After a tense start to relations with Ukraine earlier this year, President Donald Trump said this week that the U.S. would supply the country with more weapons and complained about Russia. Some people think First Lady Melania Trump is behind the change.
“The only one we have not been able to get to yet is Russia. I am not happy, and I will tell, you that Ukraine wants to do something,” Trump said Monday during a meeting in the Oval Office with Secretary General Mark Rutte of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Trump hasn’t always been eager to work with NATO in the past. While on the campaign trail last summer, he even said that he was considering cutting intelligence sent to the organization initially created to counter the former Soviet Union that is now made up of 32 allied nations.
“We really became friendly with NATO this last meeting,” said Trump Monday of the NATO meeting held last month in The Netherlands.
He also had a disastrous meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House earlier this year and has spoken positively about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who began an invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Trump even mentioned before his birthday last month that Putin called him.
However, Trump offered a different perspective on their phone calls.
“I go home, I tell the first lady: ‘I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation,’” Trump said. "She said: ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.’”
That’s the quote that got the attention of Ukrainian social media users this week, according to German state outlet DW.
“So all this time Melania was for us?” said prominent blogger Ihor Lachenkov, per the outlet.
“Melania for President of the United States,” a Telegram account with 1.5 million followers also cited by DW wrote. Some have dubbed her “Agent Melania Trumpenko.”
Both DW and The Independent noted that Melania is from Slovenia, a country that supports Ukraine. She also grew up in former Yugoslavia, a region that has complicated relations with Russia. Per The Independent, Mary Jordan, author of “The Art of Her Deal: The Untold Story of Melania Trump”, said that Melania’s is well-informed about European politics.
Shortly after the Russian invasion began, she shared this on X: “It is heartbreaking and horrific to see innocent people suffering. My thoughts and prayers are with the Ukrainian people. Please, if you can, donate to help them,” and tagged the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Melania might be a behind-the scenes supporter of Ukraine in Trump’s camp, but other notable members of his circle seem to have a more negative view. For example, Audacy reported on now-Vice President JD Vance’s criticism of aid to Ukraine when he was an Ohio senator.
“We’ve got to stop sinking money into the Ukrainian money pit,” Vance said in an X post. Vance also sparred with Zelenskyy at the Oval Office meeting this year.
NBC News reported earlier this month that the Defense Department under Secretary Pete Hegseth held up a shipment of U.S. weapons for Ukraine over “what officials said were concerns about its low stockpiles.” However, the outlet also reported that “an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials.”
It said the move was a “unilateral step,” by Hegseth that blinded other department and officials in the Trump administration, citing three congressional sources. Furthermore, NBC said it “was the third time Hegseth on his own has stopped shipments of aid to Ukraine, the sources said.
In the two previous cases, in February and in May, his actions were reversed days later.”
As of this week, the president said that there is a new deal for Ukraine that involves the U.S. and European partners supplying weapons that he said will be “quickly distributed on the battlefield.” He also announced a 50-day deadline for a peace deal. Russia faces 100% to 500% tariffs if it does not meet the deadline.
“It is a war that never should have started. If I were president, it never would have happened,” he said, criticizing former President Joe Biden.
Trump also called the war a “mess” and said it is likely deadlier than current reports indicate. According to the United Nations, last month saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured.
“I have been hearing so much talk. All talk and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people,” said Trump. “It’s got to stop.”
He also praised the bravery of Ukrainians.
“Say what you want about Ukraine. When the war started, they had no chance. And they still would have no chance if their equipment... they had the best equipment. Because we make the best planes and missiles, we make the best military equipment in the world, by far,” said the president, who added, “but they had courage.”