Donald Trump paused foreign aid for 90 days after returning to office on Monday – but has challenged Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine or face extreme sanctions
Russian state TV reacts to Trump’s inauguration and compares him to Lenin
Vladimir Putin propagandists have positively compared Donald Trump to Communist dictator Vladimir Lenin as they heaped praise on him for ditching aid to Ukraine.
Russia-1 TV anchor and one of the dictator’s most prominent propagandists Olga Skabeyeva and her male co-host reacted to Trump’s first day of his second term. The hosts then celebrated Trump pause on all foreign aid, including for Ukraine. Skabeyeva said: “Trump wants to be remembered as a peacemaker.
“He paused all foreign aid for 90 days, which includes funding for the Ukrainian war. In his speech the US president did not mention Ukraine even once…It’s good Trump has ambitious plans, but we’ll see about that.”
While Trump’s pausing of foreign aid will have a global impact, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday they might well have escaped the worst effects. Roksolana Pidlasa, head of the budget committee in the Ukrainian parliament told Politico: “In terms of budget funding, we’re secured. Biden’s administration transferred all the funds under the ERA initiative to the World Bank.”
Trump’s return to the highest office in the US was praised an incredible feat by one of the commentators on Russia’s most popular public news channel. He was then compared positively to communist dictator Lenin who ushered in the dominance of the Soviet Union over eastern Europe.
“Today is the 101st anniversary of the passing of the greatest politician of the 20th century ,” said Vitaly Tretyakov, dean of Moscow State University’s School of Television. “Our politician Vladimir Lenin.
“He flipped the world upside down. He successfully attempted to realise the project [communism] that never before existed in the history of humanity. In your previous show, I compared Trump to Vlaidimir Zhirinovsky (a right-wing populist politician who died in 2022). But Zhirinovsky did not come to power. Trump did come to power, like Lenin. He will become the Lenin of the 21st century.”
The hosts also fixated on Trump’s previous comments about ending the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, noting he fumbled the pledge. “Note that he failed to fulfil his first election promise to stop the war on the first day of his presidency,” the male anchor said
“When journalists asked him about it, Trump joked that the day is only halfway done. If we count starting from the moment he was sworn in, at this moment he has about an hour 30 minutes left. Chances are very low.”
Trump has threatened hefty sanctions on Russia if Putin does not make a deal to end the war in Ukraine. Writing on his social media platform TruthSocial, Trump said: “Settle now, and stop this ridiculous war. It’s only going to get worse. If we don’t make a deal and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on anything being sold Russia to the United States. We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better.”
The Mirror has contacted the Russian Government for comment.
