President Donald Trump said Saturday that Ukraine should replace President Volodymyr Zelensky, telling reporters that the Ukrainian leader ignored repeated pleas to stop striking Russian diesel refineries and has refused opportunities to end the war with Moscow.
"I think it's time for Ukraine to get a new president," Trump said during remarks to the press while traveling to Tennessee, according to accounts of the exchange carried by the Gateway Pundit and RedState. The president accused Zelensky of disregarding direct requests to halt strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, saying the attacks were driving up global diesel prices and creating hardship for American consumers.
Trump said he had told the Ukrainian leader, "Do whatever you want, but don't hit the diesel fuel because there's a big problem, a big shortage. And what does he do? He goes and hits the diesel fuel."
The remarks came after Trump announced a diesel agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a deal that would allow Russian diesel exports to resume flowing to the United States. Trump said he had spoken with Putin on Friday before the latest Ukrainian attack on a Russian oil export terminal, which the Gateway Pundit reported occurred overnight.
"Zelensky could have settled this war many times, many, many times, and he chooses not to," Trump said. "It's a war that should have never been started. If I were president, if the election weren't rigged, I would have been president, and that war would have never started."
The president added that Zelensky "could have made many deals, and for some reason, he never does," before calling for new leadership in Kyiv. "I suggest they get a new leader who can make a deal," he said.
Trump also warned Zelensky directly about the refinery strikes: "He'd better damn well stop." The RedState account @RedState carried the quote in a Saturday report, noting that Trump said the Ukrainian president "can do whatever he wants, but he can't do that because we have a world problem."
The exchange spread quickly across social media, with the financial commentary account @zerohedge reporting Trump's call for new leadership shortly after the comments were made. "Trump Says 'Time For Ukraine To Get A New Leader' After Zelensky Ignored Six Pleas To Stop Refinery Strikes," the account posted at 5:22 p.m. Eastern time.
Minutes later, the Gateway Pundit account @gatewaypundit amplified the story with a video segment, posting that Trump "GOES OFF on Zelensky After Ukrainian Attack on Russian Diesel Hub" and quoting the president saying, "He Better Damn Well Stop... Time for Ukraine to Get a New President!"
The RedState account followed at 6:40 p.m. with a report calling Trump's remarks "scathing" and describing the president as "no longer holding back" after the Ukrainian attack on the Russian diesel hub. The account included a lengthier transcript of Trump's remarks, in which the president repeated that Zelensky "could have settled it many times. And he chose not to."
The account @amuse posted at 5:43 p.m., stating that Zelensky had "vowed to destroy all Russia desiel promised to Europe and America" before Trump called for new leadership in Ukraine. The account also shared video of the exchange.
At 4:47 p.m., @zerohedge had posted the initial bullet points from Trump's remarks: "TRUMP ON UKRAINE: TIME TO GET A NEW PRESIDENT," followed by "TRUMP: I SUGGEST UKRAINE GET A NEW LEADER WHO CAN MAKE A DEAL" and a note that Trump said the administration would "make a decision" regarding a recent attack on Saudi Arabia.
The account @Osinttechnical, which covers open-source intelligence, posted a summary at 5:46 p.m. stating that "President Trump today called for Ukraine to replace President Zelensky and find a leader who would accept Russia's peace demands." The account added that Trump "also requested that Ukraine cease its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure and allow Russia to resume its lucrative fuel exports."
According to reports of the exchange, Trump said the Ukrainian strikes were "highly effective" at causing an energy crisis in Russia, which prompted Moscow's diesel export ban and added pressure to global fuel markets already strained by conflict in the Middle East. The president said the world's diesel price rise is "mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran."
Trump had previously posted that "Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets" and that Russia "has agreed to do likewise." The agreement with Putin was described by the president as a diesel deal worth more than three hundred thousand tons of fuel, according to RedState. The Gateway Pundit reported that millions of tons of newly unsanctioned Russian diesel would have flowed to the United States through the export hub that was attacked.
During eight hours of talks in Miami on Friday, U.S. envoys told the Ukrainian delegation that Trump was expected to call Putin and lift sanctions on Russian diesel because Kyiv had ignored repeated requests on strikes "which were directly affecting U.S. consumers." A Ukrainian official claimed the envoys threatened that Trump could cut Ukraine off from U.S. intelligence if the strikes continued. A U.S. official denied that characterization, saying the envoys merely reminded Kyiv of the importance of the relationship.
Trump's remarks drew immediate pushback from Zelensky, who had condemned the diesel deal earlier in the day, saying it would help Moscow fund the war. The Ukrainian leader has vowed in recent weeks to continue targeting Russian oil infrastructure, and on Thursday Ukrainian drones set Russia's largest refinery at Omsk ablaze, more than fifteen hundred miles from the border.
The president's comments also prompted criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who accused him of siding with Putin over a U.S. ally. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the president's remarks.
Next News Network could not independently verify the claims about the diesel agreement, the export terminal attack, or the circumstances surrounding Trump's remarks.
Our Take
President Trump's call for new leadership in Ukraine is a seismic moment in the Republican Party's posture toward the war in Eastern Europe. For years, the establishment wing of both parties insisted that supporting Zelensky was the only acceptable position, that questioning the wisdom of unlimited aid was tantamount to treason, and that any suggestion of negotiation with Moscow was a betrayal of democratic values.
Trump has now shattered that consensus. By openly calling for Ukraine to replace its president and striking the diesel refinery deal with Putin, Trump is signaling that his administration will prioritize American consumers over Ukrainian military objectives. The president's language was blunt and unmistakable: he told Zelensky to stop the attacks, and when Zelensky refused, Trump escalated.
The response from the mainstream media and Democratic lawmakers has been predictable — accusations of appeasement, claims that Trump is doing Putin's bidding. But those same voices have spent years cheering on a war that has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, and drained American taxpayer dollars with no end in sight. They have no answer for the diesel crisis, no plan to bring prices down, and no strategy for ending the conflict other than to keep writing checks.
Trump's approach is different. He is treating American economic interests as paramount and refusing to let a foreign leader dictate American energy policy. The American people should ask themselves: why should our farmers and ranchers pay higher fuel prices so that Zelensky can blow up Russian refineries? Why should our intelligence sharing and diplomatic support continue indefinitely when our own borders remain wide open and our cities struggle with crime and inflation?
The establishment will call this isolationism. We call it putting America first. And if Ukraine wants to continue receiving American support, it may need to find a leader who understands that the United States is not an endless ATM.
