“If you’d told me just three months ago that these were the words of the [United States] president, I would have laughed out loud,” Dmitry Medvedev wrote on X on Wednesday. This post from one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies is just one sign of the rejoicing currently underway among Russians over the stance the Trump administration is taking toward Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Most of the celebration is happening among Russia’s propagandists working for outlets such at RT and Sputnik. They couldn’t be more delighted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s seemingly pro-Russia direction. Even among high-ranking officials, such as Medvedev and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the champagne bottles are opening up. And it is not hard to see why they are over the moon. On February 18, they heard the president of the United States of America blame Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for starting the horrendous war that they had started.

That kind of absurdity is normally the exclusive domain of the Kremlin, but here was the U.S. president parroting their claims. On February 24, the Trump administration followed up the statement by voting in the United Nations with Russia, North Korea and Belarus against a resolution that condemned Russia for invading Ukraine. Not even China, India or Cuba went that far; all three abstained from the vote.

The Russians are also rejoicing because they’ve seen Mr. Trump and his officials dogpiling onto the Ukrainian leadership with odd and false statements. Mr. Trump claimed Zelenskyy said half of the U.S. money sent to Ukraine is “missing.” In fact, Zelenskyy said half of the promised funds have not been received, a crucial distinction that Mr. Trump misrepresented.

President Trump also said America has spent $350 billion to help Ukraine and has outspent Europe by $200 billion. Both massive numbers in this claim are easily disproved. Europe has actually outspent the U.S.

President Trump also said Ukraine’s president has a 4 percent approval rating, a particularly bizarre and demonstrably false statement.

Mr. Trump called Zelenskyy a “dictator” for not holding elections, even though the delay is stipulated by the nation’s Constitution, and it is not uncommon for countries to postpone elections during wartime. For examples, look to Canada in World War i, Britain and New Zealand during World War ii, and Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

President Trump has some legitimate reasons for disliking Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president could have been more supportive of Mr. Trump during his first term, and there are questions about his dealings with the Bidens. But Mr. Trump’s diatribes against him last week didn’t address those. Instead they were bewildering and rife with false statements.

Perhaps more important than the statements was the Trump administration’s announcement that America and Russia have restored normal functioning of each others’ diplomatic missions. This was part of Trump’s outreach to and negotiations with Putin over a plan to end Russia’s war. The plan appears to allow Putin to keep what he has seized, recover the area in Russia that Ukrainian forces have taken, and assure that Ukraine’s westward aspirations will come to nothing. All of this is a major win for Putin’s Russia.

And if all that weren’t enough, President Trump also threatened America’s European allies, telling them they have three weeks to go along with his and Putin’s plan for Ukraine’s full surrender, or else the U.S. will withdraw troops from Europe. We don’t know how many troops. But these kind of statements from America’s leader severely undercut nato, showing the Europeans that America is no longer a reliable ally. And of course, a weak nato is the best thing imaginable for Putin and his cronies: They don’t want anyone to be able to stand up against their expansionism when they push into Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine and who knows where may be next.

So last week was confusing for many Americans and Europeans. And it’s not hard to see why the Russians are rejoicing about these developments.

Back in 2023, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote about leaders such as Vladimir Putin, and he pointed to a verse in Daniel 4 that says such rulers actually have the mind of a “beast.” Mr. Flurry excoriated President Trump for thinking he could get along well with and make peace deals with such a leader.

Mr. Trump believes he could negotiate with Vladimir Putin, giving him sections of Ukraine and expecting this to pacify him. That reveals a total lack of comprehension about who he is dealing with. President Trump said that Putin is a man that he “got along really well with.” Is that true? Is that wise? Should anyone get along with an evil man like the prince of Russia? Can God get along with the devil?

This is a scathing assessment of what it means for the U.S. leader to be making outreaches and overtures to Putin. It is a searing condemnation of what it means to try to appease him.

Many were optimistic when President Trump came into power last month, sanguine about a reprieve from the moral bankruptcy of the Biden administration. But now we’ve seen President Trump pressure Israel into accepting an appalling deal with Hamas, and added to that his overtures and apparent surrender to Putin. It all paints a grim picture for the near future of the U.S.

To understand these developments in their prophetic context, read Mr. Flurry’s landmark article “The Ukraine War Will Not Start World War III!”