Trump’s latest angry post about Putin revealed a lot about how he perceives the Ukrainian Conflict. According to Trump, “[Putin] has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever. I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”
What’s really happening is that Russia ramped up its bombing campaign against Ukraine in response to Ukraine ramping up its drone one first, during which time Putin’s helicopter was almost downed after it was caught in a drone swarm while he was visiting Kursk last week. Zelensky earlier demanded that the US condemn Russia for its latest attacks after it was silent all week long, which Trump just complied with despite remaining suspiciously silent after Zelensky implicitly threatened Moscow’s Victory Day parade.
As for Trump’s claim that Putin “wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it”, this is a gross misportrayal of his latest buffer zone plan that was announced in response to Ukraine’s aforementioned ramped-up drone campaign that provoked Russia’s reciprocal bombing one. Right around the start of these tit-for-tat escalations, Trump held his third call with Putin this year, which was analyzed here and included a list of ten background briefings to bring observers up to speed about the conflict’s military-political dynamics.
Although Trump also wrote in his latest angry post about Putin that “President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop”, his ire is clearly directed much more at the Russian leader than the Ukrainian one. Objective observers can therefore conclude that Trump is either being maliciously misinformed about the conflict from his trusted advisors or that he’s manipulatively creating the pretext for US escalation.
Regarding the first possibility, although his Envoy to Russia Steve Witkoff is a close friend, some in Trump’s circle reportedly don’t like or even trust him and they might have whispered into Trump’s ear. As for the second, Trump’s confirmation that he’s weighing new sanctions against Russia – which came after prior posts about this – could lead to him approving ally Lindsey Graham’s plan to move his proposed legislation through Congress, which would impose 500% tariffs on all Russian energy clients.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also confirmed that more sanctions against Russia and even aid to Ukraine could be in the cards so the US might not walk simply away from the conflict like some expect. Of course, Trump’s latest anger with Putin might just be a ploy to pressure him into compromising on more of his maximum goals than he feels comfortable with or could have been an emotional outburst with no strategic intent in mind, but it still raises questions about how Trump perceives the conflict.
There’s no excuse for Trump blaming the latest tit-for-tat escalations on Putin, let alone claiming that he’s “gone absolutely CRAZY” and might even “want ALL of Ukraine”, which proves that something is seriously wrong. Either Trump is being maliciously misinformed about the conflict from his trusted advisors (not counting Witkoff of course) or he’s manipulatively creating the pretext for US escalation. The coming week might therefore reveal more about which of these two explanations is the most likely.
