“One of the last opportunities.” Zelenskyy uses simplified language and profanity to reach Trumpists — Koshel

— The President spoke with Lex Friedman for about three hours, maybe a little more. He did not mince words and spoke almost in gibberish, in particular about some of our allies. There was already a lot of criticism, like, it’s an unpresidential thing or it’s not the level to use profanity. Is that really the only thing worth paying attention to in this big interview?

— I am categorically against profanity and do not use it, but in this case it is precisely the president’s business. Because every media, every interview, every broadcast in a broad sense, has its target group.

The target audience for this question is Republicans. I would even say more than that, it’s the Trumpists, it’s the electorate [обраного президента США Дональда] Trump And that’s why, in fact, they were spoken to in a certain simplified language, using profanity, in order to be able to communicate more easily and quickly.

I saw different assessments – and obscene language, and, they say, during the war, three hours of time should be spent on an interview [не варто]. No. It was necessary. And this is actually one of the last opportunities to reach Trump, to reach his electorate, his team through the media. There are exactly two weeks left until the inauguration.

And therefore in this case it is justified, in particular such a complementary format to the address [американського бізнесмена] Elon Musk, despite the fact that one can only be outraged by Musk’s actions now. Musk allows himself direct insults against the Ukrainian president, Ukraine as a state, as well as our allies — and in Germany he interferes in the internal affairs of Great Britain and Italy. It’s big enough there [список].

But now, obviously, it is more appropriate on our part to give compliments, because we do not believe in a miracle on January 20, but despite everything, the Trump team is preparing one or another scenario, it is trying to adapt, generalize, summarize them. And in this case, as an option to reach out, I think it is fully justified. In particular, vocabulary, compliments, and many other things.

— There is already a certain reaction in the Western media to this big interview. CNBC, for example. One of the presenters said that Zelenskyi was hustling like a sailor. And ABC drew attention to the fact that Zelensky never once thanked President Joseph Biden for what his administration had done for Ukraine. I will quote: “Zelensky has already completely switched to the republican discourse, is wooing Trump, but the current president is still Biden. In a few days, he will send another large batch of money and weapons to Ukraine. It is not clear what Trump will do for Ukraine, but Zelensky has already completely thrown out of the minds of those to whom he sang hosannas just recently.” I did not notice anything in this interview, that there was any contempt for the democratic administration.

– Here, in fact, it is more difficult. We see not just a lack of compliments or thanks or respect for the team of the current American president, but we even see quite harsh criticism.

In particular, Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about the fact that large sums of money were spent on the supply of weapons (for logistics, for transportation) at the same time as transportation by Ukrainian planes would allow this amount to be reduced almost in half. That is, we are already talking about criticism, about the fact that excess funds were spent that could have been saved. And this completely fits into the concept of Trump’s criticism of the current president.

It is difficult to evaluate, from the point of view of ethics. From the point of view of ethics, of course, this is wrong. And, I think, this will be noticed by many of our Western allies, who, to put it mildly, will conclude that this is not the way to do it – to blame the current president instead of at least maintaining neutrality or thanking him for everything that has been done for Ukraine.

But, again, here I am in no hurry to criticize the Ukrainian president. I hope he knows a little more after all.

What am I talking about? Nevertheless, I think that now the negotiation process for the end of the war is going on quite actively. And it continues with the involvement of many leaders, perhaps many businessmen, who act as negotiators, who act as postmen, that is, deliver information to the Kremlin or from the Kremlin. And, obviously, the Ukrainian president knows quite a lot of details of this negotiation process. And, obviously, he chose the tactic that it will be easier to reach Trump in this way – when to completely play along with him, when to completely stand and shout: “I’m definitely the same Trumpist, I criticize the Biden team in the same way.”

I am not sure that such rhetoric will completely change Trump and his team, make them supporters of Ukraine. I’m far from convinced that just the use of certain words, tone or sharp criticism will help to completely change the situation.

Trump’s team has a clearly formed position on the issue of stopping or suspending the war, or achieving peace. And we can see from the key statements that over the past six months, even more — since the beginning of the summer, when certain positions were announced, this position has not actually changed. Certain details emerged, but Trump’s so-called formula for stopping the war remained unchanged.

Therefore, it is obviously somewhat naive on our part to expect that with one interview we can completely break positions and make a more pro-Ukraine accent in Trump’s team.

— Zelenskyi also noted that we have domestic corruption, but we openly talk about it and really fight. Anti-corruption topics constantly arise in every such conversation. Shouldn’t it be considered that the president simply does not want to speak more frankly? “Corruption that exists only at the household level” – we can hardly say that about Ukraine, just as we cannot say that we are a totally corrupt country, because otherwise we would not be able to stand.

— We are a country that has huge problems with corruption even during war. And these are things that are obvious to everyone. I perfectly understand that when we in the media sharpen this or that topic, any problem can be brought to the agenda.

But here the question is different. We can also talk about the results of public opinion polls in Ukraine, but we can also talk about publications in the Western mass media, which indicate one thing – that the issue of corruption is one of the key issues in our country. Let’s not say number one, two or three, but one of the key ones for today.

And individual corruption scandals shook not only Ukraine, but they found a serious echo in the Western media. And that’s why, actually, I think that the issue of corruption is clear, obvious in Western governments, as well as in Trump’s team.

And here it is obvious that we will not be able to simply close this topic with only separate interviews or separate messages, saying that corruption exists at the everyday level. One gets the impression that we are no different from European countries, because corruption is everywhere. It is simply impossible to overcome, destroy, eliminate 100%. There is a certain percentage that will still remain.

But in my opinion, despite the fact that the interview is in the format of “my boyfriend, who is for all things good, who is against all things bad”, which shows that I am the same Trumpist, I support the Trump team … Interview is done in the psychological section of the Trump team, I mean the tone, criticism of opponents and anything else. Despite everything, only statements that we do not have corruption will not work.

Regarding issues of corruption, this presidential team or the next one will still have to speak with our Western partners not only in the language of emotions, not only in the language of good slogans, but also in the language of concrete steps — an anti-corruption plan, a package of draft laws, a clear plan of government actions and much more . And this language will be much better heard.