Former Russian president Dmitri Medvedev has issued a fierce and unsettling threat to Donald Trump, warning him to be careful with his words or face the possibility of nuclear consequences.
Medvedev, who now sits on Russia’s Security Council, reacted angrily after Trump told him to “watch his words.” Medvedev reminded Trump that Russia still has powerful nuclear weapons that could be launched even if the country’s leaders were killed — a system known from the Cold War as the “dead hand.” This is an automatic nuclear response mechanism designed to guarantee retaliation no matter what happens to Russia’s command structure.
In his message posted on Telegram, Medvedev mocked Trump’s comments, saying if Trump was so rattled by a few statements from a former Russian president, it proved Russia was right to keep doing whatever it wanted. He also told Trump to remember his favorite movies about zombies, implying that threats from the U.S. would not stop Russia.
This latest escalation happened right after Trump criticized Medvedev publicly. Trump called Medvedev a “failed former president” who “thinks he’s still president” and warned that he was “entering very dangerous territory.”
Trump has recently announced he would set a new deadline — about 10 to 12 days — for Russia to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine. He said there was no reason to keep waiting for negotiations to drag on.
Medvedev’s remarks came soon after the U.S. threatened harsh new tariffs against Russia if no deal was reached over Ukraine. Trump, who has often claimed Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he had been in office earlier, has promised to quickly end the war but so far has not been able to do it.
During attempts at peace talks, Trump has admitted that Putin has not been cooperative and has tried to take a tougher stance toward him, though relations between the two countries remain tense and unpredictable.
