Trump-Putin relations: Finally, the end of an illusion?

After years of boasting about his good relations with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump is admitting he misjudged the Russian leader and has no influence on making an end to the war in Ukraine. The belated end of an illusion?

This conclusion is drawn from a bewildering and swift American U-turn on US weapons supplies to Ukraine, which has been under fierce drone and bombing attacks on civilian targets, including the capital, Kyiv. One of the worst since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it came a day after the latest in a series of telephone calls between Putin and Trump, who has frequently mentioned that he is on a first-name basis with his Russian counterpart. The topic: a ceasefire and an end to the war.

The unspoken response: a seven-hour Russian onslaught hammered the capital with 539 drones and 11 missiles. That explains why Trump described as “disappointing” his conversation – the sixth since taking office. At a televised cabinet meeting on July 8, Trump vented his frustration with the Russian leader in unusually blunt terms. Vladimir Putin is “talking a lot of bullshit” when it comes to Ukraine, he said.

Telephone calls over the months have been supplemented by postings on Trump’s social network, Truth Social. Such as this one, on April 24, after another air assault: “I’m not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv. Not necessary and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5,000 soldiers a week are dying; Let’s get the Peace Deal DONE!” Vladimir, whose troops are preparing for another offensive, was clearly unimpressed – possibly because Trump never followed up on suggestions that he would tighten sanctions on Russia unless it changed course.

With strains in the relationship between the two leaders increasingly public, leaked reports from the Pentagon said that the administration had decided to halt supplying Ukraine with much-needed weapons, including Patriot air defence missiles and thousands of Howitzer rounds. A sharply worded editorial in the frequently Trump-friendly Wall Street Journal on July 3 described the decision to withhold weapons before Russia’s expected summer assault as “a hostile act that favours Vladimir Putin.” Alarmed reactions also came from Europe as well as from some of his most devoted followers in the Republican Party, the so-called MAGA (Make America Great Again) crowd, who voted him into office largely because he pledged to keep the United States out of foreign wars.

Just three days after the suspension of aid became known, Trump reversed course. On the sidelines of a meeting with the visiting Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump announced that US arms supplies to Ukraine would resume. “We have to, they have to be able to defend themselves,” he told reporters. “They are getting hit very hard. Now they are getting hit very hard. We’re gonna have to send more weapons.”

In the early stages of the conflict, Trump suggested that it was Ukraine that had provoked the Russian invasion because of its desire to join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO). Trump’s aides frequently echoed Kremlin talking points.

A visit to Washington in February by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky descended into a shouting match between him, Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Lunch was cancelled, as was a planned joint press conference after the Ukrainian was asked to leave the Oval Office. US-Ukrainian relations have since warmed up, partly because of a trade deal on rare minerals, and Trump clearly no longer views Putin through rose-tinted glasses. At a NATO meeting in June, he told reporters that Putin was proving “the more difficult partner” in reaching a peace deal.

That is a very long way from the days when Trump assured the world he could end the conflict in a day because of his good relations with, and influence on, Putin. The one-day solution to the conflict became part of his speeches in the campaign for the 2024 elections he won. “Befeore I even arrive at the Oval Office, I will have the war settled. It will take no longer than a day,“ he told a cheering crowd on March 5, 2023. That was 856 days ago. How many more days it will take before that conflict finally ends is anyone’s guess