The Pope Holds His Own Against Trump

   

'Pope Leo XIV is a measured, soft-spoken man of God whose holy mission is peace and unity.' (photo: Getty)

“I have no fear of the Trump administration, nor of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel." 

Dan Rather / Steady 

16 April 26

 

One might think an American pope would be good for an American president. After all, Catholicism is having a moment here, with conversions on the rise, especially among young people. More than half of American Catholics voted for Donald Trump in the last election. The vice president is Catholic, as is the secretary of state, and the first lady.

But forget all that. Nothing matters if Trump feels slighted. And right now, he is acting like a toddler in timeout.

These two men could not be more different. Pope Leo XIV is a measured, soft-spoken man of God whose holy mission is peace and unity. Trump is a bombastic narcissist, who is convinced peace can best be achieved through bombing — and is a constant divider, not a unifier.

Leo, who had stayed above the political fray since becoming pope last May, began to shift his stance with an impassioned speech following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January. “A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force,” he told ambassadors to the Vatican. U.S. officials took it as a direct challenge to the Trump administration.

Soon after, Pentagon officials demanded a meeting with Vatican representatives, telling them the U.S. has the military might to do whatever it wants and that the Catholic Church had better get on its side, according to The Free Press.

The Catholic Church did not heed that threat. Instead, Leo issued appeals for peace, but as the war with Iran escalated, so did his criticism. On April 7, he took the rare step of calling out a political leader after Trump’s social media threat to wipe out “a whole civilization,” calling the sentiment “truly unacceptable.”

On Friday, Leo posted a direct condemnation on social media. “Absurd and inhuman violence is spreading ferociously… God does not bless any conflict. Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

During an evening prayer service at the Vatican on Saturday, the pope called out the “delusion of omnipotence that surrounds us and is becoming increasingly unpredictable and aggressive… Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war! True strength is shown in serving life,” he said.

The subject of his pointed remarks wasted little time responding.

In a lengthy and scathing social media rant on Sunday, Trump retorted, “Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy…” Later telling reporters, “I’m not a big fan.”

Because everything in his world revolves around Trump, he suggested that the only reason Leo was even elected pope is “because he was an American, and [the Vatican] thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”

Trump followed his diatribe by posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick. It has since been taken down.

In a hastily arranged photo op at the White House, the president admitted he posted the photo but said it had no messianic meaning. With a straight face, he said it depicted him as a doctor.

Democrats have long decried the president’s mental status, and now Republicans are joining in, some even suggesting he needs to be removed from office. After his genocidal “whole civilization” post, The New York Times wrote, “… never in modern times has the stability of a president been so publicly and forensically debated — and with such profound consequences.”

On Monday, during the first leg of a 10-day trip to locations in Africa that have been hard hit by the loss of U.S. aid, Pope Leo told reporters, “I have no fear of the Trump administration, nor of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel. And that’s what I believe I am called here to do.”

When asked specifically about Trump’s Truth Social post, he said, “It’s ironic — the name of the site itself. Say no more.”

“The message of the Gospel is very clear: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’... Too many people are suffering today, too many innocent people have been killed, and I believe someone must stand up and say that there is a better way,” he added.

Quite the irony — Trump, who for years actively campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, is now attacking the pope for advocating peace.

Trump has picked a fight with one of the holiest and most popular men in the world, who represents 1.4 billion Catholics, 53 million of whom are American. At the same time, he publicly embraced one of today’s longest-reigning authoritarians, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Trump and Orbán have been members of a mutual admiration society since the president’s first administration. The Hungarian leader lent Trump support and his playbook. Many of Orbán’s authoritarian tactics, including manipulating the media, stacking the judiciary, and attempting to control elections, have been embraced and employed by the president.

Trump dispatched the vice president to Hungary last week, a trip paid for by the American taxpayer, to prop up his old friend. At a campaign rally in Budapest, JD Vance said, without irony, that he was there, “Because what the United States and Hungary together represent under Viktor’s leadership and under President Trump’s is the defense of Western civilization.”

As if sending the Vice President of the United States to campaign for a foreign strongman wasn’t enough, Trump joined the rally via speakerphone, saying, “I love Hungary and I love Viktor!”

Vance’s attempt at help fell flat. On Sunday, after 16 years of autocratic rule, the Hungarian people said enough. Orbán was trounced in a landslide by Péter Magyar. The victory was so decisive, Orbán didn’t even try to contest the election and conceded just hours after the polls closed.

