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While President Donald Trump previously refrained from speaking ill of Russian President Vladimir Putin, those days are over.
The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has changed the nature of their dynamic. Although the two appeared to get along, at least publicly, during Trump’s first administration, their relationship has unraveled as the more recent conflict persists.
In recent weeks, Trump has refused to mince his words when asked about Putin. Trump said during a Cabinet meeting July 8 he was fed up with Putin and said he was eyeing potentially imposing new sanctions on Russia.
“We get a lot of bulls— thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
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John Hardie, Russia program deputy director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Russia started to attract ire from Trump dating back to March after Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. But Russia has failed to get on board with a ceasefire.
“Really, since then, I think Trump has come to view the Russians as the main impediment to a deal,” Hardie told Fox News Digital Thursday.
Additionally, Hardie said that Trump has also grown frustrated that Russia will launch drone and missile attacks against Ukraine, even after directly speaking with Putin.
“What he’s sort of latched on to are these Russian drone and missile barrages,” Hardie said. “That really seems to resonate with him.”
Tensions only have continued to escalate between the U.S. and Russia since the July Cabinet meeting.
Trump announced July 14 that he would sign off on “severe tariffs” against Russia if Moscow failed to agree to a peace deal within 50 days. He then dramatically reduced the deadline to only 10–12 days — which ends Friday.
The decision to reduce the timeline prompted former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to caution that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war.”
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In addition to economic sanctions, Trump responded to Medvedev and issued a rare statement disclosing that two U.S. Navy submarines would be moved in response to escalating threats from Russia.
“I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump said Aug. 1.
Trump’s disclosure of the submarine presence puts additional pressure on Russia to come to the negotiating table, according to Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and director of the Hudson Institute think tank’s Center for Defense Concepts and Technology.
“We have used very sparingly submarines to try to influence adversary behavior before, but this is pretty unusual, to do it against a nuclear-powered adversary like Russia in response to a nuclear threat by Russia,” Clark told Fox News Digital Monday. “So I think this is trying to essentially push back on Russia’s frequent and long-standing threats to use nuclear weapons in part of the Ukraine conflict.”
Momentum is picking up on negotiations though, and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin Wednesday.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social afterward that “great progress” was made during the meeting. And now, Trump and Putin are expected to meet face to face imminently in an attempt to finally advance negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Still, Hardie said he is skeptical that the meeting between Putin and Trump will result in meaningful progress.
“I don’t expect a summit to produce much,” Hardie said. “And I think Putin could try to use the summit to placate Trump and kind of buy more time continues assault on Ukraine, but I think his goal is he’d love to be able to enlist Trump in his effort to impose these harsh terms on Ukraine.”
Russia has pushed for concessions in a peace deal that include barring Ukraine from joining NATO, preventing foreign peacekeeper troops from deploying to Ukraine after the conflict, and adjusting some of the borders that previously were Ukraine’s.
It’s unclear if Trump plans to announce any additional economic burdens upon Russia Friday in accordance with the deadline that he imposed demanding that Russia signal willingness to end the conflict. But according to Trump, the ball is in Putin’s court.
“It’s going to be up to him,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “We’re going to see what he has to say. It’s going to be up to him. Very disappointed.”
The White House did not disclose any details regarding potential Friday sanctions, but said that Trump wants to meet with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Putin to resolve the conflict.
“The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the President is open to this meeting,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “President Trump would like to meet with both President Putin and President Zelensky because he wants this brutal war to end. The White House is working through the details of these potential meetings and details will be provided at the appropriate time.”
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