This week, President Trump falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war against Russia, ordered federal agencies created by Congress to answer directly to him and installed himself as the leader of Washington’s premiere cultural institution.The Times journalists Michael Barbaro, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Charlie Savage and Elisabeth Bumiller sit down to make sense of it all.Guest: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times,Charlie Savage, who writes about national security and legal policy for The New York Times.Elisabeth Bumiller, a writer-at-large for The New York Times.Background reading: Trump flipped the script on the war in Ukraine, blaming Volodymyr Zelensky, not Vladimir V. Putin.The president’s moves to upend federal bureaucracy touch off fear and confusion.Trump said he would install himself as the new Kennedy Center chairman.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: The New York Times Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
What controversial claims did Trump make about Ukraine?
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. This week, the president falsely claimed that Ukraine started the war against Russia. ordered independent federal agencies created by Congress to answer directly to him, and installed himself as the leader of Washington's premier cultural institution.
To make sense of all of that, I spoke with three of my colleagues, White House reporter Zolan Kano-Youngs, national security reporter Charlie Savage, and writer-at-large Elizabeth Bumiller. It's Friday, February 21st. Friends, welcome to The Roundtable, where we acknowledge week after week that covering this presidency requires multiple minds in the same room at the same time.
I want to thank you all for being here. Charlie. Thank you. Zolan. Thank you. Good to see you. And Elizabeth, making your debut here in this format. Thank you. And Elizabeth... Your resume requires just a little bit of an explanation. You were, until very recently, Charlie and Zolan's boss.
You were the Washington bureau chief overseeing all of our coverage of really the entire federal government during the first Trump administration and the entire Biden presidency, after which I think you justifiably collapsed into a heap and I assume...
Got a well-earned rest.
I would disagree with collapsing into a heap, but yes. Really appreciate all of you being here. Today's loose theme is a rewriting of history in three parts. And the first place where in many minds history is being rewritten over the past few days is the war in Ukraine. And the backdrop...
is that Donald Trump began unilateral talks with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine without Ukraine's input, which we talked about in our roundtable last Friday. Zolan, if you would pick up the plot for us
Sure, so I think it's smart that you started this with the fact that Trump had this significant call with Vladimir Putin. That conversation basically prompted concern amongst Europeans as well as Americans that Ukraine was not going to have a seat at the negotiating table. The country that was invaded in this case was not going to have a say in any potential peace talks that could end the war.
There are talks then in Saudi Arabia between U.S. officials and a Russian delegation. And Zelensky does not attend because he was not invited to those talks, even though it was his country that was invaded. So after he doesn't attend, you have President Trump come out and criticize Zelensky. Right.
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