It’s astoundingly ironic that President Donald Trump starts his Feb. 19 Truth Social post about the war in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by saying “Think about it.” Because, as per usual, he is telling you exactly what he wants you to think, not offering an incentive for you to give critical consideration to the known facts and ponder past the barriers of purposeful misinformation.
What follows that “Think about it,” is a litany of falsehoods and misleading statements that fit this blatantly Russian-friendly – which is another way to say autocrat-endorsing – Trump agenda. In Trumpland, up is down, and down is up if he says so. He calls someone fighting every day for his country’s freedom from tyranny a “dictator,” after having quoted someone who was effectively a dictator a few days earlier.
But in this case, the lie is so in-your-face that the word “Dictator” climbed to the trending list on X’s algorithm, prompting GOP members to voice disagreement in a rare show of dissidence, and even Piers Morgan had to call it out – albeit without directly pointing the finger at Trump.
Dictator Who?
This is perhaps the most evil thing Trump has ever posted.
It is like blaming Poland for being invaded by Hitler.
To viciously attack Ukraine while never once reserving a single harsh word for Putin – the actual dictator responsible for millions of deaths – is sick. pic.twitter.com/wQeXJXZpiO
— Drew Pavlou
(@DrewPavlou) February 19, 2025
Volodymyr Zelensky is NOT a dictator.
Vladimir Putin IS a dictator.
Zelensky didn’t start the war in Ukraine.
Putin did.
Hope this clarifies things for anyone who is confused.— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) February 20, 2025
The sheer number of lies that Donald Trump can fit in a single social media post is Guinness World Records-level impressive. But, in order to not get too disorientated, for now, let’s focus on unpacking one particular aspect: The fact that Trump denominated Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “A Dictator without Elections.” It’s a profoundly hypocritical statement, especially when it comes mere days after quoting a phrase often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, the French general who crowned himself Emperor.
Zelenskyy was elected in 2019 on an anti-corruption platform, having won a landslide victory with over 70% of the popular vote. Elections would have been held last year were Ukraine not under martial law because… they are at war…? That’s what martial law is for, after all. While the South Korean President tried to invoke martial law in 2024 to save his own hide – and fortunately failed – that is not at all Zelenskyy or Ukraine’s case.
Although Zelenskyy’s approval rating has since dropped – sort of expected when you’re trying to hold together a country that is ravaged by war on the daily – when Trump claims he “is very low in Ukrainian Polls,” he fails to mention that Zelenskyy’s approval rating is currently higher than his own, after being inaugurated a mere month ago.
This is why Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” pic.twitter.com/gxTa0Jbo29
— Liam Nissan
(@theliamnissan) February 19, 2025
Here’s a riddle: one country has a dictator with no real elections, the other one doesn’t. Which is which? pic.twitter.com/PG6O9bx74f
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) February 19, 2025
If you think Gallup’s poll might be fallacious, Emerson College also projects that Trump’s approval rating currently stands at less than 50%. Furthermore, it’s beyond all levels of hypocrisy known to man to call the rightfully elected Zelenskyy a “Dictator without Elections,” all the while kissing Putin’s ring, a man who has been in power for over two decades, holds sham elections where he unfailingly wins by a literally unbelievable margin (all to give the illusion of a choice), and is considered a war criminal by the International Criminal Court whose arrest warrant was issued in March 2023.
Even though he is often remembered as a remarkable military strategist, Napoleon was still a tyrant who bypassed democratic processes for the sake of his agenda. In recent days, as well as in the post blatantly hinting at the fact that – for all intents and purposes – he perceives himself as being above the law, Trump has been doing everything to undermine democracy not just at home but also abroad.
We are witnessing a very sad moment in American history.
The President of the United States is aligning himself with the dictator of Russia, Vladimir Putin, to undermine the independence of Ukraine and its democracy.
Here are my thoughts: pic.twitter.com/mfogfnQxSK
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 20, 2025
As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says, Trump “wants a world that is safe for authoritarians and oligarchs, but extremely dangerous for democracies.” While his underlings preach “democratic values” to pro-democracy countries, the U.S. President seems to be setting the stage for expanding his own powers beyond what is constitutionally acceptable or even morally justifiable.
