MAGA Melts Down Over Zelensky Standing Up to Trump

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser warned Ukrainian officials to “tone it down” after Trump spent days hurling falsehoods and insults at his counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, who responded by merely pointing out Trump’s “disinformation.”

Mike Waltz appeared on Fox & Friends Thursday and said that the entire senior ranks of the administration—from Vice President JD Vance to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Trump himself—were “frustrated” in their dealings with war-torn Ukraine’s leaders.

His comments came as relations between the U.S. and Ukraine appear to be rapidly deteriorating as the Trump administration moves to thaw relations with autocratic Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump has spent the week peddling untruths about Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” multiple times, including during a speech to a Saudi-backed investment conference in Florida on Wednesday.

He also claimed the only thing the Ukrainian president “was really good at was playing Joe Biden like a fiddle.”

In the process, Trump has echoed Kremlin talking points that attempt to delegitimize Zelensky, whose term was due to end in May 2024 but has been provisionally extended because the Ukrainian constitution bars elections during periods of martial law.

Ukraine has been under martial law since 2022, when Putin ordered Russian forces to undertake a full-scale invasion of the country in violation of international law.

If that wasn’t enough, Trump also falsely claimed this week that Ukraine started the war with Russia and that Zelenskyy’s approval rating was floundering at 4 percent—in fact, a recent poll shows it’s 57 percent.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov ran with Trump’s polling falsehood on Thursday, telling journalists: “The fact that Zelensky’s rating is falling is an absolutely obvious trend.”

Waltz‘s insistence on Thursday that Ukraine should “tone it down” in the face of this mountain of disinformation came a day after Zelensky lamented that Trump is “trapped in this disinformation bubble.”

The Ukrainian leader was careful to note his remarks—which, unlike Trump’s, were not accompanied by any deceptive epithets—were made “with all due respect for him as the leader of a nation that we respect greatly.”

But Trump’s apparently thin-skinned team bristled at the idea that someone would correct them. Among those who took great insult were Vance, who called Ukrainian leader’s words “disgraceful” and “badmouthing.”

Fox Guest Calls Out Trump Claim Made ‘Out of Thin Air’ALTERNATIVE FACTS

Kenneal Patterson

“Why we’re getting this pushback and this kind of, as the Vice President said, bad mouthing in the press for all the administration has done and all the United States has done for Ukraine is just, it’s unacceptable,” Waltz told Fox & Friends. “They need to tone it down and and and take a hard look and sign that deal.”

The deal he referred to was a draft agreement that would have required Ukraine to hand over half of its rare earth minerals for continued military support, which U.S. officials presented Zelensky with at a defense conference in Munich last week and insisted he sign it.

He refused.

At the same time, Trump has flattered Putin, opening a direct line to the Russian leader last week, sending American envoys to meet their Kremlin counterparts in Saudi Arabia on Monday, suggesting the two leaders may hold face-to-face talks by the end of this month, and stating his isolated regime should be welcomed back into the G7 economic forum of advanced nations.

Trump administration officials have claimed their talks with Russia are aimed at bringing an end to the war in Ukraine, but the discussions have raised alarm bells in Kyiv and European capitals for shutting out traditional allies, who fear a Kremlin-friendly deal is in the works.

Republican Senators Are Finally Calling Out Trump’s BSA BRIDGE TOO FAR

Matt Young

Zelensky is not alone among world leaders who have expressed bafflement at Trump’s week of spewing disinformation.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday that his comments about the Ukrainian president were “totally absurd.”

“If you didn’t just hastily tweet and looked at the real world, then you would know who in Europe has to live under dictatorial conditions: the people in Russia,” she said, in an interview with ZDF.