US President Donald Trump has lashed out at his Russian counterpart, saying he was "very, very unhappy" with Vladimir Putin, who he claimed had deceived four of his predecessors.
"It's been proven over the years. He's fooled a lot of people…. He fooled [Bill] Clinton, [George] Bush, [Barrack] Obama, [Joe] Biden. He didn't fool me," Trump said on Monday during an Oval office meeting with NATO chief Mark Rutte as he laid out plans for new infusions of weaponry for Kiev via NATO.
"But what I do say is that at a certain point, you know, ultimately talk doesn't talk. It's got to be action. It's got to be results and I hope he does it. It's potentially such a great country to be wasting so many people on…"
Trump demanded that Russia end its Ukraine war within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions while blaming former US President Biden for the war.
"It wasn't my war, it was Biden's war. It's not my war. I'm trying to get you out of it and we want to see it end,” Trump said, adding "This is a Democrat war, not a Republican or Trump war. This is a war that would have never happened. It shouldn't have happened."
He said he was "disappointed" with President Putin "because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn't seem to get there. So based on that, we're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days."
During their talks, Trump and Rutte also unveiled a deal under which the NATO military alliance would buy billions of dollars of arms from the United States — including Patriot anti-missile batteries — and then send them to Ukraine.
"This is really big," said Rutte, as he touted a deal aimed at easing Trump's long-held complaints that the US is paying more than European and NATO allies to aid Ukraine.
Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Britain were among the buyers helping Ukraine, added the NATO chief.
Pivot toward Putin and U-turn
Trump attempted a rapprochement with Putin shortly after starting his second term, in a bid to honour his election campaign pledge to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours.
His pivot toward Putin sparked fears in Kiev that he was about to sell out Ukraine, especially after Trump and his team berated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office on February 28.
But in recent weeks Trump has shown increasing frustration with Putin as the Russian leader, instead of halting his military offensive, stepped up missile and drone attacks to record levels.
Kiev too has upped its attacks on Russian mainland and in the areas controlled by Moscow.
Trump said his wife Melania had helped changed his thinking about Putin, a man for whom he formerly expressed admiration.
"I go home, I tell the First Lady, 'you know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation.'," Trump said. "And she said, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit.'" He added of Putin: "I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy."
Jeffries blasts Trump
Meanwhile, US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries blasted Trump over his Ukraine policy, accusing him of undermining American interests by aligning himself closely with Putin.
"Vladimir Putin has spent the entire year punking Donald Trump and the Trump administration," Jeffries told the reporters at the Capitol Hill.
Jeffires said Trump made promises to the American people, yet he continues to break those promises, including his pledge to bring peace to Ukraine.
"Donald Trump has spent the first six months of his presidency playing footsie with Vladimir Putin, and the response from Vladimir Putin, a sworn enemy of the United States of America, has been to unleash terror on Ukrainian children, communities and civilians.
"Donald Trump has zero credibility in this area. Is he just now figuring out that Ukraine is a friend to the United States of America and Russia is an enemy?" Jeffries said.
He said the Congress has to act independently in this area.
"We should sanction Russia and continue to keep the pressure on Vladimir Putin and Russia, a sworn enemy of this country, until the Ukrainian people are able to achieve victory for themselves, our NATO allies in Europe and the free world," he added.
