Newsmax moved away from its longtime support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia to be part of the Trump Regime Media in touting President Trump’s berating of Volodymyr Zelensky in a White House meeting in February. WorldNetDaily, meanwhile, has long been a willing shill for Russia and Vladimir Putin (and, of course, against Ukraine), so its Russia-friendly portrayal of the Trump-Zelensky incident is less of a surprise. WND’s coverage began with an article built around tweets from Trump’s rapid-response operation, followed by another tweet-based article bashing Zelensky. Then came an anonymously written article hyping that “President Trump is considering ending shipments of military aid to Ukraine after the heated disagreement he had today with President Zelensky over the war between Russia and Ukraine.” A Feb. 28 article by Matt Bailey served up WND’s corporate take:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky departed the White House before a scheduled, then canceled, press conference after a heated exchange in the Oval Office Friday.
The hot words developed when Zelensky asked U.S. President Trump to address Ukrainians’ concerns about his perceived closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump called the question “disrespectful” to a nation trying to secure peace between the two nations.
“I’m not aligned with Putin,” Trump said. “I’m aligned with the United States of America.”
[…]The full heated exchange included Trump demanding Zelensky not “Tell us how we’ll feel” if there’s no deal, and telling him “You don’t have the cards” without the United States backing his country. Vance also accuses the embattled leader of being on a “publicity tour” who should be grateful for the Trump administration, despite campaigning for former Vice President Kamala Harris in a swing state last Fall.
[…]It is clear Zelensky came to provoke President Trump. He brought photos of dead Ukrainians, and made disapproving faces as President Trump spoke to the media in the Oval Office. No word yet on what this means for what the administration has called “the last yard” of U.S.-negotiated peace talks for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.
After these came a Feb. 28 article by Bob Unruh touting sycophantic right-wing praise for Trump:
There were strident words in the Oval Office Friday when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The upshot was that Zelensky got scolded for his entitled attitude toward the United States, which has sent his country hundreds of billions of dollars to fight a war with Russia, even has the U.S. is working with him, and Russian President Vladimir Putin on a way to end the bloodshed.
Essentially, Zelensky was spanked.
And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Ga., praised the White House.
“President Trump and Vice President Vance will put America First every single time,” she said. “Putting Zelensky in his place while he disrespects the U.S. in the Oval Office is exactly what American leadership should look like.”
[…]Social media pointed out that, “Zelensky just got spanked and humiliated in front of the entire world.”
WND followed that with a March 1 video commentary by Victor Davis Hanson laughably claiming, “In some ways, yes, Zelensky IS an authoritarian.” Joe Kovacs served up more Trump sycophancy in a March 2 article:
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is now revealing what he calls “riduclous” requests by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky before the fiery exchange Friday with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
Appearing on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel, Lutnick said: “Forty-five minutes before the meltdown, the fact was Zelensky never stopped asking for, you know, ‘I will give no concessions, they’ve got to leave my land, I want reparations of $300 billion, and I want the United States to give me security guarantees,’ while they’re at war with Russia.
“And that’s why the president called it World War III. You’re gambling with World War III.
“We’re not gonna give you security guarantees while you’re at war with Russia. It’s just ridiculous. His requests were ridiculous. They were not reasonable. The president let it go for a while.
“Our president is there to make peace, as he said, end the death. And Zelensky was not there to make peace.
“He was there to strike some make-believe bargain that he had in his mind. And eventually that just ran its course, and Donald Trump said I can’t take this nonsense anymore, and made it crystal clear he’s the peacemaker, and if Zelensky’s not interested in peace, then he should go home and think about it.”
Lutnick noted it was extremely disappointing, as ceremonial signing desks and an elaborate lunch had been prepared with the expectation of a rare earth mineral deal being signed, but Zelensky blew the deal.
“This was designed to be beautiful, but instead we had lunch by ourselves,” he added.
Actually, Russia is at war with Ukraine, not the other way around, and Kovacs made no mention of Putin. He served up more Trump-fluffing in a March 3 article:
President Donald Trump is thrashing Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky for “supposedly” saying a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia “is still very, very far away.”
“I wanna see it end fast. I don’t want to see this go on for years and years,” Trump said at a White House news conference Monday.
“Now, President Zelensky supposedly made a statement today in AP – I’m not a big fan of AP, so maybe it was an incorrect statement – but he thinks the war’s gonna go on for a long time. And he better not be right about that. That’s all I’m saying.”
Still, WND had the gall to claim to be upset that Trump was portrayed as being in league with Russia, as Unruh whined in a March 3 article:
Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy publicly has accused President Donald Trump’s “special government employee” Elon Musk, charged with running fraud, waste and corruption down and removing it from government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, of doing “heil Hitler” salutes at a Trump rally.
Murphy is among countless Democrats and other leftist ideologues who have slammed Trump and his associates with such imagery for years already.
But that apparently wasn’t working well enough for him, and now he’s accusing the president of being an arm of the Kremlin.
Unruh didn’t actually rebut the claim, instead repeating an assertion from a right-wing website that Murphy is suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”