President Donald Trump said Sunday he basically trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin to do the right thing as he attempts to hash out a peace deal in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump said of Putin: “I don’t think he’s going to go back on his word. You’re talking about Putin. I don’t think he’s going to go back on his word. I’ve known him for a long time. We’ve always gotten along well.”
Trump’s words seemed to be a softening of his language earlier Sunday.
Saying he was “pissed off,” Trump had been critical of Putin in an interview with Kristen Welker of NBC. “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault, I am going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia,” Trump said.
On Sunday night, the president did express displeasure over Putin’s criticism of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom Putin clearly doesn’t want to remain in power.
“Some of the things that he said over the last day or two,” Trump told reporters, “having to do with Zelenskyy because when he considers Zelenskyy not credible — he’s supposed to be making a deal with him, whether you like him or you don’t like him. So I wasn’t happy with that. But I think he’s going to be good.”
Trump has frequently expressed his own disapproval of Zelenskyy over the last months. On Sunday night, he added to that criticism by saying Zelenskyy may be backing away from the minerals deal that the Trump White House had been working on with him, in which Ukraine would trade mineral rights for American assistance.
That deal was to be signed the day in February that Trump and Vice President JD Vance had a blow-up with Zelenskyy in the White House.
“I see he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal,” he said. “And if he does that he’s got some problems. Big, big problems. We made a deal on rare earth and now he’s saying, well, you know, I want to renegotiate the deal.”
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he was going to be able to end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day on office. At this point, though, Trump said he doesn’t have a specific deadline for Putin to meet.
“It’s a psychological deadline. If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it,” he said.
