Trump: Telling Lies?

- Or Does He Just Not Know Better?

Trump claims a lot about Zelenskyy, but where’s the evidence? I started digging myself.

Trump tries to piece together the puzzle – but key pieces are still missing. (Image generated by Grok, created by xAI.)

When I read that Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyy a dictator, claiming he’d been in power too long without elections and lost the people’s support, I got curious. These statements were popping up all over the media, clearly stirring plenty of debate. But the more I read, the more it felt like something was missing – there were tons of opinions, but few actually explained what’s behind it all. Is Zelenskyy really a dictator? Could he have held elections? Where does he actually stand with the people? I decided to investigate myself, not because I have any special insight, but because I wanted to find facts amid all the noise.

I’m no expert on Ukrainian law or politics, so this is my amateur attempt at finding answers. To get to the bottom of it, I searched Google and Bing and used AI tools like Grok, ChatGPT, and Gemini to help me sift through the information. I asked myself three questions: How much support does Zelenskyy have today? Is it possible to hold elections in Ukraine right now? And is he legally president in 2025, or could he have done something to force an election? After digging into this, it seems both Trump and parts of the media coverage have skipped over important details, and a lot of what Trump says simply doesn’t match what I found.

But let’s be honest: I can’t guarantee everything I’ve concluded is 100% correct – yes, even I can get things wrong. My numbers and interpretations are based on the best I could find with the tools I had, put in the context of the war that’s ravaged Ukraine since Russia invaded in 2022. The war has made everything more complicated – millions have fled, large areas are occupied, and that affects both what we can know and what’s possible. Still, here’s what I discovered about Zelenskyy’s support, the election situation, and whether he’s in office legally.

How Much Support Does Zelenskyy Have Today?
After scouring the web, I found a poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from mid-February 2025 saying Zelenskyy has a 57% approval rating. That’s up 5% from December 2024, suggesting he still has pretty solid support. But this poll only covers areas Ukraine still controls, including people displaced within the country, not the over 6 million who’ve fled abroad or those living in occupied regions like Crimea and Donbas – about 20% of the country under Russian control. So, we don’t know what they think, which makes the numbers a bit shaky.

Before the war, in 2021, his support was at 49%, according to older polls I came across. When Russia invaded in 2022, it shot up to over 90%, likely because people rallied around him in the crisis. Since then, it’s gradually dropped, landing at 57% now. To me, that still seems like a strong number, considering how long the war’s dragged on and how tough it must be to lead a country in that situation. But without knowing what refugees and those in occupied areas think, it’s hard to say how representative that 57% really is of all Ukraine.

Read also: Trump, Putin, and the Road to Peace

Can Ukraine Hold Elections Now?
When it comes to elections, it doesn’t seem possible right now, and that’s due to both laws and practical issues. I learned that Ukraine has a 2015 law banning elections while the country is under martial law – which has been in place since the invasion in February 2022. Parliament has extended this martial law multiple times, most recently to May 2025, according to Wikipedia and news sites like Reuters. So, legally, they can’t hold elections until martial law ends.

But even if the law could be changed, it seems nearly impossible in practice. Russia’s still attacking, even in areas far from the front, so gathering people to vote would be dangerous. Plus, millions have fled, cities are destroyed, and many soldiers are at the front – how would they organize a fair election under those conditions? An election just in controlled areas might be an idea, but it’d look odd and could give Russia propaganda ammo, like claiming Ukraine’s abandoning the occupied territories. Zelenskyy has said elections could happen in 2025 if fighting calms down, but as long as the war rages like it does now, that feels far off.

Parliament, where Zelenskyy’s Servant of the People party has held a majority since the 2019 election, could theoretically amend the law to allow elections. But from what I’ve read, it doesn’t seem like something they’re considering now – the war makes it too risky and impractical. So, for now, elections are on hold.

Is Zelenskyy Legally in Office, or Could He Have Ended Martial Law?
Now to the big question: Is he legally president, or could he have done something to end martial law and hold elections? From what I’ve found, it looks like he’s in office legally. He was elected in 2019 with 73% of the vote in an election deemed free, and his term was supposed to end in May 2024. But Ukrainian law – both the constitution and martial law provisions – says he can stay until a new election can be held, and since martial law blocks elections, he’s still president. This isn’t something he decided alone; parliament has to approve martial law every 90 days, and they’ve done so repeatedly because the war continues.

Could he have ended martial law? Yes, he could propose it through a decree, but parliament has to agree. With his party in the majority, he’s got influence, but I found out he can’t decide it alone – it’s a democratic process. And as long as Russia’s attacking, it seems unlikely parliament would agree to lift martial law. It’d put the country at risk, and that’s likely why they’re sticking with it. So, while he could theoretically push to end it and open the door to elections, it’s not realistic now – the war ties his and parliament’s hands.

I’m no lawyer, so I might’ve misunderstood parts of the legal framework, but this is how I interpret it based on what I found. It seems he’s legally in office under Ukraine’s rules, and martial law is a consequence of the war, not a trick to cling to power.

Read also: Trump Shattered the Rules

In the End
So, what am I left with after all this? Zelenskyy has 57% support in the areas that can be polled, elections are impossible while the war and martial law persist, and he’s legally president – but he can’t end martial law alone to force a new vote. The war has put democracy on pause, and it’s the situation on the ground that decides when it can restart. This is the best I could come up with using Google, Bing, and AI tools like Grok, ChatGPT, and Gemini. But I’ll be honest: without data from refugees and occupied areas, and not being an expert on Ukrainian law, I might’ve missed something.

What struck me while digging was how shallow both Trump and the media have been. Trump throws out bold claims about Zelenskyy – that he’s a dictator, overstayed his time, and lost support – but I found nothing to back that up when looking at the facts. If he’s going to say stuff like that, he should prove it, not just toss it out there. The media’s not much better; they often repeat his claims without explaining what’s really going on, like how Ukrainian law works or why elections can’t happen now. I looked for someone who’d properly tackled this with the legal details and election possibilities, but no one seemed to take it seriously – it was mostly opinions and headlines, not facts.

So, what do you think? Is it okay for Ukraine’s democracy to wait during a crisis like this, or should they try harder to find a solution? To me, this is as much about how we all – politicians like Trump, the media, even us as readers – need to be more careful about what we say and believe. Claims are easy to make; facts take work. What’s your take?