In a midnight social media post, President Trump called Dmitri A. Medvedev a “failed former President of Russia” who had better “watch his words.”
Less than three hours later — morning by then in Moscow — Mr. Medvedev responded. He said Mr. Trump should picture the apocalyptic television series “The Walking Dead” and referred to the Soviet Union’s system for launching a last-ditch, automatic nuclear strike.
“Russia is right about everything and will continue to go its own way,” said Mr. Medvedev’s post on the Telegram messaging app.
It was the second time this summer that Mr. Trump and Mr. Medvedev, Russia’s head of state from 2008 to 2012, traded blows on social media.
The exchanges have been striking not only for the verbal brinkmanship on display between the world’s nuclear superpowers, but also for the mismatched stature of the figures involved. While Mr. Trump commands the world’s most powerful military, Mr. Medvedev is widely seen as a social-media attack dog relegated to the periphery of President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle.
The viciousness of the overnight exchange highlighted the volatility and opacity of a geopolitical relationship in which Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin set policy largely on their own. And it put on display the combustible mix that can occur when the Kremlin’s longstanding willingness to use nuclear threats meets Mr. Trump’s penchant for late-night diatribes on the internet. Hanging in the balance is the future of Ukraine, three years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“In wars, traditionally diplomatic messaging is something that’s done with a lot of care and discipline,” said Michael Kimmage, a professor at Catholic University in Washington who specializes in the U.S.-Russia relationship. “The consequences of screwing up can be so huge.”
Nuclear saber-rattling by Mr. Medvedev and by Mr. Putin himself was a common feature earlier in Russia’s invasion, as the Kremlin sought to deter the Biden administration from supporting Ukraine. Mr. Putin tamped down that rhetoric after Mr. Trump took office, hoping to take advantage of his Russia-friendly stance.
But as Mr. Trump grew frustrated with Mr. Putin’s unwillingness to budge on Ukraine, the language from Moscow has begun to shift again. Mr. Putin himself has said nothing about Mr. Trump’s recent threats of new sanctions, and the Russian president’s spokesman has said little but acknowledged that the Kremlin is paying attention. Others, like Mr. Medvedev, have taken a harder line.
“Each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war,” Mr. Medvedev posted on X on Monday, in English, after Mr. Trump warned that he could impose new sanctions in as little as 10 days.
Evoking the U.S. presidential campaign, in which Mr. Trump criticized President Joseph R. Biden Jr. as risking World War III, Mr. Medvedev added: “Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!”
The use of Mr. Trump’s derogatory moniker for his predecessor reflects what some analysts believe to be the Kremlin’s bet that Mr. Trump’s core supporters will prevail on him to avoid escalating America’s conflict with Russia.
Grigorii Golosov, a professor of political science at the European University in St. Petersburg, Russia, said there was something symbiotic about Mr. Trump and Mr. Medvedev fighting on social media. Mr. Medvedev, who had styled himself as a pro-Western liberal when he served as president more than a decade ago, has recast himself as an uncompromising soldier in Russia’s showdown with the West.
But attacking Mr. Medvedev may also be useful to Mr. Trump, Mr. Golosov posited, by allowing him to show he’s getting tough on Russia without attacking Mr. Putin directly. In June, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Medvedev for saying countries could send nuclear warheads to Iran, adding: “I guess that’s why Putin’s ‘THE BOSS.’ ”
“Trump wants to criticize someone in Russia,” Mr. Golosov said, but is still hoping to make a deal with Mr. Putin over Ukraine. Mr. Medvedev, he added, “is the perfect target.”
Mr. Medvedev is active on social media in a way that Mr. Putin and most other senior Russian officials are not. Mr. Medvedev set up a Twitter account in 2010 on a visit to Silicon Valley, when he was president and positioning himself as a tech-forward, reformist leader.
Long a loyal ally of Mr. Putin, Mr. Medvedev ceded the presidency back to him in 2012. Mr. Putin removed Mr. Medvedev from the prime minister post in a government reshuffle in 2020 and gave him the largely symbolic role of vice chairman of the Russian Security Council.
After Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Medvedev accelerated his reinvention as a far-right hawk, often threatening nuclear apocalypse more explicitly than did Mr. Putin and his spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov.
Analysts of Russian politics say that Mr. Medvedev’s reinvention came in part out of necessity because his past reputation as a liberal made him vulnerable amid the wartime power struggles within the ruling elite. But his social-media hostility is almost certainly blessed by the Kremlin, analysts say, because it amplifies the threat of Russia’s nuclear arsenal and helped Mr. Putin style himself as relative moderate.
Anton Troianovski is the Moscow bureau chief for The Times. He writes about Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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