A Zelensky Dig Angered Trump

When President Trump unloaded on Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, it was the culmination of a long-brewing animosity between the two men, CNN reports. Its story on how things unfolded over the last two days says that Trump told aides he wanted to respond to Zelensky's slam that Trump lived in a "web of disinformation." That led to Trump's "diplomatic missile," delivered on Truth Social, that Zelensky was a "dictator without elections." Coverage:

• Vance defends: Vice President JD Vance defended Trump's outreach to Russia on Thursday while steering clear of the Trump-Zelensky insult war. "How are you going to end the war unless you're talking to Russia?" Vance said at the Conservative Political Action Conference, per Reuters. Because of Trump, "I really believe we're on the cusp of peace in Europe for the first time in three years," he added.

• About-face: In a New York Times analysis, Peter Baker writes that Trump is rewriting the history of the Russia-Ukraine war, accusing Zelensky of starting it and of "conning" the US into subsidizing it. "Trump's revisionism sets the stage for a geopolitical about-face unlike any in generations as the president embarks on negotiations with Russia that Ukraine fears could come at its own expense," he writes. "By vilifying Mr. Zelensky and shifting blame for the war from Moscow to Kyiv, Mr. Trump seems to be laying a predicate for withdrawing support for an ally under attack."
• New philosophy: In the Wall Street Journal, Alexander Ward sees a new world order coming into place with astonishing speed. Since the end of World War II, the US "more than any other country took on the role of global guarantor of free trade and stability," putting it odds first with the Soviet Union and more recently with China, he writes. Trump has a fundamentally different view on how things should work: "Allies take more than they give. Instead of relying on the US military and its nuclear umbrella for their security, other countries should spend more on their militaries while providing economic incentives to stay in America's good graces. Trump's is a far more transactional, win-lose vision of foreign policy."

(More Volodymyr Zelensky stories.)