“Today I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. … You should’ve ended it,” Donald Trump opined rhetorically to Ukraine about peace talks to end its war with Russia. “You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.”

Mr. President, you said Ukraine “should have never started” the war with Russia. Can you explain what you mean by that?

That’s my question to the president because the way I see it, Trump just accused the scrawny kid of sticking his face right in the bully’s fist.

His statement is abjectly false.

Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, and everyone with two eyes and a brain knows that’s how it went down. Russian strongman Vladimir Putin launched that invasion as part of a scheme to restore the former “glory” of the Soviet Union, which he resented seeing fall apart 35 years ago. It was an invasion we saw coming because of Joe Biden’s provocative weakness displayed by his disastrous surrender in Afghanistan.

Taken at face value, Trump’s comment is so absurd that it undermines whatever else he’s trying to do here. It’s also a reversal from last month, when he warned Putin, “We can do it the easy way, or the hard way.” Suddenly, he’s putting more pressure on Kyiv than Moscow, despite the U.S. having a 30-year history of promising support for Ukraine.

His usual strategy is embracing 70-30 issues. This ain’t that. So what’s Trump up to?

As always with Trump, there are some rope-a-dope reasons for his negotiating style. His detractors scream about his lies while his most devoted supporters gush over the genius of his 4D chess. The truth is somewhere in between, and negotiations usually bear that out.

So far, the U.S. and Russia have begun talks to end the war, and, unfortunately, Ukraine has been left out. Trump was responding to Ukraine’s complaints. President Volodymyr Zelensky promised he “will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine” if Ukraine is left out of negotiations. Call me crazy, but that’s not an unreasonable assertion.

That’s doubly true given that Trump has already largely conceded several items to Russia — it can keep the land it stole, Ukraine won’t join NATO, the U.S. will lift sanctions, and there will be no U.S. troops in Ukraine after the war. “And in exchange,” notes National Review’s Jim Geraghy, “Putin offered … well, nothing, really.”

While Zelensky says he has “great respect” for Trump, “unfortunately, [he] lives in this disinformation space” regarding who started what. “I want there to be more truth in Trump’s team.”

Right on cue, Trump fired back on Truth Social:

Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and “TRUMP,” will never be able to settle. The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe. … On top of this, Zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is “MISSING.” He refuses to have Elections, is very low in Ukrainian Polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden “like a fiddle.” A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only “TRUMP,” and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the “gravy train” going. I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died — And so it continues….

Trump is right that it’s time to end the war, which has cost tens of thousands of lives (including at least 12,000 Ukrainian civilians) and countless billions in losses. He’s right that defending specific borders in Ukraine is of little interest to Americans or U.S. national security. Most Americans have lost patience with the seemingly blank check Joe Biden wanted for Ukraine. He’s also right that Putin would never have invaded Ukraine if Trump had remained president.

On the other hand, Russia could end the war today by withdrawing its army from another country’s soil. Furthermore, though Trump detests when other nations become dependent on the U.S., his numbers are a bit off. We haven’t spent anywhere near $350 billion — it’s actually roughly half that, though one could argue that’s far too much. If Zelensky is telling the truth, that “missing” $100 billion never made it to Ukraine. If he’s not telling the truth, well, he does run one of the most corrupt nations on the planet.

As for elections, “Ukraine has delayed elections while it is operating under martial law and fighting a war for survival,” observes the Wall Street Journal editorial board. “Its constitution allows this, and Britain under Nazi siege didn’t hold an election during World War II. Was Churchill a dictator?” Moreover, when was the last time Russia held a truly free election?

As a side note, Newsweek posted this gem on X: “There are concerns that the Ukrainian president could be voted out of office if the country holds an election.” Huh. You don’t say.

That brings me to some broader context for Trump’s remarks.

After being dogged for years by the phony Hillary Clinton-funded Russia collusion hoax, Trump was impeached (the first time) for that infamous phone call with Zelensky. The unbelievable irony is that he was impeached for what Joe Biden actually did — squeezing a quid pro quo from Ukraine in exchange for U.S. money. Biden and his family, of course, were famously corrupt in dealing with Ukraine, which is a big reason why the Big Guy pardoned his wastrel son before leaving office.

Last fall, Zelensky also arguably interfered in the 2024 election on behalf of Team Biden and its puppet candidate, Kamala Harris. Zelensky and Putin may be enemies, but they both wanted Harris to win.

Thus, it’s quite possible that Trump’s dislike for Ukraine is personal.

Unfortunately, that’s not the best guide for U.S. foreign policy. If this ends the way it seems to be headed, Trump’s recklessness may hamper rather than advance the America First agenda. The critical possible exception is that if Trump can smooth over relations with Russia — or even merely blunt the antagonism — it may clarify the U.S. focus on increasing Chinese aggression. Still, that’s a big “maybe.”

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.

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Update: What Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are saying about Zelensky is troubling, to say the least.

What Secretary Rubio is saying here is exactly right. https://t.co/nh2pHzramp

— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 21, 2025

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Update: On Friday, Trump modified his statement about who started it: “They got attacked by somebody that’s much bigger and much stronger — which is a bad thing to do, and you don’t do that — but Russia could have been talked out of that so easily. That should never have been a war, and all those dead people shouldn’t be dead, and all those cities shouldn’t be demolished right now.”