2019 Trump - Zelensky Feud Continues to Haunt Ukraine
The relationship between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky has been defined by the 2019 Trump-Ukraine scandal, where a political grievance metastasized into a crisis of U.S. foreign policy that continues to color Trump’s current views on the war.
The crisis began when Trump pressured the newly elected Zelensky, in a July 2019 phone call, to investigate his political rival, Joe Biden. Trump withheld crucial military aid and a White House meeting from Ukraine as leverage for this "quid pro quo" demand, which became the basis for his first impeachment for abuse of power.
Zelensky ultimately did not publicly cooperate with the request to "dig up dirt" on the Bidens. The aid was released only after a whistleblower complaint exposed the scheme, thrusting Ukraine’s leader into the center of U.S. partisan politics.
Trump’s reaction to his impeachment established a continuing grudge against Zelensky and Ukraine, which he reportedly views as the cause of his political troubles. This animosity has subsequently impacted his policy positions:
Post-Invasion Rhetoric: Even after Russia’s 2022 invasion, Trump publicly expressed hostility toward Zelensky, at one point falsely claiming Ukraine "should have never started it" and "could have made a deal" to avert the war—a narrative that parallels Russian propaganda.
Conditioning Future Aid: The grudge is most evident in his frequent calls to reduce or block further U.S. aid and his stated intent to force a settlement between Ukraine and Russia. This transactional approach, focused on pressuring Ukraine to make territorial concessions, echoes the initial attempt to condition U.S. support during the 2019 scandal.
