President Donald Trump appears to have finally realized that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, famed for rigging elections and knocking off opponents, cannot be trusted.
“Putin really surprised a lot of people. He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening… I don’t like it,” Trump said Sunday evening, confirming that the U.S. will send weapons to Ukraine despite a Pentagon decision to halt military aid.
Trump returned to the White House in January after promising on the campaign trail that he could end the war in Ukraine “on Day One” of his presidency.
Initially, his sole tactic seemed to be to put pressure on Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to accept military gains made by Russia since its illegal all-out invasion was launched in 2022.
Matters came to a head in an infamous Oval Office clash on Feb. 28, where Trump even accused Zelensky of “gambling with World War III.”
But after repeatedly being embarrassed by the Kremlin chief, Trump appears to be shifting his position. Last week, he said he would be making “a major statement” on Russia on Monday, when NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is due to visit the White House.
Speaking to reporters at Joint Base Andrews after returning from an appearance at the FIFA Club World Cup final in New Jersey, Trump confirmed that he was overturning a decision by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to pause aid to Ukraine and would be sending Patriot missile defense systems.
“I haven’t agreed on the number yet, but they are going to have some, because they do need protection,” Trump said. “But we will send . . . we will send them Patriots, which they desperately need. But the European Union is paying for it. We’re not paying for anything. This will be business for us.”
Putin once again showed his disregard for talk of peace as his forces launched multiple attacks against civilian targets in Ukraine. Nine people were injured in aerial strikes that hit a maternity hospital in Kharkiv on Friday. Strikes continued all weekend, and overnight Sunday into Monday 136 drones were fired over the border. Ukrainian officials said that two civilians had been killed in Sumy.
U.S.-made Patriot systems are the only weapon that Kyiv possesses that can down hypersonic ballistic missiles from Russia. The move comes after Hegseth ordered military assistance to Ukraine to be paused earlier this month, a decision Trump quickly promised to reverse, although he has not committed to sending all the weapons previously approved by Congress.
Putin’s propensity to embarrass Trump by “talking nice” on the phone and then bombing Ukraine after hanging up appears to have informed the U.S. president’s decision to finally back Ukraine.
Last week, Putin launched one of his biggest attacks on Ukraine yet, just hours after Trump vowed to send more aid to Kyiv, and accused the Russian president of giving him “bulls–t.”
The aerial assault saw 728 drones and 13 missiles launched upon Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, surpassing the previous record of 539 drones set just a week prior on July 4.
Trump has grown increasingly wary of the Russian dictator, and he isn’t ruling out dishing out sanctions on Monday. Asked about the matter on Sunday evening, he said: “We are going to see what we will see tomorrow, OK? . . . But I am very disappointed with President Putin. I thought he was somebody that meant what he said.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Axios that the president is “really p—ed” with his Russian counterpart. “His announcement tomorrow is going to be very aggressive,” he said Sunday.
His language towards Putin, meanwhile, has become more and more curt. “We get a lot of bulls–t thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on July 8. “He’s very nice all the time but it turns out to be meaningless.”
The fraying of ties comes as Trump continues to patch up his relationship with Zelensky. The pair chatted amicably at the NATO summit two weeks ago, sources said.
One U.S. official, nodding to the infamous Oval Office showdown, told Axios: “Zelensky came like a normal human being, not crazy, and was dressed like a somebody that should be at NATO. He had a group of people with him that also seemed not crazy. So they had a good conversation.”
The post Hurt Trump Complains About Being Relentlessly Embarrassed by Putin appeared first on The Daily Beast.
