Donald Trump was caught once again moving the goal posts for Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of their summit in Alaska Friday.
During an interview on Fox News Radio Thursday, Trump bragged that his “relationship” with Putin had been the deciding factor in the autocrat’s pending decision to resolve his country’s invasion of Ukraine. But the U.S. president didn’t sound all that certain.
“Because of a certain relationship that he has with me running this country, he’s, he really, I believe now he’s convinced that he’s going to make a deal. He’s gonna make a deal—I think he’s going to, and we’re gonna find out,” Trump said.
“The second meeting is going to be very, very important. This meeting sets up—like a chess game—this meeting sets up the second meeting. But there is a 25 percent chance that this meeting will not be a successful meeting.”
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the historic contact between the two superpowers, a move that has frustrated European leaders. In an explosive phone call Wednesday, European leaders claimed Trump was leveraging his time with Putin to coordinate a ceasefire in Ukraine without Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s input, and pressed Trump on the significance of offering a meeting to Putin.
Ahead of the meeting, Putin praised Trump for making “quite vigorous and sincere efforts” toward ending the conflict in Ukraine and “to create long-term conditions of peace between our countries and in Europe, and in the world as a whole.”
The post Trump Is Already Bragging About His Putin Meeting—With One Huge Catch appeared first on New Republic.