Although sometimes flawed, moral authority has been an essential component of American strength and leadership for 250 years. Time and again, Trump’s behavior and actions have severely damaged that claim at home and abroad. Now, with what he has done in the cases of Pope Leo and Viktor Orbán, he has deepened the damage.

If Viktor Orbán can lose, then his Russian and American admirers can lose too.

   

Peter Magyar waves a flag. (photo: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

Orbán’s loss brings to an end the assumption of inevitability that has pervaded the MAGA movement

Anne Applebaum / The Atlantic

April 14, 2026 

 

    

Péter Magyar, the opposition leader and likely next Hungarian prime minister. (photo: Denes Erdos/AP)

In the end, the defeat of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s autocratic prime minister, required not just an ordinary election campaign or new messaging but rather the construction of a broad, diverse, and patriotic grassroots social movement. And by building exactly that, Hungary’s opposition changed politics around the world.

Orbán’s loss brings to an end the assumption of inevitability that has pervaded the MAGA movement, as well as the belief—also present in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric—that illiberal parties are somehow destined not just to win but to hold power forever, because they have the support of the “real” people. 

As it turns out, history doesn’t work like that. “Real” people grow tired of their rulers. Old ideas become stale. Younger people question orthodoxy. Illiberalism leads to corruption. And if Orbán can lose, then his Russian and American admirers can lose too.

Péter Magyar, the opposition leader and likely next Hungarian prime minister, has now won by a substantial margin, giving him and his party, Tisza, a constitutional majority. 

To do so, they had to overcome obstacles not usually present in European democracies. After 16 years of what Orbán himself described as an illiberal regime, the Hungarian leader’s political party, Fidesz, had come to control much of the judiciary, bureaucracy, and universities, as well as a group of oligarchic companies that in turn controlled a good chunk of the economy.

Orbán used his control of the state to build an extraordinary web of international illiberal and far-right supporters, and funding mechanisms to support some of them. In the last weeks of the campaign, these friends and beneficiaries rallied round. Orbán received visits or verbal support from Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Benjamin Netanyahu, Marine Le Pen (the leader of the French far right), Alice Weidel (the leader of the German far right), and other illiberal leaders from Argentina, Poland, Slovakia, Brazil, and more. Both Hungarian and American news organizations reported that a Russian intelligence team had set up in Budapest to amplify Orbán’s social-media campaign, and perhaps to stage provocations.

By contrast, Magyar had very little access to Hungarian media, the overwhelming majority of which is owned either by the state or by Fidesz oligarchs. He and his party had limited access even to billboard space, both because they had less money than the ruling party and because many advertising spaces are controlled by the government. Tisza leaders and supporters faced personal obstacles as well. A year ago, I met a Tisza politician who told me that his wife had lost her job and his friends began to stay away after he announced his support for Magyar. Tisza’s database was at one point hacked and posted online, apparently to encourage harassment of party members. Even three weeks ago, many Tisza leaders in Budapest would speak only off the record.

Magyar and his team fought back on the ground. Knowing he could not win if he stuck to Budapest and other large cities, Magyar has been traveling the country since 2024, visiting small towns and villages, many more than once. In the last few days of the campaign, he was holding five or six election meetings every day. He avoided the themes that Orbán chose to promote—global politics, the war in Ukraine, the conspiracy that Ukraine was somehow colluding against or might even invade Hungary—and focused his campaign speeches and social media on the economy, health care, and schools. 

As a former member of Fidesz himself, he was able to speak with extra conviction about Fidesz’s corruption. He portrayed himself as a part of the European, democratic, law-abiding center-right. He waved a lot of Hungarian flags, as did his supporters.

Despite enormous restrictions and both financial and political pressure, the tiny number of journalists who were still able to report in Hungary also made a difference. In the past few weeks, the investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi, along with his colleagues at the website Direkt26, one of the few independent outlets in the country, patiently debunked Orbán’s anti-Ukrainian propaganda, producing leaked transcripts and audio that revealed Orbán and his foreign minister colluding with Putin and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. 

These tapes exposed what Panyi described to me as the “big lie that Orbán was a sovereigntist prime minister.” Indeed: Orbán boasted and talked a big game about Hungarian traditions and Hungarian nationalism, but when he spoke on the phone with the Russian leader, he described himself as a mouse and Putin as a lion. For years Orbán has claimed to be fighting shadowy foreign forces—George Soros, the European Union, migrants—but in fact he was himself dependent on foreigners all along.

