Donald Trump’s recent criticisms of Vladimir Putin are a marked shift in tone from the US president, who had previously taken a warmer stance towards the Russian leader.
After he returned to the White House in January, Trump set out to restore relations with Russia, holding phone calls with Putin, and arranging high-level talks between representatives from Washington and Moscow in Saudi Arabia.
Early in his term, he also repeated Russian talking points – referring to Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelensky as a “dictator”, for example. The US also voted alongside Russia against a UN resolution identifying Russia as the “aggressor” in the war in Ukraine.
But that is now changing. In the spring, Trump told reporters he was “pissed off” with Putin and threatened new tariffs on Russian oil exports if he felt that Moscow was delaying a peace deal.
On 3 July, the two leaders spoke by phone. Trump has since expressed frustration that a ceasefire breakthrough wasn’t reached, telling a cabinet meeting “I’m not happy about that” and adding “we get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth”.
On Sunday, he went further again, saying Putin “talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening”.
