A guest on Fox Business Network Wednesday morning wrong-footed host Maria Bartiromo with pointed criticism of President Trump’s assertions that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should take the blame for the ongoing war in his country.
In the last few days, Trump has claimed that the Zelensky is an unelected “dictator” with an approval rating of 4%. He also said Zelensky is to blame for Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
But in an interview with Bartiromo—a Fox News anchor who has regularly interviewed Trump, defended his policies and was even reportedly in consideration for his vice president—Hermitage Capital Management CEO Bill Browder pushed back on Trump’s statements about Zelensky’s alleged unpopularity.
“That number comes out of thin air... He’s got a 52% approval rating, not a 4% approval rating,” the political activist and financier said. “I think it’s highly unfair for (Trump) to be critical of the victim. He should be critical of the person who is launching the airstrikes.”
Elections have not been held in Ukraine since 2019 as, since Russia’s invasion, the country has been under martial law. Zelensky’s popularity has declined somewhat during this time—while polling is hard to conduct during wartime, country-wide phone surveys showed that 90% of the population supported Zelensky in 2022, but dropped to 77% in 2023. Today, over half of Ukraine (57%) still supports him.
Despite requests for clarification, Trump has offered no source for his single-digit statistic.
It isn’t the first time Trump has blamed Zelensky for the ongoing war. In an October interview, he said he “should never have let that war start... That war is a loser.”
And earlier on Wednesday morning, Trump shared a screed on his Truth Social media feed labeling Zelensky a “modestly successful comedian” who had convinced the United States to enter a war “that couldn’t be won.” He added that without himself, the war would never be settled. (Trump has previously made claims that he could end the war within “24 hours.”)
Trump has, meanwhile, long made admiring comments about Zelensky’s adversary in the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin. He’s called Putin “smart” and “strong” and added that the pair “got along great” during his first term in the White House. Putin has largely echoed these sentiment, expressing gratitude for their “trusting” relations.
But during the Fox Business interview, Browder asserted that it’s Putin who has been the real dictator: “He’s done all sorts of terrible things,” he said, urging viewers to remember who’s the “good guy” and who’s the “bad guy.”
“But, you know, Americans are frustrated with all the hundreds of billions of dollars having been sent to Ukraine with no end in sight,” Bartiromo suggested at this point.
“I’ve got a solution for this whole thing which I think President Trump would like,” answered Browder. When the war first started, he said, the United States, the European Union and the U.K. froze $300 billion of Russian Central Bank reserves.
“In order to continue to help Ukraine, why don’t we take the money from Vladimir Putin?” he said. “The $300 billion. And use that to fund Ukrainian’s defense.”
