Even a Fox News analyst could see that President Donald Trump “got played” by his Russian counterpart in the talks to end the Ukraine war.
In a Monday episode of Special Report, Brit Hume said Trump got dragged along by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s pretense that he was interested in securing a peace deal to finally end the war in Ukraine. Trump threatened on Monday to impose tariffs on Russia if negotiations don’t conclude within 50 days.
“It’s clear, from what the president himself has said—although he wouldn’t put it this way—that he got played by Putin and dragged on for months, and he was being jollied along under the impression that Putin had obviously given him, that Putin wanted to end the war and was prepared to negotiate,” Hume said.
“And it’s pretty clear now that Putin didn’t want to end the war where we are,” he added. “He had more conquest in mind, and perhaps wanted his whole original purpose of taking Ukraine to be fulfilled.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed frustration with Putin over the lack of progress in the peace talks. During a Monday meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump said he would slap Russia with 100 percent tariffs in 50 days if Putin doesn’t close a deal soon.
“We’re very, very unhappy with them, and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days,” Trump said. “Tariffs at about 100 percent. You call them secondary tariffs.”
Over the weekend, as he confirmed reports that the U.S. will send weapons to Ukraine, Trump said he did not like how Putin “talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening.”
It seems that even the First Lady has noticed that pattern.
“I go home. I tell the first lady ‘I spoke to Vladimir [Putin] today. We had a wonderful conversation,’” Trump said. “She said, ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.’”
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