Trump setting up Zelensky to fail after Putin meeting

Donald Trump was accused of toying with Volodymyr Zelensky and “setting him up to fail” before the Ukrainian President met with the controversial politician on Monday, August 18, Knewz.com can reveal. According to former Defense Committee Chairman Tobias Ellwood, Zelensky did not have the upper hand; Trump did, as the 79-year-old, who himself is believed to have been “manipulated” by Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Alaska last week, knew that much progress wouldn’t be made.

“I see Trump deliberately setting this up to fail so he can then walk away and say, ‘I tried — they didn’t want to play ball,’” Ellwood said in an interview. “Everybody’s takeaway is, ‘Oh my goodness, didn’t Putin pull off a fast one — red carpet treatment, handshake with the American president … then walking away with not even agreeing on a ceasefire, let alone a deal. … Trump isn’t stupid, and he knows that he’s up against all the promises that he made. And I’m looking at the bigger picture, the five or six chess moves down the line. And I see Trump deliberately setting this up to fail so he can then walk away and say, ‘Listen, I brought the stakeholders around the table. I knocked heads together. They didn’t want to play ball. I’m out of here.’”

Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska, but no movement was made in peace negotiations over Russia’s war with Ukraine. The U.S. president desperately tried to paint a positive picture, though. “There were many, many points that we agree on,” he told reporters after the meeting. “A couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, so there’s no deal until there’s a deal.” While Trump claimed he reached out to Zelensky, who was not at the meeting, to debrief on the conversation, Ellwood didn’t see Putin’s rival agreeing to any terms.

“With the offer on the table that Trump is putting together, there’s no chance that Zelensky can agree to it, because it’s appeasement. He is the president, but he would never want to be the president who gives a fifth of his country to a bully, only for the bully to then re-arm, regroup and do it all again,” Ellwood said. The former MP for Bournemouth East also feared Trump’s second term administration is outclassed when it comes to negotiating with Russia and Ukraine: “With Trump 2.0, he’s brought in his own team of buddies, friends, contacts, mostly for the real estate, and they just simply don’t have the experience to do any of this.”

“They will not challenge Trump, they’re all rowing behind his vision, which is to say, he’s now realized he’s between a rock and a hard place now so he’s forcing Zelensky to fail … and that leaves Britain and Europe in a very difficult place because Europe and America not being on the same page is a very dangerous place. We saw that in World War I and World War II,” Ellwood continued. Trump critics thought the president would ask Zelensky to cede land to Russia when they met — effectively an annexation of sovereign Ukrainian territory by Russia. Russia is currently occupying 19 percent of Ukraine including Crimea. On Sunday night, Trump raged before the meeting on Truth Social, “President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight. Remember how it started. No getting back [Barack] Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”