On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump was asked what message he had for the families of Americans who died fighting in Ukraine. The moment called for empathy, and some restraint would be great, too. But what it got instead was far more familiar.
After meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump said,
“The message is so obvious. What a shame. They died in a foreign country. And some are celebrated people; they’re very celebrated. But it’s so sad that a thing like that would happen.”
And then, he just…moved on.
That made families of around 100 Americans who died fighting for Ukraine feel terrible, as many were U.S. veterans. They signed up after Russia invaded in February 2022, and the New York Times reported that there were at least 92 American deaths by September. But Donald Trump offered no condolences for them. For many watching, his absence spoke louder than words.
Q: Nearly 100 American citizens died in Ukraine on the battlefield. What’s your message to their families?
Trump: The message is so obvious. What a shame. They died in a foreign country.
pic.twitter.com/AiL7EyZFOL
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 28, 2025
Many of the Americans killed in Ukraine were veterans like Mike Meoli, 71, a retired Navy SEAL and firefighter, who was killed in November 2024 after going to Ukraine to train medics. Nicholas Maimer, 45, an Army Special Forces veteran from Idaho, died in a May 2023 artillery barrage while helping train Ukrainian officers. Ian Frank Tortorici, 32, a former Marine corporal, was killed in July 2023 when a Russian missile struck a restaurant where he was eating during a leave.
But sadly enough, none of these mattered enough to make it to the speech, and Donald Trump got into an old controversy over his repeated disparagement of American war dead and their families.
In 2018, Donald Trump was in France, and he allegedly said dead U.S. soldiers buried at the Aisne-Marne Cemetery were “losers,” and Marines who died at Belleau Wood were “suckers.” The White House shot that down when The Atlantic ran the story in 2020, but it wasn’t a one-time thing. He’s made fun of John McCain’s war injuries, the parents of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq, and even mocked the cost of a fallen female soldier’s funeral.
Does Trump only care about the military when it benefits him?
Trump: “Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed. It sounds a little strange but President Putin was very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine succeeding.” pic.twitter.com/KMZWYv4O4n
— action boomslang 👹 (@actionboomslang) December 29, 2025
Those remarks on Sunday came at a moment when Trump had just finished meeting with Zelensky to discuss a peace proposal from the U.S., as the war was about to hit the four-year mark. Both sides said the talks went well, but an agreement isn’t around the corner.
While Donald Trump didn’t have much to say about the families of American soldiers who died overseas at war, he sure had an array of compliments waiting for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Trump said:
“Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed (…) [Putin was] very generous in his feeling toward Ukraine succeeding.”
You could see the anger and disbelief on Zelensky’s face.
Meanwhile, Putin wouldn’t agree to a ceasefire as Russia sent over a hundred drones into Ukraine on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and seven civilians were killed. Trump barely has any words for the families burying loved ones, but plenty of understanding for the one who started the war, it seems. Clearly, when Trump talks about war, the loudest thing is what he doesn’t say.
