Donald Trump Trying To ‘Extort’ Ukraine To Help Him Win The 2020 Election, ‘Washington Post’ Editorial Says

In May, television producer and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky — who had previously played a character who was president of Ukraine in a TV sitcom — shook up the country’s politics when he won its presidential election. Zelensky decisively defeated incumbent president Petro Poroshenko with more than 73 percent of the vote, according to results posted by the Government of Ukraine via Archive.org. But just four months later, the 41-year-old Zelensky finds himself and his government under pressure from Donald Trump, who is attempting to “strong-arm” the new president into meddling in the 2020 United States presidential election.

That is the scenario outlined in a stunning Washington Post report published on Thursday. In the report, the publication revealed that Trump has not yet invited Zelensky to the White House, and more importantly, has continued to deny Ukraine about $250 million in promised military assistance, to help the country hold off Russian aggression and incursions into Ukrainian territory.

According to a Reuters report, Zelensky has embarked on a sweeping program of political and economic reforms in Ukraine that have long been urged on the country by the United States and other western governments. However, these reforms have been opposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who continues his efforts to destabilize Ukraine’s fledgling democracy.

But rather than applaud Zelensky’s reform policies, Trump has given the new Ukraine president the cold shoulder. Why? According to The Washington Post, the U.S. president “is attempting to force Mr. Zelensky to intervene in the 2020 U.S. presidential election by launching an investigation of the leading Democratic candidate, Joe Biden.”

Former U.S. vice president Biden has led Trump by significant margins in 19 consecutive polls since late April, as The Inquisitr reported. But the president is apparently attempting to neutralize the threat posed to his re-election, by tying Biden to an attempt to oust a top Ukraine government prosecutor who was investigating an energy company linked to Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.

The younger Biden served on the board of the natural gas company, which critics say posed a conflict of interest for Biden, according to a Washington Post report.

Now Trump is attempting to use the military aide to Ukraine in an attempt to “extort” Zelensky into opening an investigation of Biden in Ukraine, according to the Washington Post report.

Last month, Trump lawyer and personal friend, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, declared that he had already met with an associate of Zelensky to persuade the Ukraine government to investigate Biden, according to a CNN report.

Trump has claimed that the quarter-billion in military aid to Ukraine is under “review,” according to a CNN report. But the Pentagon has already completed the review and recommended that the aid funds be released.