Trump perceives Zelenskyy with obvious sensitivity

This statement by Trump, along with his claims that nothing is left of Ukraine, shows that the former U.S. president, who is trying to return to the White House and has a good chance of winning the November 5 election, has drawn no conclusions from his conversation with the Ukrainian president during the latter's visit to the U.S.

As can be understood from Zelenskyy's own comments and Trump's statements, both participants of the meeting have diametrically opposed views on what actually took place.

"Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to assure journalists that Donald Trump heard his arguments regarding the war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Trump keeps repeating the same points he made before the meeting with Zelenskyy, as if the meeting never happened."

Trump once again called Volodymyr Zelenskyy "the greatest salesman in history" and falsely claimed that every time the Ukrainian president visits the U.S., he returns home with hundreds of billions of dollars, something no one else has achieved. This is also untrue, as the U.S. spends similar or even larger sums on aid to many of its allies, even those not at war, with the funds often going towards preventing new conflicts, as has been the case with Egypt for decades.

Trump again talks about the complete destruction of Ukraine, although this is also untrue, but he talks about a destroyed Ukraine rather in the context of his election campaign to talk about the helplessness of the current president, Joseph Biden, and his administration, as well as General Michael Milley, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, during Russia's attack on Ukraine.

Perhaps now Trump is also guided by his personal antipathy to General Milley, who characterized the former American president as an “absolute fascist” and called for him to stop his desire to return to power.

But in any case, the picture of the Russian-Ukrainian war that Trump continues to paint not only at his campaign rallies but also during numerous interviews has nothing to do with reality, but should justify the steps that the former American president is apparently planning to take if he returns to the White House.

I am, of course, referring to his dealings with a person he has never spoken about the way he speaks about Volodymyr Zelenskyy - the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who has always inspired Donald Trump's genuine and unabashed admiration.

Therefore, I would draw one simple conclusion from all these statements by the former American president, which should be made throughout the entire duration of the long Russian-Ukrainian war: one should not harbor illusions or live in a world that does not exist and will not exist.

Donald Trump is not positively inclined toward Ukraine and harbors a deeply negative attitude towards its leadership, with a personal dislike for the current president of Ukraine. I don't intend to blame Volodymyr Zelenskyy for this antipathy. To win Trump's favor, Zelenskyy would have had to make a deal and start pursuing Hunter Biden, while also, of course, looking for ways to implicate President Joe Biden during the U.S. election campaign.

And, of course, in this situation, Donald Trump's sympathies were assured, but we understand what the situation in Ukrainian-American relations would have been like after Joseph Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

In any case, this has not happened.

"Zelenskyy is perceived by Trump with an obvious allergy also because he actually hinders the good relations that Trump would like to establish with Vladimir Putin."

It spoils another illusion that Trump and Putin could agree on joint actions against the People's Republic of China, which Trump continues to consider, and not without reason, to be the main threat to the United States.

The understanding that Russia is a natural ally of China in the battle between democracy and dictatorship, which will unfold over the coming decades and could potentially lead humanity to the very Third World War that Trump claims to want to avoid - albeit for entirely different reasons - this understanding is absent in Donald Trump, his team, and his supporters, and I am confident it will remain so. Therefore, in this context, one should expect certain critical decisions if Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election.

The first is Donald Trump's attempt to negotiate with Vladimir Putin to end the Russian-Ukrainian war on terms that will suit the current Russian president and give him the opportunity not only to feel like a winner in this war, but to be a winner in this war. And we don't know how far Donald Trump will go in his desire to please the man who has always inspired such sincere human and political admiration for him.

Second, the United States' aid to Ukraine will be reduced on the initiative of the current American president, if Donald Trump is elected. Moreover, Donald Trump will do everything possible to reduce the amount of this aid, even if he loses the US presidential election.

By the way, I believe that in this situation, Trump will not concede defeat, and the United States could plunge into a deep and prolonged political crisis. But even if that doesn't happen and Republicans gain control of Congress, Donald Trump, as we've already seen in recent months, will do everything he can to prevent Congress from approving aid to Ukraine proposed by the Kamala Harris administration. We should also be prepared for delays in such assistance.

Thirdly, no matter what our European partners say today, if Donald Trump becomes president of the United States, all these people, especially the leaders of countries that have nuclear weapons and consider themselves the main allies of the United States, I mean British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron, will try to build a special relationship with Donald Trump and make up for the situation in these relations, which clearly does not look positive during the pre-election period.

Thus, they will be very cautious with new proposals for supporting Ukraine if they see that Donald Trump perceives them negatively. They will try to persuade Trump privately but will be very careful in their public assessments of U.S. policy. This could also become quite a serious problem.

Fourth, the politicians who are Donald Trump's traditional allies will come to the fore in Europe. And it will be very important which of them will play the first violin in convincing Donald Trump of what needs to be done in relation to Europe and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Fourth, the politicians who are Donald Trump's traditional allies will come to the fore in Europe. And it will be very important which of them will play the first violin in convincing Donald Trump of what needs to be done in relation to Europe and the Russian-Ukrainian war.

In my opinion, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will play the main role, and Polish President Andrzej Duda, with his pro-Ukrainian views, will be relegated to the background or forced to change or make these views more cautious in order to remain among the politicians Trump wants to talk to and secure his own political career after his presidential term ends.

Therefore, the changes will be difficult, dramatic, and negative. And we need to prepare for how to act in the face of these changes today, a few weeks before Ukraine's crucially important upcoming presidential election in the United States.

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About the author. Vitaly Portnikov, journalist, winner of the Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine.

The editors do not always share the opinions expressed by the blog authors.