Trump’s Meeting With Zelenskiy Went About as Well as You’d Expect

As Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stood together to address members of the press, the former president couldn’t help but brag about his cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is currently leading a deadly war in Zelenskiy’s home country of Ukraine.

“We have a very good relationship … and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin,” Trump boasted. “And I think, uh, if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly.”

“I hope we have more good relations with us,” Zelenskiy interrupted, gesturing between himself and Trump.

“We’re gonna have—oh, ha ha, I see,” Trump said. “But you know, it takes two to tango.”

Trump has previously touted his skills as a dealmaker when promising to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, which has killed more than 11,000 people. When asked more specifically during the presidential debate just how he would end the conflict, Trump said, “I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other, I’ll get ’em together.”

In reality, Trump’s plan would involve Ukraine ceding part of its territory to Russia, a deal that is more or less what the Kremlin is looking for. And Trump is far from a neutral arbiter. The former president has gone from publicly gushing about Putin to flat-out saying that Zelenskiy should just give in to Russia’s violent invasion. When asked during the debate who exactly he wanted to prevail in the conflict, he wouldn’t deign to say.

Ahead of the meeting Friday, Trump had begun regularly criticizing Zelenskiy during campaign rallies, calling him the “greatest salesman in history” for his ability to acquire defense funding from the U.S.

While speaking about the war in Ukraine on Tuesday, the former president said he doubted anyone could beat Russia. “That’s what they do is they fight wars. As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That’s what they do, they fight,” Trump said. Hitler and Napoleon, of course, both invaded Russia—Russia, in this instance, is the aggressor.

Trump also claimed that Zelenskiy had supported the former president during his “impeachment hoax” by calling him to say that “President Trump did nothing wrong.” Trump also inexplicably claimed that the Ukrainian president had called Trump to “congratulate me on his victory.”

In a separate interview, Trump said that Zelenskiy was seeking a “fair transaction” to end the war in Ukraine. “The president wants it to stop. And I’m sure President Putin wants it to stop. And that’s a good combination.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked “self-described progressives” during his speech at the United Nations Friday—barely an hour before Israel began bombing civilian areas in Beirut.

Netanyahu attacked progressives for deciding to “march against the democracy of Israel,” while supporting the “Iranian-backed goons in Tehran who gunned down protesters, murdered women for not covering their hair, and hang gays in public squares.”

The claim that pro-Palestinian protesters are backed by Iran, or support the Islamic Republic, is far-fetched. But it’s a common smear, associating all pro-Palestine activism with Hamas, which has Iranian support. Netanyahu’s speech of course ignored all the Jewish organizations protesting for Palestinian rights and demanding an end to Israel’s brutal year-long assault on Gaza, such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.

Netanyahu also accused Iran of directly funding pro-Palestine protests.

“According to the U.S. director of national intelligence, Iran funds and fuels many of the protesters against Israel. Who knows, maybe, maybe some of the protesters or even many of the protesters outside this building now,” said the Israeli prime minister. In reality, the evidence provided for such claims is thin at best, made in passing by U.S. officials and right-wing media.

Shortly after Netanyahu used his U.N. speech to share elementary school graphics calling Israel’s enemies “a curse” and its allies “a blessing,” Israel began bombing civilian areas in Beirut and its suburbs, claiming to be targeting Hezbollah’s central headquarters and leaving smoldering craters in the densely populated city.

None of this bombastic rhetoric is out of character for Netanyahu, who has complained that the Biden administration hasn’t sent Israel enough weapons despite Israel’s bombing of Gaza and Lebanon continuing unabated. He has humiliated President Biden and cozied up to Donald Trump. And of course, he faces a possible arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for war crimes. Netanyahu ought to be reined in with an arms embargo against Israel, but Biden has refused.

Comedian Roseanne Barr is all in on the right-wing conspiracy hype train.

During a leg of ex–Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s tour in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday, the Trump-supporting actress echoed QAnon theories, insisting that Hollywood denizens are “gay as hell,” and likened liberals to “vampires” that “love the taste of human flesh.”

“You know they eat babies. That is not bullshit, it’s true,” Barr said. All the while, Carlson nodded along and giggled, seemingly in agreement.

In fact, Carlson prodded her to continue, echoing a similarly baseless and asinine theory that Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating people’s pets.

“It’s not just the dogs and the cats,” Barr said, not joking. “They are full-on vampires, and everybody still thinks I’m crazy. But I’m not crazy. They’re full-on vampires. They love the taste of human flesh, and they drink human blood. They do.”

Of course, according to Barr, Trump will be the antidote to all this madness.

