Victor Davis Hanson: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Is No Winston Churchill

Mar 1, 2025

Victor Davis Hanson, a historian and military strategist, delves into the tumultuous U.S.-Ukraine relations following recent comments by Donald Trump. He argues that American fatigue with foreign conflicts has led to a reevaluation of support for Ukraine. Hanson criticizes Zelenskyy's leadership, calling him a dictator, and discusses the heavy toll of the war reminiscent of historical battles. He highlights the importance of diplomatic engagement to navigate the complexities of geopolitics and suggests that American business involvement could stabilize Ukraine.

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INSIGHT

Trump's Narrative on Deterrence

Trump acknowledges Putin started the war, despite saying Zelenskyy should have stopped it.
He uses this to highlight his own perceived deterrence success during his presidency.

ANECDOTE

The State of the War

The war's immense casualties and the changing geopolitical landscape are key factors.
Trump criticizes the ineffectiveness of prior interventions and emphasizes his desire to end the war.

INSIGHT

Zelenskyy's Leadership

While Zelenskyy is called a dictator due to his actions, this is nuanced.
Unlike Churchill during wartime, Zelenskyy hasn't formed a coalition government.

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A tense altercation between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ensued in the Oval Office today.

The bottom line: The United States of America will not be extorted by a country whose leaders are more interested in what they can get out of the American people than peace.

The point of the meeting? To sign a U.S.-Ukraine mineral deal. Trump is “very tired of subsidizing and paying for far-distant problems when we’re running a $37 trillion national debt,” and this deal would not only offset those costs but also, by inviting “American business into Ukraine, to help rebuild it and to profit … [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will be less eager to attack you if he understands there’s a thriving American concession there,” argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

“Donald Trump is incurring a lot of criticism lately on the Ukrainian war. He's trying to negotiate an end to the war. Remember, there's probably somewhere around 1.5 million dead, wounded, missing, and captured on both sides, together. That is the largest casualty rate figure total in Europe since the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 and 1943. In his “Art of the Deal” style he came in and he said some things the last week that got people very angry. I'll just give you two examples. He said that Zelenskyy was a dictator and that he ‘should have stopped the war and never started it.’

“That got people anguished because we know that Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24th of 2022. So, why did Donald Trump say that? Of course, he doesn't believe that Zelenskyy started the war because he has campaigned himself on the following narrative: ‘Under George Bush, in 2008, Russia invaded Ossetia and Georgia.

“‘In 2014, under the Obama administration, they invaded the Donbas and Crimea. On February 24th of 2022, under Joe Biden, they tried to take Kyiv. However, of the last four administrations, there was one in which they did not leave their borders to invade another nation—my administration. Why? Because unlike the prior three presidents, I was able to establish deterrence.’”

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