Those stories resonated, especially with younger Hungarians. At a rock concert in Heroes’ Square in central Budapest on Friday, tens of thousands of them started chanting “Russians, go home”—the same chant that their grandparents used when Soviet soldiers invaded their country in 1956.

Although results are not final, Tisza appears to have won more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. That would give Magyar a constitutional majority that should allow him to pick apart some of the damage that Orbán has done to the Hungarian constitution and to public life. In his victory speech, he called for the resignation of the president, the prosecutor general, the president of the constitutional court, and other institutions. 

He said he would rejoin the European legal system. In response, according to one witness, Hungarians at his rally chanted, “Europe, Europe, Europe.”

Nobody is pretending this will be easy. Fidesz still dominates many Hungarian institutions and businesses, and the party’s friends and supporters will do their best to undermine a Tisza government. Orbán also leaves behind a fiscal mess, which the analyst Dalibor Rohac suggests Orbán might be happy to abandon while plotting his comeback. “Letting the opposition deal with the economic fallout of the last 16 years might well facilitate Orbán’s return to power in the future,” Rohac wrote earlier this week. 

Some in the opposition are still expecting dirty tricks in the next days and weeks, before Orbán formally hands over power.

But whatever happens next, this election represents a real turning point. For most European governments, this result is a relief: We can’t know yet what kind of government Tisza will create, but it won’t be one that functions as Russia’s puppet in Europe, blocking EU funding for Ukraine or European sanctions on Russia. Nor will it be a regime that serves as a model for Americans or Europeans who want to capture their own states, or take apart their own checks and balances, or impose their own illiberal ideologies on people who don’t accept them.

 

"For many Hungarians, the election was a referendum on Orbán’s model." (photo: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Now that the Easter crowds have thinned, the Gazette Blog is taking a few days off to tend to some grandparenting.  See you on the 14th.

Republicans live it up on vacation amid partial government shutdown

 

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina shrugs after meeting with fellow Republicans on the Homeland Security budget stalemate, on March 26.

 

Refuse to work with Dems to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the wake of killing two U.S. citizens and brutalizing immigrants.

by Emily Singer

Daily Kos Staff

Sunday, April 05, 2026 at 1:00:05p MDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions.

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Congressional Republicans have jet-setted across the country after refusing to ensure the very Transportation Security Administration officials keeping them safe on their travels get a paycheck.

The entertainment outlet TMZ has been posting user-submitted photos of GOP lawmakers leaving town and even vacationing after failing to reach a compromise to fund the Department of Homeland Security. 

The agency has been shut down for over 50 days as Republicans refuse to work with Democrats to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the wake of officers killing two U.S. citizens and brutalizing immigrants.

Thirty members of Congress—including Republican Reps. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin, Claudia Tenney of New York, and Jason Smith of Missouri—took a taxpayer-funded trip to Scotland. Many of them even got to visit Edinburgh Castle, a must-see with tourists.

The most embarrassing of the photos, though, were a series of shots of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who was spotted enjoying himself—perhaps a little too much—at Walt Disney World, in Orlando, Florida. 

Graham ate a meal at Chef Mickey's (which this Disney traveler wants you to know is one of the most overpriced and gross eateries on the sprawling property). The childless Graham was also pictured holding a Little Mermaid bubble wand and waiting to ride Space Mountain, the iconic indoor roller coaster.

After the humiliating images surfaced, Graham gave this lame statement to TMZ: "I voted 7 times to fully fund the government. Call a Democrat.”

Of course, Democrats do not control either chamber of Congress, thus Republicans have the responsibility to put forth legislation that can actually pass. 

Even some mainstream media outlets, which often couch their words to avoid losing access to GOP sources, are now placing the shutdown blame at the feet of Republicans in Congress.

In this image from video, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas walks to check in for his flight back to the U.S., at Cancun International Airport, in Mexico, on Feb. 18, 2021.

Meanwhile, Democrats have offered their own funding measures to make sure TSA agents and other non-immigration-enforcement DHS functions are funded, but they were blocked by Republicans.

