During a White House meeting on Friday (February 2), U.S. President Donald Trump fiercely criticized the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for his lack of "gratitude" for the United States' long-term support. He also accused Zelenskyy of gambling with the lives of millions of people and the risk of triggering World War III. The remarks attracted widespread coverage by global media. But is Trump the first US president to be dissatisfied with Zelensky’s attitude towards the United States? The answer is no.
In fact, former President Joe Biden and his government officials had privately expressed dissatisfaction with the Ukrainian government's "lack of gratitude" as early as 2022, and even expressed anger similar to Trump in internal meetings. However, compared to Trump's public attack, Biden was reported to have expressed his dissatisfaction with the Ukrainian leader in private; but this does not mean that Biden has no complaints about Zelensky.
If we trace back the reasons why Trump was dissatisfied with Zelensky, the earliest public criticism came from Trump's "Ukraine Phone Gate" in 2019. At the time, Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate the Biden family during a phone call and hinted that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was linked to this. After this call was revealed, it became the core controversy in Trump's first round of impeachment.
Biden's second son, Hunter Biden, has sparked controversy over his business relationship with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings Ltd. The New York Post reported that emails obtained from Hunter's missing laptop showed that he had arranged a meeting between Burisma's advisers and his father. Before leaving office, Biden decided to issue a full federal pardon for Hunter Biden's actions over the past 11 years, and the above-mentioned Hunter Biden email case occurred during these 11 years.
Trump was already dissatisfied with Zelensky's attitude at the time, and even complained publicly at a press conference: "We gave Ukraine a lot of aid, but they didn't express enough gratitude." This was almost exactly the same criticism he made after the White House meeting.
However, since the Russian-Ukrainian war broke out on February 2024, 2, the United States has provided Ukraine with $24 billion in military aid. Although the Biden administration has always emphasized its support for Ukraine in public, in fact, Biden himself and his senior officials were also dissatisfied with Zelensky's attitude.
In June 2022, according to reports from NBC and CNBC, a U.S. financial media, Biden had privately complained to his aides about Zelensky, believing that he lacked respect and gratitude for U.S. military aid.
Reports at the time indicated that Biden spoke to Zelensky every time the United States announced military aid to Ukraine. According to people familiar with the matter, Biden even "lost his temper" with Zelensky during a phone call in June of that year.
During the call, Biden told Zelensky that he had just approved $10 billion in military aid for Ukraine, and Zelensky immediately began listing all the additional help he needed but didn't get. People familiar with the matter pointed out that Biden then said impatiently on the phone that Americans are very generous, and his government and US military are also working hard to help Ukraine, and he hopes Zelensky can show more gratitude.
Biden and some senior officials were reported at the time to have believed the U.S. government was doing more as quickly as possible, but Zelensky continued to publicly demand aid that the United States had not provided.
