Only last month, the US president called Russia’s Vladimir Putin “very kind.” Now, Donald Trump says Putin’s words are “meaningless.”
Trump tears Putin, Russian leaders say “kill many people”
President Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with Russian President Putin after his leadership failed to seal the peace deal with Ukraine.
- President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have long expressed their praise for each other.
- Trump’s patience with Putin appears to be diminishing as Moscow escalated an air attack on Ukraine and rejected ceasefire efforts.
- The Pentagon has updated its weapons shipment to Ukraine. Momentum is also built for bipartisan laws that impose serious sanctions on Russia.
President Donald Trump said he would end the war in Ukraine within the first 24 hours of his inauguration.
But now, for over 4,000 hours, Trump’s patience with Vladimir Putin, which the US president called “very kind” last month, appears to be wearing thin clothes. Relations hit a wall as Russian leaders repeatedly rejected Trump’s attempts to mediate a ceasefire, as Russian leaders advanced by strengthening drone and missile attacks.
“If we want to know the truth, we’ll get a lot of b**shits thrown into us by President Putin,” Trump told reporters on July 9, summarizing what Ukrainians and other veteran Russian watches have been saying for 20 years. “He’s always been very kind to us, but it turned out to be pointless.”
This is how Trump Putin’s geopolitical love events became sour.
Trump and Putin got off to a good start
Trump began in person meetings with Putin shortly after taking office, saying a lot to Putin’s joy – he said he was ready to maintain the territory of Ukraine, which was already taken when Moscow invaded Kiev in February 2022. At the same time, Trump said he is not interested in spending more on defense of Ukraine. He said this was an issue that was made public when Ukrainian President Voldimia Zelensky visited the White House in February.
“You don’t have a card right now,” Trump told Zelensky, who was brought live on television and appeared to be disrespectful of Ukrainian leaders. Trump said Putin was a victim of a “fake” American “witch hunt.” He said Ukraine needed to make concessions and began pressing Kiev to sign an agreement on the wealth of its minerals.
Putin escalates Ukraine’s attack
For many years, American intelligence agencies and officials have struggled to understand President Putin’s exact foreign policy goals. In Ukraine, their best guess is that they want to undermine it as much as possible as part of their efforts to protect it from the NATO military alliance and to maintain or restore the boundaries of Russia’s cultural and economic influence. That means draining morale for people and communities through the waves following the waves of drone and missile attacks that grabbed Ukraine’s land and killed thousands of civilians, according to the United Nations.
At least in the time frame where he is renewing consultations with the White House, what Putin reveals is that he is still intended to smash Ukraine into a fatal effect. In fact, Russian drone and missile strikes have been rising since Trump took office in January, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Institute’s War Research Institute. It seemed Trump would take some time to publicly admit this. However, he finally said in April, “I am not satisfied with the Russian strike against Kiev. It’s not necessary, it’s very bad timing. Vladimir, stop!”
A Ukrainian living in Kyiv said in a WhatsApp message that he, his wife and children were “completely mad” for having to run repeatedly to bombs, metro stations and underground parking garages to seek shelter at speeds that they had to evacuate since the start of the 3.5-year war.
Evolving policies to meet evolving relationships
Trump seemed to scrutinize praise and shun carefully to avoid criticizing Putin. The origin of this praise is not well understood. Both men say they first met on the sidelines at the 2017 International Summit in Germany during Trump’s first term. However, Trump also recorded that he first met Putin in 2013 when he visited Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant. In any case, five months ago, Trump said he knew Putin “very well” and believes he “want peace” in Ukraine.
Still, nothing came in the indirect Trump-brokered ceasefire talks between Ukraine and Russia. And after multiple calls with Putin since taking office, it appears that Trump is changing his thoughts and behavior towards Putin and Russia. After a brief pause, he ordered the Pentagon to restart its transport weapons to Ukraine. The White House is further increasing pressure on European countries to help Ukraine provide the most needed air defenses. Some countries have recently adhered to it.
Momentum is being built on due to bipartisan laws that impose severe sanctions on Russia – if Russia refuses to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine, it would amount to 500% tariffs on the countries that buy, sell or supply Russian oil, gas, and oil. South Dakota Republican Senate Majority Leader John Toon said the bill could be ready for votes soon this month.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in an interview that “we need a Russian sanctions bill that places some real constraints on the president’s ability to play again with Putin.”
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Malaysian reporters on July 10 that Moscow presented a “new concept” that could open the door to peace during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Rubio said they shared ideas and information about bringing it back to Trump. Trump teased “major” statements on Russia earlier next week on his part.
Has the bromance finally finished? Did it really start?
Putin is a former KGB executive and has been trafficked for a long time with misinformation, misinformation, propaganda and complete lies. Trump often makes false or misleading claims in his speeches and social media posts.
A former US envoy to “Trump” and Ukraine Bill Taylor said in an appearance in the media this week that he “sees Putin as the problem.”
