Transcription
Trump has for a long time tried to be friendly and maybe even friends with Vladimir Putin.
"I think I'd get along very well with Vladimir Putin. I don't know Putin. He said nice things about me. If we got along well, that would be good. Putin and I get along fine. We get along very well. That's a good thing, not a bad thing."
But in recent days, Trump hasn't been just mad with Vladimir Putin. "I was very disappointed with my call with President Putin. I was very disappointed. We get a lot of thrown at us by Putin for you want to know the truth."
Here's how Trump's talk about Vladimir Putin and his actions towards Russia have changed dramatically over the years.
"Do you like Vladimir Putin's comments about you?" "Sure. When people call you brilliant, it's always good. Especially when the person heads up Russia."
Donald Trump used to be kind of an admirer of Vladimir Putin. Or if anything, he would say very nice things about the Russian president.
"The fact that you say you can get along with him, do you think I'll be able to get along with him? You think the day that you become president of the United States, he's going to change his mind on some of these key issues?" "Possibly. It's possible. I don't know, Matt. It's possible."
When Trump first joined the political scene, he was pretty open about wanting to revive relation with Russia. Russia had already invaded Ukraine in 2014, and there was a lot of discussion in Washington about whether the US should increase the pressure on Moscow or if there should be a more consilatory measure. And that was Trump's whole mo during the 2016 election, that Putin was not so much of a bad guy.
"Will I get along with him? I have no idea." "I won't. Putin's a killer. A lot of killers. Got a lot of killers. Why you think our country is so innocent?"
Well, Democrats use this moment to basically caricature Trump as some sort of Russian puppet. "From everything I see has no respect for this person." "Well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as president of the state." But it became a kind of meme.
"We think you're the best candidate. The smartest candidate. No doubt. The manurion candidates." "I don't know what that means, but it sounds tremendous."
Putin leveraged Trump's sweet talk of Russia in order to flatter Trump. US intelligence shows, including US intelligence assessments during Trump's presidency, is that Russia did interfere in the election or to at least harm Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016. Trump refuses to even admit that point because in his mind, it seems that to admit that would mean there's an asterisk on his 2016 election win.
"I believe that President Putin really feels and he feels strongly that he did not meddle in our election." "What he believes is what he believes. What I believe is that we have to get to work."
Trump was actually quite tough on Russia. There had been an increase of sanctions because of the Ukraine war and Trump even was the first president to send offensive weapons in order to fight Russia in its war. So there was already a seed in there where Trump did not like being called weak on Russia.
Trump's 2024 messaging on Russia was a little different. And Trump made this case that he could end the Russia Ukraine war that had expanded dramatically during the Biden administration. "If I'm president, I will have that war settled in one day, 24 hours."
And it's been interesting to watch Trump in these first 6 months because he has been able to get a ceasefire in Gaza that did break, but he did also stop a growing fight between Pakistan and India. He also brokered a deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. But the one place he's still unable to make it happen is the one place he promised he could do quickly. And that was the Russia Ukraine war.
"You've now been in office for 5 months and 5 days. Why have you not been able to end the Ukraine war?" "Because it's more difficult than uh people would have any idea. Uh Vladimir Putin has been more difficult."
Trump keeps calling for a ceasefire and has even at one point put on truth social "Vladimir stop." Putin has only responded with more missiles and more bombings of Ukraine and that has clearly angered the president.
"I said, 'When are we going to end this, Vladimir?' I've known him for a long time now. I said, 'When are we going to end this bloodshed, this this blood bath? It's a blood bath.' I was very unhappy with my call with President Putin. And it just seems like uh he wants to go all the way and just keep killing people."
But what we're seeing now is Trump realizing that his efforts to end the war, that his own boast that he could end the war because he knew both Putin and Zalinsky well from his first term, that those boasts aren't panning out. And it is a promise he has not yet fulfilled. And his anger is spilling out into public.
"A lot of thrown at us by Putin for you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."
Does it portend some sort of radical policy shift where all of a sudden a Trump-led United States is going to pressure Russia in a way that it hasn't? That it's going to support Ukraine in a way that Trump has not yet done so? It's hard to know, but for right now, in this moment, Trump is as angry at Putin and at Russia that he's ever been. And that could make this quite the pivot point, not only for Trump's foreign policy, but for Trump's presidency.