“Foreign governments and foreign aligned interests have infiltrated the right-wing media ecosystem in America … it’s a space that’s gotten completely out of control,” said one person close to the White House, who was granted anonymity to discuss foreign government influence on right-wing media.
Zelenskyy is trying to sway Republicans skeptical of U.S. engagement in Ukraine with a few key points, including emerging evidence that Russia has been backing Iran. Such messaging could land with the MAGA base that has been broadly supportive of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, even if that support is fading.
Trump, though, was unmoved when asked about Zelenskyy’s claims on Monday.
“Well, we’ll find out if that’s true. I’ll ask Putin about it,” he said. “We’ll find out.”
Zelenskyy is also expected to try and make more inroads on Capitol Hill on this trip. His visit to Washington is timed so he can attend the funeral of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Ukraine’s most forceful advocate in Congress.
Graham’s death strips Zelenskyy of one of the few voices pushing Trump to go harder against Russia from within his own party. Graham’s influence, however, never fully moved Trump’s position to begin with.
Zelenskyy does have another very concrete argument to make to Trump — that Ukraine is showing it can win the war. The Ukrainian military has made inroads into Russian defenses with repeated drone attacks in recent months that have put Moscow on the back foot.
“Trump sees that Putin is losing, and he sees that Zelenskyy has actually pulled this all together and is winning.” said Kurt Volker, who served as the U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations during Trump’s first term. “So that has, I think, then colored his attitude.”
