Five months ago, President Donald Trump turned heads when he claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin – the man who had invaded Ukraine – wanted peace in Ukraine.
“I believe he wants peace,” Trump said, adding: “I mean, I know him very well. Yeah, I think hwants peace. I think he would tell me if he didn’t. … I trust him on this subject.”Trump hasung
a very different tune in recent days, and especially on Tuesday.
After days of expressing displeasure with his latest phone call with Putin, Trump went even further at a Cabinet meeting. He suggested the man he had vouched for and spent years curiously avoiding criticizing might not be a reliable interlocutor.
“We get a lot of bullsh*t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “He’s very nice all of the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
It’s not the only suggestion that Trump is evolving in his stance – or at least his rhetoric – on the war in Ukraine.
This week he has reversed a brief pause in defensive weapons shipments to Ukraine (while suggesting this was undertaken by others in his administration). He has, for now, largely abandoned blaming both sides for the war, after almost always pairing any critique of Russia with a critique of Ukraine – as if they were equal partners in prolonging Russia’s war of aggression. And on Tuesday he without prompting praised the “courage” of Ukraine’s fighters, suggesting the huge investment the United States has made in Ukraine’s defense hasn’t been the boondoggle that many in the MAGA base believe.
“And I will say this, the Ukrainians, whether you think it’s unfair that we gave all that money or not, they were very brave because somebody had to operate that stuff,” Trump said. “And a lot of people I know wouldn’t be operating it.”
So what’s happening here?
Far be it from anyone to suggest that Trump has truly turned on Putin and landed firmly in Ukraine’s corner. Trump has signaled over and over again in the last 10 years that he’s happy to look unpredictable on the world stage – whether you call it the “madman theory” or anything else. And even after his past strong words for Putin, his readouts of their subsequent calls – including a birthday call from the Russian leader – haven’t suggested that Trump is applying direct pressure on him to agree to a ceasefire or to calibrate reprisals for Ukrainian attacks.
Now, it’s quite possible Trump’s latest public comments are an attempt to apply pressure on Putin rather than signal a firm shift in administration policy.
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