Zombie Diplomacy? Trump Calls Medvedev A ‘Failed President’, Ex-Russian Prez Hits Back With ‘Dead Hand’ Nuclear Ghost

Trump’s tone suggests more tariffs may be on the table. Medvedev’s reply hints at old strategies being dusted off. (Photo: Fox News)

New York: The gloves are off again, this time online. A transatlantic war of words has erupted between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia’s Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev. Tariffs, insults and Cold War-era threats have all found their way into a digital dogfight that now stretches from America to Russia.

Trump kicked things off while addressing his newly announced 25% tariff on Indian goods, which he also framed as a penalty for New Delhi’s growing trade ties with Moscow. He made no effort to soften the blow.

“I do not care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care. We have done very little business with India. Their tariffs are too high, among the highest in the world,” Trump said.

And then, he turned his attention to Russia.

“Likewise, Russia and the USA do almost no business together. Let’s keep it that way. And tell Medvedev, the failed former president of Russia, who thinks he is still president, to watch his words. He is entering very dangerous territory!” he said.

Aimed directly at Dmitry Medvedev, a long-time Putin loyalist and Russia’s former president from 2008 to 2012, the comment sparked a sharp rebuttal from Moscow.

‘Dead Hand? Dead Economies? Try Zombie Movies’

Medvedev fired back. He took to Telegram to deliver his response – calm, clipped, but filled with Cold War-coded menace.

“If a few words from the former President of Russia can provoke such a jittery reaction from the mighty President of the United States, then Russia must be completely in the right,” he wrote.

He then turned Trump’s “dead economies” jab into a ghost story. “As for ‘dead economies’ and ‘dangerous territory’, maybe he should rewatch his favorite zombie movies and remember just how dangerous the so-called ‘Dead Hand’, which does not even exist, can be,” he wrote.

That last line was not merely sarcasm. It pointed to one of the Cold War’s most terrifying legacies. The “Dead Hand” was a rumoured Soviet-era doomsday system, an automatic nuclear response mechanism meant to launch a counterattack even if every Russian leader was dead. A machine built to end the world without a single human decision left.

Medvedev’s jab was not subtle.

“We will keep moving forward on our own path,” he added, doubling down on Russia’s defiant posture.

Trade, Tariffs and the Online Battlefield

While U.S.-India relations reel from the sudden tariff shock, the Trump-Medvedev online spat has dragged Russia back to the frontlines of Washington’s political rhetoric.

Known for mixing diplomacy with bravado, Trump has now brought back Cold War ghosts while simultaneously souring two key bilateral equations.

The timing of this digital duel has not gone unnoticed. With global elections looming and trade blocs reshuffling, every insult hits harder.

Trump’s tone suggests more tariffs may be on the table. Medvedev’s reply hints at old strategies being dusted off.

Apart from a few pointed words on social media, it is a reminder that behind every jab lies a larger battlefield, one shaped by memory, muscle and the men who still carry both.