‘He’s very nice, but it turns out to be meaningless’
WASHINGTON — President Trump tore into Russian strongman Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for talking “bulls—“ and making “meaningless” overtures while keeping his bloody invasion of Ukraine going.
“A lot of people are dying and it should end,” the president complained to reporters during a Cabinet meeting. “We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
In recent months, Putin, 72, has showered Trump, 79, with praise and sought to flatter him through grand gestures such as commissioning a portrait of the US president from a “leading Russian artist.” Putin also told Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff that he had rushed to church to pray for Trump after an assassination attempt in July of last year.
But despite the Russian’s rhetoric about working with the US to make peace in Ukraine, Moscow’s attacks have continued, including brutal drone bombardments of civilians.
Trump held a call with Putin July 3 and later complained to reporters that he was “disappointed” with the Russian tyrant, saying “it just seems like he wants to go all the way and just keep killing people.”
On July 4, Trump held a “good call” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and lauded Kyiv Tuesday for putting up spirited resistance against its larger neighbor.
“The Ukrainians were brave but I will say we gave them the best equipment ever made,” said the president, reiterating his intention to give Kyiv more weapons and other materiel.
“The Ukrainians, whether you think it’s unfair we gave all that money or not, they were very brave.”
The 47th president has made ending the Ukraine war a top foreign policy objective of his second term. While Ukraine has repeatedly agreed to terms for a ceasefire, Russia has rejected any halt to the fighting.
“They had the benefit of unbelievable equipment,” Trump emphasized. “We gave them far more because Biden shouldn’t have done that … We should’ve given less than Europe.”
Following a meeting with Zelensky during last month’s NATO summit in The Hague, Trump declared that he was “looking into” the possibility of marshalling Patriot intercepter missiles to send to Ukraine for defensive purposes.
But days later, the White House confirmed that it had halted previously planned shipments of critical military firepower to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles, following a review of US stockpiles.
Trump told reporters Tuesday that “I don’t know” who ordered that pause.
“Putin is not treating human beings right,” he added. “He’s killing too many people, so we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine that I have approved.”
The president did not specify the types of defensive weapons that he plans on sending Ukraine, nor did he say how many of them would be dispatched.