Zelensky warns Trump about becoming “loser president” if reelected

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is warning former President Donald Trump that he could be a “loser president” if he tries to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia if he gets another term in the White House.

Zelensky told The Guardian in an interview published Monday that although he has “no strategy yet” for how he would handle a second Trump term, he thinks the presumptive Republican nominee could become a “loser president” if he follows through on the plans outlined by some of his aides.

Trump is expected to cut off U.S. military support to Ukraine if he defeats White House incumbent President Joe Biden in November. Publicly, Trump has boasted that he could negotiate a peace deal within 24 hours. Privately, it’s been reported that he’s discussed ending Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some of its territory.

But Zelensky said, “Ukrainians would not put up with that.”

The Trump campaign referred Newsweek to the former president’s interview with Fox over the weekend, during which he said of the war, “I get along very well with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and I get along with Zelensky, and I would get them in a room and I would get it ended.” He also said he had an “exact plan as to how” but added, “I can’t tell you that.”

The Ukrainian president acknowledged that Trump could cut off “support, weapons and money” if he were reelected and that, “Ukraine, barehanded, without weapons, will not be able to fight a multimillion [Russian] army.”

But Zelensky warned that if Trump followed through with those plans, it could gamble away America’s position as a global superpower because Russian President Vladimir Putin would likely violate any peace deal brokered by a reelected Trump and make him look “very weak” on the international stage.

“Does [Trump] want to become a loser president? Do you understand what can happen?” Zelensky said in an interview conducted last Wednesday.

“This is not about him, as a person but about the institutions of the United States,” he said. “They will become very weak. The U.S. will not be the leader of the world anymore. Yes, it will be powerful, first of all, in the domestic economy because it has a powerful economy without a doubt. But in terms of international influence, it will be equal to zero.”

Zelensky cautioned that once Putin was able to undermine Trump, other authoritarian leaders would see that America was no longer a major “player” and it would lead to “The beginning of what everyone is so afraid to talk about.”

“This is reality. And this is the real third world war,” Zelensky warned.

The Ukrainian president said that he had invited Trump to Ukraine and that he wanted to talk to the presumptive GOP nominee “openly” after Trump was able to “see the results of what [Putin] brought to Ukraine.”

“I want him to come and see the war for himself. And then to talk to him. I think he would need it to understand the situation better,” Zelensky said.

Update 06/03/24 8:47 p.m. ET This story was updated with comments from the Trump campaign.