But I digress, back to the cowards fleeing D.C. while DHS is still shut down.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, infamous for hitching a flight outta dodge when faced with challenging circumstances, was spotted flying to sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which seems to be a popular location for Republicans on this ill-advised two-week break amid a partial government shutdown.

Other Republicans TMZ caught fleeing Washington, D.C., include Sens. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and John Barrasso of Wyoming, the latter of whom was confronted by angry travelers, per TMZ.

Ultimately, Republicans abdicated their responsibility and left town without a funding deal. It’s no wonder the Congress they control has an abysmally low 11% approval rating, according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll.

Dumb and disturbing developments in Trump’s ballroom boondoggle

by Tim Campbell

Daily Kos 

Related | Judge orders Trump to halt White House ballroom construction unless Congress OKs it

Ballroom just a “shed” needed to protect a below-ground military complex

by Lisa Needham

Daily Kos Staff

Monday, March 30, 2026 at 6:01:07p MDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog 

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President Donald Trump looks out at White House ballroom construction on Jan. 9.

What if President Donald Trump’s ballroom wasn’t just an ugly vessel for his obsession with gold-plated detritus? And what if it wasn’t just a way to bribe the president or a way to turn Washington into Mar-a-Lago 2.0? What if it was also … a shed?

Yes, a shed.

“The ballroom essentially becomes a shed for what's being built under the military, including from drones and including from any other thing,” Trump said.

That sentence makes no sense, as nothing is being built under “the military,” so let’s try that again.

President Donald Trump holds renderings of his ballroom on Oct. 22, 2025.

“The military is building a big complex under the ballroom, which has come out recently because of a stupid lawsuit that was filed,” Trump said. “But the military is building a massive complex under the ballroom, and that's under construction, and we're doing very well. So we’re ahead of schedule.”

Who is paying for this “massive complex?” Is it covered by the ballroom’s $400 million price tag?

Trump didn’t explain how the existence of his top-secret military complex was revealed due to a lawsuit, but he did already blab about it during a Cabinet meeting last week.

“I mean, now it's no secret, the military wanted it more than anybody. It was supposed to be secret, but it became unsecret because of people that are really unpatriotic saying things, but doesn't matter, doesn't matter. It's going to be great,” he said.

So it’s top secret but was revealed in a lawsuit, so you decided to just tell everyone. Got it.

It isn’t wise to try to divine what the hell is going on in Trump’s mush of a brain, but let’s do it anyway. The “stupid lawsuit” is definitely the one filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation seeking to block construction of the monstrosity. In that case, the White House has insisted that construction can’t be stopped—even below ground—for national security reasons. 

The administration argued in a public filing that completion of the ballroom project “in a timely fashion is imperative for reasons of national security” and that it is “unworkable to distinguish between construction elements that are national security-related and those that are not.” 

But that argument rests on classified ex parte filings, which are seen only by the judge—not the opposing party. 

So, the NTHP has to fight back against this amorphous assertion that the ballroom is necessary for national security without the benefit of knowing exactly how or why. Things aren’t entirely a mystery, though. In its motion for a preliminary injunction, the NTHP noted that the White House has “all but admitted in public filings that the national-security claims relate to a bunker long located at the site of the former East Wing.”

The East Wing is being demolished to make way for President Donald Trump’s ballroom on Oct. 23, 2025.

No problem, said the NTHP. It doesn’t want to stop construction of a bunker or anything else related to national security—just the ballroom. 

And that’s where the ballroom-as-shed concept seems to come in. It’s Trump’s dumb, bombastic way of saying what the administration has already argued in court. But anything beyond the vague invocations of national security has been seen only by the judge. 

No one else knew that the ballroom was a “shed” needed to protect a below-ground military complex, nor what would be included in that top-secret installation. 

Trump’s big dumb mouth is the only reason we know about it now. And, hilariously, the entire reveal seems to have occurred because The New York Times made Trump sad. 

Over the weekend, the Times published a piece showing just how much the ballroom design, well, sucks. Like, objectively sucks because it cannot possibly be built as is. 

Trump’s minions on the Commission of Fine Arts, in their zeal to approve whatever slop Trump put in front of them, signed off on plans with teeny-tiny issues like “stairs to nowhere” and a portico that “has no doors to get you into the ballroom.”

The article also unpacked how much the ballroom design aesthetically sucks. The frenzy of columns in the portico will block the daylight inside, and the White House driveway has to be rerouted, destroying its symmetry. The whole thing is far too large, with a proposed East Wing that will be 60% larger in square footage than the White House residence. 

