President Donald Trump’s submissiveness to Russian President Vladimir Putin and disdain for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have led to an absurd situation. Trump is now restraining Ukraine’s defense while simultaneously funding Russia’s war. American interests and values are at fundamental odds with what Trump is doing.
Putin is an authoritarian despot and a devoted American enemy. In contrast, Zelensky is a pro-American leader who seeks closer relations with the democratic West.
In Ukraine, Putin has invaded a peaceful nation because he believes it can exist only as a Russian imperial limb. Zelensky is seeking to defend his national sovereignty and his people’s right to live free.
Zelensky agrees to Trump’s demand for an energy ceasefire, only to see Putin escalate his own attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as the cold winter approaches.
Putin adopts Islamist terrorist tactics, blowing up packed buses and flying drones into toddlers as they play at the park. Zelensky instead focuses on depleting the economic trough that feeds Russia’s war.
All of this raises a question: Why, then, does Trump ignore Putin’s culpability for this war and the grotesque suffering it has caused? Why does he insist Ukraine is to blame for the absence of peace when Russia proves its disdain for peace every single day? Why does Trump so dislike the leader seeking to defend his people and so respect the leader seeking to subjugate them?
There are two reasons.
First, Putin has applied textbook KGB manipulation tactics against an American president exceptionally vulnerable to those tactics. Second, Zelensky’s personality is a very poor match for Trump’s.
Putin’s manipulation of Trump will be well understood by anyone who has read the Mitrokhin Archive. A collection of secret reports from the Soviet Union’s KGB intelligence service, the archive was compiled by a former KGB officer who then defected to the United Kingdom. Vasili Mitrokhin’s documents provide extraordinary insight into the KGB’s obsessive focus on psychological manipulation. A former KGB lieutenant colonel, Putin revels in applying these tactics against foreign leaders and populations.
When it comes to Trump, Putin has masterfully identified the intersection of Trump’s extraordinary ego and his desperate desire for public recognition. Most of us simply sigh when Trump obsesses about crowd sizes at his rallies, insists that his name be added to the Kennedy Center, and wails that he has not received the Nobel Peace Prize. Not so Putin. He takes notes. The KGB man also recognizes Trump’s attraction to leaders who demand fear abroad and fealty at home. In turn, Putin has convinced Trump that he views him as a master statesman and his strongman equal. To reinforce his manipulation, Putin provides Trump with quiet, theatrical gestures of kinship.
Other presidents have fallen for these tactics, but none to the degree Trump has. Putin’s key advantages here are Trump’s disdain for history and uncomfortable facts and his absolute belief that all issues can be resolved by boardroom wheeling and dealing.
On the other side of the coin, Zelensky’s personality is a very poor fit for Trump’s.
Trump is jealous of the global regard in which Zelensky is held. And while expecting respect for his courageous wartime leadership, Zelensky is nevertheless a temperamental leader. He is prone to outbursts that Trump perceives as insults to his prized public machismo. In his broader foreign policy, Zelensky often favors emotional impulsiveness over careful statecraft. Zelensky was foolish to effectively endorse Vice President Kamala Harris prior to the 2024 presidential election, for example. Zelensky has also unnecessarily offended other key partners, such as Poland, the United Kingdom, and even South Korea.
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Crucially, and in stark contrast to Putin, Zelensky fails to recognize the degree to which Trump views politics through the short-term prism of constant deal-making. In international politics, values are as irrelevant to Trump as history. Indeed, Trump views his erratic policymaking as a function of his genius, willfully ignoring longer-term risks to American interests. This has allowed Putin to convince Trump that Russia deserves deference and that Ukraine is a minnow that should shut up and follow orders.
We see the unpleasant results. Putin is making Trump dance for him while having Trump believe they are dancing a great waltz together. Zelensky is isolated to the side, blamed by Trump for hiding the truth of his most artful deal-making.