Time For Ukraine To Have Elections As It’s ‘Not A Democracy Anymore’: Trump

President Donald Trump didn’t hold back in a new televised interview with Politico wherein he weighed in on the state of the Ukraine war and how President Zelensky is conducting himself.

Given Zelensky has put the brakes on the Trump-proposed pace plan by definitively rejecting the territorial concessions aspects to the document, the US president’s assessment was blunt and highly critical, going so far as to basically call Ukraine not a democracy. “They haven’t had an election in a long time,” Trump said. “You know, they talk about a democracy, but it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore.”

“they’re using war not to hold an election”

President Trump calls for elections in Ukraine saying “it gets to a point where it’s not a democracy anymore”. pic.twitter.com/mKrq1OHO4L

— Preston Stewart (@prestonstew_) December 9, 2025

At this part of the interview the discussion focused on whether Ukraine was still justified at this point in delaying elections over martial law. Trump’s conclusions is that no, it’s been far too long since all elections were canceled by Zelensky with the backing of parliament, and thus he questioned the country’s democratic credentials.

Of course, Zelensky’s presidential term expired all the way back May 2024, but has argued the constitution allows the drastic action he took during wartime.

Asked directly if Ukraine should go to the polls, Trump responded “it’s time” while explaining it is “an important time to hold an election. He said that amid years of the war with Russia “they’re using war not to hold an election” – but that Ukrainians “should have that choice.”

Trump’s words here will serve to add pressure as Zelensky’s office is already front and center in a wide-ranging energy corruption scandal, which has seen top ministers, aides, and officials forced out. Trump further assessed:

“[Zelensky] is going to have to get on the ball and start accepting things,” he said, adding that they are “losing.”

It has actually been European leaders who form the self-styled ‘coalition of the willing’ which are supporting Zelensky in resisting Washington pressures to achieve peace in any way possible. Europe even wants to leave the door open to NATO membership, which of course means Putin would never agree, and perhaps that’s the point. This was all agreed to in London this week as Europe seeks to forge a counter-plan to Trump’s. More of Trump on Zelensky:

“He’s a great salesman – I call him P.T. Barnum. You know who P.T. Barnum was? One of the greatest ever. He could sell any product at any time, whether it worked or not. Zelensky did the same thing: he got Crooked Joe Biden to hand him $350 billion, and now 25% of his country is gone.”

Watch below as Trump further recounts his personal history with Zelensky, which doesn’t paint the Ukrainian leader in a very flattering light…

Trump said that when Volodymyr Zelensky first met Vladimir Putin in 2019, the Ukrainian president told him: “I want two things. I want Crimea back, and we will become a member of NATO.” Trump added that Zelensky “didn’t say it in a very nice way.”

🎥: POLITICO pic.twitter.com/HoI4QXgHAT

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) December 9, 2025

Trump again went after the Europeans in the fresh Politico interview, saying, “I think they’re weak. But I also think that they want to be so politically correct.” He added: “I think they don’t know what to do. Europe doesn’t know what to do.”

The publication said that Trump could be preparing to “abandon” Ukraine and the war effort altogether. “Trump’s comments about Europe come at an especially precarious moment in the negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, as European leaders express intensifying alarm that Trump may abandon Ukraine and its continental allies to Russian aggression,” Politico wrote. “In the interview, Trump offered no reassurance to Europeans on that score and declared that Russia was obviously in a stronger position than Ukraine,” it noted.