“By the time we go in to vote for Trump, that he will open up everybody’s eyes and they will stop pretending to be asleep,” she continued. “You know what they say. You can’t wake people up that are pretending to be asleep. But I pray to God, please wake up. Even those who are pretending to be asleep with the irrefutable truth of what the worst people on this planet are really up to. They are really up to that. They’re doing it. There are so many victims. There are so many victims!”

During the same interview, Barr went on a tangent against liberals for accepting the 2020 presidential election results, clamoring that it was Democrats—not registered Republicans supporting the former president—who attempted to thwart the results “with their insurrection.”

“They overthrew the constitutional republic of the United States of America,” Barr said. “And then they covered it up with their January 6 bullshit. With their insurrection!”

“President Trump … God bless that man, I love him, and everybody knows it,” she continued. “I love him more now than I ever loved him, and I loved him pretty damn good. He drove me out in a Bentley when I did my second HBO special at Trump Palace in Atlantic City, if you’ve seen it.”

According to new polling, Donald Trump is losing a key demographic in two battleground states. A survey of Hispanic voters in Arizona and Georgia, conducted by TelevisaUnivision and reported in Newsweek, shows Trump faring considerably worse than Kamala Harris.

The poll shows Harris enjoying a comfortable, 34-point lead among Hispanic voters in Arizona. About 52 percent of respondents, up from 43 last month, said they would “definitely” vote for the vice president, while 18 percent, down from 25, said the same of Trump.

Harris leads Trump among Hispanic voters in Georgia as well, albeit by only seven points. Forty-four percent, up from 38 in July, said they would “definitely” vote for her, while the percentage of respondents who said the same of Trump increased by just one point in the same period.

Still, 35 percent of the Arizonan and 38 percent of the Georgian respondents remain “undecided about whether the candidate they are supporting is the right choice.”

Regarding the findings, a TelevisaUnivision representative told Newsweek that the Harris and Trump campaigns should “do more to engage these voters with messaging that addresses the issues that matter to them, and, most importantly, they should do that in Spanish.” According to the poll, Hispanic voters in the Grand Canyon and Peach States see “cost of living, inflation and the economy and jobs” as the most pressing issues.

On Tuesday, Univision announced that it will host a town hall event with each candidate early next month (Trump’s on October 8 and Harris’s on October 10), where “undecided Hispanic voters … will take the microphone to ask questions of each candidate.”

Insider trading restrictions expired for Trump Media last week, effectively opening the floodgates for investors to sell off their stock in wildly unprofitable company—and sell they did.

United Atlantic Ventures LLC, one of the largest shareholders in Trump Media & Technology Group, dumped 11 million shares in the company shortly after a lockup agreement preventing insiders from selling their shares lifted on September 19, according to a regulatory filing.

The amount that UAV received for its shares wasn’t reported, but the price tag could have ranged anywhere from $128 million to $170 million, according to CNBC. The group held a 5.4 percent stake in the Trump tech company but left itself with just 100 shares in hand after the transaction. The only other group that owns more than 5 percent of Trump Media is ARC Global Investments II LLC, with just over 11 million shares.

Trump Media fell dramatically in the days following lockup expiration, with shares spiraling to a fraction of their value at the company’s initial public offering in March. Even before the restrictions ended, Wall Street strategists were eyeing the behavior of the company’s investors to get a better read on Trump Media’s health.

“Even if Trump doesn’t, it would be interesting if other insiders begin selling because that would be a clue as to what they think his mindset is about selling,” Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, told Reuters last week.

It’s easy to see why investors want to sell. Trump Media’s biggest brand is Truth Social, the social media network founded by the former president after he was banned from Twitter for stoking an insurrection. Truth Social has struggled to attract users, advertisers, or revenue of any kind; in the second quarter of 2024 it brought in less than $1 million in revenue and posted a $16 million loss.

Donald Trump—who owns roughly 57 percent of the company with 115 million shares—has insisted he has no intention of selling off his stock, though doing so could provide a cash infusion for the legally hamstrung Republican presidential nominee. However, it would devastate investors’ confidence in the company and could spell the end for Truth Social.

Trump Media has been criticized as another iteration of a long line of grifts this year as the former president has fought off numerous legal charges that have added up to half a billion dollars in expenses and debt. Other Trumpian hustles included launching a remarkably ugly sneaker and selling NFT trading cards of himself dressed in superhero costumes and astronaut suits. He also made some quick cash on a limited edition, $60 God Bless the USA Bible co-promoted by “God Bless the USA” singer Lee Greenwood, and stamped his name on a new cryptocurrency platform headed by his two sons, Eric and Don Jr., which even Trump’s allies have criticized as a “huge mistake.”