adding that in a couple of days, ”he’ll probably propose that the green pianist [a derogatory Russian nickname for Zelensky] sign a capitulation. Or maybe fly to Mars with his pardoned Musk. Or come up with something else “historic” to claim a Nobel Prize.
“The key, after all, is to keep drastically changing your position on every major issue. That’s what makes for ‘successful’ governance through social media.”
The outburst is not the first time Medvedev has taken shots at Trump - Back in July, the former Russian president likened the POTUS to his predecessor by referring to him as “Sleepy Joe,” which enraged Trump so much that he ordered two nuclear submarines to be deployed near Moscow.
Despite Trump’s change in tone, Kyiv has conceded that it is nearly impossible for Ukraine to regain all of its captured territory through purely military means and has shifted its rhetoric towards obtaining the territory through “diplomatic means.”
