Ukraine 'may not survive anyway', warns Trump

Donald Trump leaned into his personal feud with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday.

- JOHN BOWDEN

The president sat down for an interview with Fox News and reacted to criticism of his conduct during an Oval Office meeting with the Ukrainian leader more than a week ago in which Mr Trump and vice-president JD Vance appeared to gang up on the leader.

Yesterday, Mr Trump reiterated that he thought Mr Zelensky wasn’t “grateful” and added that he “took candy from a baby” – his description of the Biden administration’s policy of military and political support for Ukraine.

The president also seemed to deride the Ukrainian leader’s assertion that his country’s armed forces were serving the country bravely, as he dismissively recalled Mr Zelensky “talking about the fact that they have fought and there's [...] bravery because somebody has to use those [US-supplied] weapons”.

“He’s a smart guy, and he’s a tough guy,” Mr Trump said of Mr Zelensky. “He took money out of this country, under [Joe] Biden, like candy from a baby.”

He was asked by Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo about critics who claimed that he was easing up political pressure on Russia.