How Trump Changed His Tone on Putin and the Russia-Ukraine War

After years of lavishing praise on the Russian leader, President Trump abruptly changed his posture amid mounting frustration with the lack of progress on a cease-fire.

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.

“I am disappointed in President Putin,” Mr. Trump said on Monday, announcing his plans to impose “very severe” tariffs that would hurt Russia if it does not agree to a cease-fire deal in the next 50 days. “The talk doesn’t mean anything.”

“My conversations with him are always very pleasant,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Putin. “And then the missiles go off that night.”

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 Monday, he again suggested the Russian president has been duplicitous: “He has fooled a lot of people. He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden.”

But Mr. Trump said that he would be an exception to what he sees as the list of American presidents whom the Russian leader outmaneuvered.

“He didn’t fool me,” Mr. Trump said.

McKinnon de Kuyper, Meg Felling and Jamie Leventhal contributed video research and production.

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

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• Cooking for the Front Line: A chef appeared on TV before joining the army when Russia invaded in 2022. Now he makes his borscht for Ukrainian troops instead of cooking show judges.
• Sanctions for Russia?: Flattery and pressure — coupled with Trump’s growing dissatisfaction with Putin — have helped build momentum for new economic punishments.
• Putin, Undeterred: The Russian leader is brushing aside Trump’s professed disappointment in him and is pushing ahead in Ukraine with renewed intensity, analysts and people close to the Kremlin said.
• ‘Widespread’ Rights Violations: In symbolic rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, Moscow was again blamed for the downing of Flight MH17 in 2014 and for an array of war-related human rights violations, including the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.
• Reemergence of Land Mines: Five countries plan to revive the use of the weapon prohibited by treaty for more than a quarter of a century, hoping to strengthen their defenses against any Russian attack.

How We Verify Our Reporting

• Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs, videos and radio transmissions to independently confirm troop movements and other details.
• We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts.

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