Nearly three-quarters of Americans do not believe Donald Trump’s narrative that Ukraine is responsible for starting the war, a bombshell new poll has found. In February, Mr Trump seemingly blamed Kyiv for being at war with Russia, as he said: “You’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it. … You should have never started it. You could have made a deal.” A few days later, he seemingly walked back on this remark, stating Russia invaded its neighbouring nation.
It follows a bruising meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, which saw Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused of “gambling with World War 3” after insisting that he will not accede to Russian demands and told to strike a peace deal “or we’re out”. According to an Ipsos poll conducted with Reuters, 70% of all Americans do not believe Ukraine was responsible for starting the three-year war in 2022, while 23% of those questions say they do not know. That leaves just 7% agreeing with Donald Trump’s narrative.
The same poll, which was carried out between March 3 and 4 on 1,174 US residents, age 18 or older, found that only half of Americans approve of the US benefiting from a minerals deal with Ukraine, which would guarantee Washington 50% of future proceeds from state-owned mineral resources, oil and gas in return for an investment fund to rebuild Ukraine‘s infrastructure.
Following the clash at the White House last week, the Ukrainian leader sent a letter to President Trump confirming that he wishes to seek a peace deal, and intimating that he may be willing to sign a sought-for minerals deal which fell through after Friday’s meeting.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Zelenskiy said in a social media post this week. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”
The minerals deal includes no explicit security guarantees, though President Trump believes American business interests would dissuade Putin from invading Ukraine another time once a peace deal is thrashed out.
“This poll shows that Trump’s policy is completely at odds with the majority of the American population.“ said Justin Crump, of the Sibylline strategic risk group.
He continued: “Historically, the US has supported certain values; outside of Trump’s fan base, most Americans feel a sense of right and wrong. Americans have considered Putin untrustworthy for 20 years and are now righty questioning why Donald Trump is framing him as a victim.”
He pointed to a deep contradiction between the US’ pressure for Europe to increase defence spending and the argument that Putin’s bellicose actions were caused by Nato enlargement.
“Americans understand the economic argument, but Trump’s position goes beyond that. It goes too far,” he said. “Most Americans were embarrassed by the very public, victim-blaming and gaslighting spectacle they witnessed taking place in the Oval Office – even Elon Musk’s Grok Ai analysis tool disagrees with Trump’s perspective.
He added: “If Trump had done things the right way round, he would have gotten Europe on side first. Because we are going to have to provide a military backstop that he is not willing to offer
“President Trump’s argument that US business interests in Ukraine will stop Russia from invading did not wash in 2022, when I was in Ukraine busy evacuating American business people as Russian troops approached.”