President Trump’s harsh words in recent days about President Vladimir V. Putin marked a sharp break from the strikingly positive posture he has taken for years toward the Russian leader.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly praised Mr. Putin and predicted the two men would forge a productive relationship. When Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine in 2022, Mr. Trump called Mr. Putin a “genius” for moving to seize large swaths of territory — applauding what he viewed as hard-line negotiation tactics.
“How smart is that? And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper,” Mr. Trump said, adding: “Here’s a guy who’s very savvy. I know him very well.”
As Mr. Putin’s army slaughtered civilians in a Ukrainian suburb and abducted Ukrainian children to Russia, Mr. Trump called such actions “terrible,” but stressed that he “got along with him really well.” Mr. Putin responded with his own compliments, saying that he couldn’t “help but feel happy about” Mr. Trump’s continued support for a negotiated peace favorable to Russia.
Many of Mr. Trump’s comments about Mr. Putin have reflected his anger about the U.S. investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election that dominated his first term.
“Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” he said in February, seated next to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in the Oval Office.
But in recent weeks, Mr. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with his Russian counterpart over the lack of progress on a cease-fire in Ukraine, as The New York Times has reported.
The changes in Mr. Trump’s public remarks illuminate the challenges he has faced in fulfilling one of his main campaign pledges: that he would swiftly end the conflict.
Mr. Trump now acknowledges the war in Ukraine has been “difficult” to end.
While he was running for president, Mr. Trump said he could settle the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, ending the largest land war in Europe since 1945 before his first day in office.
The promise was implausible, but he kept doubling down.
After he took office, Mr. Trump said he had been speaking “figuratively.” By May, Mr. Trump was telling Mr. Zelensky and other European leaders that Russia and Ukraine would have to find a solution to the war themselves.
The war is still raging, and Mr. Trump’s early message has changed dramatically.
“It’s more difficult than people would have any idea,” Mr. Trump said at the NATO summit last month. “Vladimir Putin has been more difficult. Frankly, I had some problems with Zelensky.”
While Mr. Trump previously expressed skepticism about devoting American resources to the conflict, he told reporters last week that it was necessary to bolster Ukraine’s defenses. He resumed the delivery of U.S. weapons to the country that had been temporarily paused.
“They have to be able to defend themselves,” he said. “They’re getting hit very hard. Now they’re getting hit very hard. We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess.”
Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said that Mr. Trump had always been consistent on foreign policy and blamed former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for the prolonged war in Ukraine.
Mr. Trump “will always put America first, and he wants peace in Ukraine and around the world,” Ms. Kelly said in a statement. After a review “to ensure all foreign military aid aligns with American interests, the president decided to send Ukraine defensive munitions to help stop the killing in this brutal war.”
Since the resumption of U.S. military aid, Mr. Putin has escalated his attack, again striking cities and towns across central and western Ukraine.
According to people close to the Kremlin, Mr. Putin is now convinced that his military could overpower Ukraine’s in the months to come, aiming for a strategic victory in the war that has lasted 40 months and led to hundreds of thousands of casualties within his military.
Mr. Trump is now sharply expressing his displeasure with Mr. Putin.
During the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly expressed optimism that he could work with the Russian leader.
“It’s a smart thing” to talk to Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump said in October when asked whether he talked to Mr. Putin after his first term. “If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing.”
After his re-election, Mr. Trump seemed to side with Russia in the conflict.
He scolded Mr. Zelensky for being an ingrate and asking for more military support. He sent his envoys to Saudi Arabia to negotiate a peace deal in Ukraine with Mr. Putin’s surrogates — all without input or consent from Mr. Zelensky, an American ally.
In March, Mr. Trump said he was confident Mr. Putin wanted to find a path to peace, even though the Russian leader was continuing to bomb Ukraine. “I believe him,” Mr. Trump said. “I think we’re doing very well with Russia.”
But his tone has shifted in recent weeks.
After a July 3 call with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump complained to reporters that their conversation did not lead to “progress.”
The next day, Russia assaulted Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with the largest number of drones and missiles launched since the beginning of the war.
“I’m not happy with President Putin at all,” Mr. Trump said on July 7.
Last week, after reversing the pause on U.S. military aid, Mr. Trump further expressed his frustration over Mr. Putin’s recalcitrance.
“We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting.
On Sunday, he again suggested the Russian president was being duplicitous: “He talks nice, and then he bombs everybody in the evening.”
McKinnon de Kuyper, Meg Felling and Jamie Leventhal contributed video research and production.
Minho Kim covers breaking news and climate change for The Times. He is based in Washington.
The post In His Own Words: How Trump Changed His Tone on Putin and the War in Ukraine appeared first on New York Times.