The Times noted that, measured by cubic volume and including the porticos, it’s actually three times as large as the residence because the ballroom is so tall. 

“Viewed from the south, the ballroom’s size will make it the dominant building of the White House complex,” the article stated.

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Related | Lackey-packed committee approves Trump's hideous ballroom

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In response, Trump decided that correcting the record was the most important thing he could do. So he gathered reporters on Air Force One Sunday night to show them new designs that attempt to fix the whole stairway problem.

“We took the stairs out that were on the south side and really replaced them with these stairs,” Trump said, referring to what he called a “fire stair.” 

He also shared that the columns will be hand-carved in the Corinthian style—Trump’s personal favorite type of column. These plans are entirely different from the ones his lackeys signed off on, which really brings home how little they matter. 

A cartoon by Mike Luckovich.

Daily Kos 

Trump’s comments about how the lawsuit made him share top secret information came at the same time as the new designs, part and parcel of his shambolic efforts to keep the bribe palace afloat. And you should be grateful that he took the time! 

“I’m so busy that I don’t have time to do this,” he said. “I’m fighting wars and other things.”

By “other things” he must mean planning his UFC Birthday Boy match, fighting over college football, and contemplating adding a spare bedroom to the White House.

It’s clear that Trump views his presidency as the ultimate cheat code for a hack developer like himself. He can build whatever he wants, wherever he wants, whenever he wants—and all with other people’s money. 

No permits, no regulations, no inspections, no laws. Just vibes. The most rancid, tasteless vibes imaginable.

Another big rat jumps Trump ship

 

Alex Jones speaks to the media after arriving at the federal courthouse in Houston, Texas, for a hearing in front of a bankruptcy judge in June 2024.

 

Alex Jones calls to dump Trump over busted brain and body : 

"This is not funny, this is not good, but he’s gone and that’s it."

by Oliver Willis

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday, April 01, 2026 at 2:00:12p MDT

 

REPUBLISHED BY:

Blue Country Gazette Blog

Rim Country Gazette Blog

 

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told the viewers of his Tuesday broadcast that it is time to drop President Donald Trump as a leader of the conservative movement, citing failing health and mental decline.

Jones said recent images showing Trump’s swollen ankles were evidence of “heart failure” and that “he does look sick.”

“He does babble and sound like the brain’s not doing too hot,” Jones added. “We just cut bait on Trump, and we just mobilize against the Democrats.”

After over a decade of hailing Trump as a conquering hero for the right and at times arguing that Trump has been God’s instrument on Earth, Jones said he has been a “minor figure” in a purported conservative awakening that has occurred.

He added, “We need to be sad about Trump. This is not funny, this is not good, but he’s gone and that’s it.”

Jones also argued that Trump was under “evil control” and urged his viewers to pray for him.

Redness is visible on President Donald Trump's neck while he speaks with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on Feb. 27.

The (apparent) radical change of heart on Trump by Jones comes as the decision to attack Iran has continued to spiral out of control. Gas prices have skyrocketed, adding to global economic instability still reeling from Trump’s tariff policies. Jones has had to reconcile his position as a loud Trump cheerleader with his previous advocacy against military interventions.

For months, there has been visual evidence of numerous physical ailments from Trump, including markings on his neck and hands. There have also been multiple reports of considerable mental deterioration by Trump, with signs of cognitive decline and other serious slippages. Jones’ decision to suddenly notice these ailments—just as the Iran situation continues to worsen—raises serious questions about how authentic the conspiracy theorist’s concerns are.

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Related | WTF is wrong with Trump's neck?

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In Trump, Jones saw someone who shared his conspiratorial worldview achieve a level of prominence and influence never before seen. For instance, both men were prominent promoters of the racist birther conspiracy theory that alleged former President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible for the presidency. Trump’s failures in office have significantly undermined the faith Jones has placed in him for years.

In addition to Trump’s collapse, Jones is experiencing a series of major career failings.

Just last month, during an apparently drunk appearance on fellow right-wing podcaster Tim Pool’s program, Jones said that his conspiracy website Infowars would be shutting down soon. Jones is facing millions in legal fees he has to pay out to the families and survivors of the Sandy Hook school shooting after he defamed them on his program.

