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The Memo: Trump’s jabs at Ukraine divide GOP

9 19
yesterday

President Trump ratcheted up his attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, deepening the first real schism of his second term within the GOP.

Appearing on the "Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox News Radio, Trump said of Zelensky, “I've been watching for years, and I've been watching him negotiate with no cards. He has no cards, and you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I've had it."

That jab came on top of a series of Trump comments earlier this week, and talks in Saudi Arabia where representatives of the United States and Russia met, in the absence of any representative from Ukraine.

During former President Biden’s administration, Washington placed great emphasis on the fact that an end to the war, sparked by Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor, would only come on terms with which the government of Ukraine agreed.

But during his Friday radio interview, Trump dismissed the need to have Zelensky involved in talks, saying he did not think the Ukrainian president was “very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you.”

With words like that, Trump fanned the flames of a storm that has consumed much of the week. He has appeared to echo Kremlin narratives of the war and placed much of the blame for the conflict on Ukraine.

In the process, Republican and conservative voices have been raised against him in a way that has not........

© The Hill