In extended remarks at the White House this week, President Donald Trump offered his most detailed view yet of Russian President Vladimir Putin since returning to office. His comments combined scepticism, frustration, and a lingering belief that a deal remains possible.
“I always hang up and say, ‘Well, that was a nice phone call’ and then missiles launch into Kyiv or some other city,” Trump said, recalling multiple conversations with Putin during attempts to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. “We had a wonderful conversation… then the missiles go off that night.”
The account painted a portrait of a leader Trump described as both “pleasant” in conversation and ultimately unreliable in action. “At a certain point, talk doesn’t talk. It’s got to be action. It’s got to be results,” he said, citing four separate occasions when a potential deal with Russia appeared imminent, only to collapse within hours.
Trump added a personal detail that underscored his growing scepticism. “I tell the First Lady, ‘I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ She said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.’” His remarks suggested a domestic echo chamber of disbelief that mirrored his own frustration.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, standing alongside Trump, confirmed that early negotiations had shown promise but faltered amid Russian intransigence. “We really put pressure on the Ukrainians to send a senior team into Istanbul,” Rutte noted, referencing early talks. “And they did. But then the Russians came up with this historian explaining history of Russia since 1250.”
Despite the setbacks, Trump insisted that Putin had once understood clear boundaries during his first presidency. “It wasn’t going to happen,” he said of the invasion. “He understood that it wasn’t going to happen.”
Trump’s comments were laced with frustration over what he views as a missed opportunity. “We thought we had probably four times a deal… bombs would be thrown out that night, and you’d say, ‘We’re not making any deals.’”
Still, he held out the possibility of a diplomatic breakthrough. He reiterated that Ukraine “was the apple of [Putin’s] eye,” but hinted that economic pressure, particularly the state of the Russian economy, could yet bring the Kremlin to the table. “He’s got to save his economy… he could save his country, in a sense.”
The repeated juxtaposition of Putin’s agreeable tone and the Kremlin’s military actions reflects Trump’s evolving and possibly hardening stance. While he refrained from outright personal condemnation, he left little doubt about where responsibility lies. “I don’t want to say he’s an assassin,” Trump said. “But he’s a tough guy.”
In other news Water is Wet.
Nice to see that even the Draft Dodger is starting to get what everyone else understood years ago. Guess even TACO can only get on his knees before Putin so many times before the Pink Eye starts getting to him.