Jones also lost key collaborator Owen Shroyer in a major dust-up last year, saw the Trump Department of Justice pull back on efforts to investigate Jones’ enemies, and he had to contend with Trump continuing to play cover for accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Conservatives seeking out right-wing pundits peddling outrage have begun to shift to younger and openly antisemitic figures like podcaster Nick Fuentes over figures like Jones, who has been in broadcasting for decades.

Jones could always pivot back to supporting Trump, because he has rarely held a consistent position on a host of topics. But his decision to call for a leadership change is a clear indicator of cracks in the core coalition that has been behind Trump for so long.

As Threats Rise, the Gulf Turns to Ukraine’s War-Tested Expertise

 

Leading the way: Ukraine has turned its experience into expertise. (photo: Reuters)

 

Zelensky’s Gulf tour suggests a shift from dependency to leverage, as Ukraine markets the defence capabilities that it has learned through war. 

 

Inzamam Rashid / Monocle31 March 26

 

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s swing through Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar this past weekend was billed as diplomacy. It was, more importantly, a sales trip and a rather deft one at that. 

In Jeddah, Abu Dhabi and Doha, Zelensky was not simply asking for sympathy, cash or a few more polite communiques. He was offering something rarer in 2026: a war-tested security product that these wealthy states suddenly need. 

Saudi Arabia signed a defence-co-operation arrangement with Kyiv; the UAE agreed a security and defence deal; and Qatar went further, signing a 10-year intergovernmental defence partnership that includes coproduction facilities and technological partnerships.

All of this matters because the Gulf is no longer insulated by distance, balance sheets or American hardware. Iranian attacks and the disruption around the Strait of Hormuz have made the region feel more vulnerable than it has in many years, while global oil markets have again been reminded that geography, not confidence, sets the terms. 

In Abu Dhabi, Zelensky and the UAE’s president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, discussed Iranian strikes, the Strait of Hormuz blockade and the effects on the oil market. In Doha, Zelensky and the Qatari leadership explicitly framed their talks around protecting life and preventing the regional war from expanding. Zelensky’s wager is that Ukraine can now market itself not just as a front-line democracy worth defending but also as a security donor in its own right. That is a notable shift.

Zelensky’s own formulation is blunt. “As a result of the war we are going through,” he wrote, “and because our enemy is extensively using the Iranian ‘Shahed’ drone technology, we have developed our own system.” He added that Ukraine is now sharing what it has built with countries in the Middle East and that “we have shifted the geopolitical landscape”. That might sound grandiose but it’s broadly true.

The real story is not that Zelensky has discovered what the Gulf can do for Ukraine. It is that the Gulf has discovered Ukraine in a new register. Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha are accustomed to buying finished systems from Washington, Paris and London. Ukraine is pitching something different: battlefield know-how, fast adaptation, cheaper interception and production partnerships. 

Qatar’s agreement is the clearest sign of where this is heading. Coproduction is not diplomatic theatre – it is industrial policy. It suggests that at least some Gulf capitals have concluded that in an era of drones, missiles and uncertain supply chains, sovereignty depends as much on manufacturing lines and software integration as on flashy procurement announcements.

There is, admittedly, a moral queasiness to all this. Zelensky is effectively arbitraging one war into leverage for another. He is doing so while the Middle East is already under attack and while Ukraine still depends on outside support to survive Russia’s invasion. Yet it would be naive to pretend that there is a better option. The West is distracted, arsenals are stretched and Kyiv needs cash, investment and air-defence depth. If Europe has been slow and the US erratic, then Zelensky is right to look for buyers and benefactors.

Still, charm offensives can curdle into overreach. Ukraine’s greatest asset is its credibility, earned at a terrible cost. If Kyiv begins to sound too pleased with its new role as a merchant of wartime expertise, it risks blurring the line between resilience and commodification. 

Zelensky should be careful here. The pitch works best when it is sober: Ukraine understands the Shahed threat because it has lived under it and it can help others to prepare.

Even so, the Gulf tour looks like one of Zelensky’s most intelligent diplomatic gambits. He arrived not as a supplicant but as the head of a country that has turned necessity into exportable expertise. And in an age when wars bleed into markets, infrastructure and logistics, this is a practical form of statecraft. Kyiv is still fighting for survival. But in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, Zelensky has shown that survival, if managed properly, can itself become a business model.

Ukraine to the rescue!