BREAKING NEWS (or just more blabber?): Is Trump finally getting tired of Putin humiliating him over Ukraine?

After months of “24 hours” and “very soon” - his Ukraine envoy admits that Trump is impotent and that a deal now depends on the Russian dictator. And VP Vance agrees: "Russia is asking for too much."

BY MICHAEL ANDERSEN

Donald, you have been chewed up and spat out on a dirty Russian sidewalk. Just as Kamala Harris predicted a long long time ago:

As candidate, Donald Trump repeated on more than 50 occasions that as president he would have the war in Ukraine finished in “24 hours.” Well, that didn’t happen.

As president, Trump’s promises and timeline on Ukraine went from 24 hours to … one week. Well, that hasn’t happened either.

Since President Trump planted his sizable behind in the big chair in the Oval Office, not a week has gone by without Trump, Marco Rubio or J.D. Vance promising that there would be a ceasefire “soon” or “at the end of the week”.

But, 15 weeks into Trump II time, we seem no closer to a ceasefire than on January 20 – and, as a result, Ukrainians are being killed every night in their beds by Russian missiles, drones and bombs.

It is by now blatantly obvious that the Donald was either lying or ignorant when he kept promising to have the war finished in 24 hours – because “Putin respects me.”

Unsurprisingly, it turns out that the brutal, corrupt KGB dude who grew up on the mean, mean streets of Soviet Leningrad does not have much respect for the orange, morbidly obese, narcissist, spoiled brat from Manhattan.

Who on earth could have seen that coming?

That’s where we have been for the 15 weeks that Trump has been in power: the U.S. President promising and pretending, the Russian dictator bombing and murdering, the Ukrainians dying. The world watching.

Oh, and let’s not forget that the U.S. President on several occasions has directly excused the Russian bombing of Ukrainians – as “a mistake” or “Putin is only doing what anybody else would.”

And after the bust-up in the Oval Office on February 28 – remember ‘why are you not wearing a suit?’ – Trump even temporarily blocked U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine; an act which directly resulted in “hundreds of dead” in Ukraine (according to TIME magazine.)

Why Trump has been doing this - covering for Putin - is anybody’s guess.

Interpretations range from pure narcissistic ignorance to ‘Krasnov’ (the U.S. President being a Kremlin asset). Somewhere in the middle there is the more benign version - that Trump will say anything to get the Russian dictator to the negotiating table – ‘The art of the deal’ (Trump’s book) and all that.

That has been the situation for 15 weeks; during April the daily pattern was that Trump or Rubio would proclaim optimism - and Putin would respond by bombing Ukraine overnight.

However, over the past three weeks, there have been signs that the Trump administration is realizing that Putin, in fact, doesn’t “respect” them, that he ain’t their friend. Meaning that maybe the U.S. administration is catching up to the rest of us?

The first little flicker of U.S. discontent came in mid-April after Russian ballistic missiles had killed 34 people and injured 120 in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine. The missiles with cluster ammunition were timed to Palm Sunday and aimed at Sumy’s busy market square just as many people were on their way to church or family visits.

This attack "on civilian targets crosses any line of decency," U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg tweeted.

Interestingly, Kellogg also flat out refuted that Putin’s attack could have been a mistake - in direct contrast to his boss who still - two days later - was making excuses for the brutal Russian attack. In fact, Trump went one worse and suggested that Ukrainian President Zelensky really was the one to blame - seeing as he was the one who had started the war!

However, from April 18 and onwards, Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, started telling the media that the U.S. “could walk away from the talks”, mainly pointing at Zelensky for jeopardising an agreement by not being willing to forego Crimea.

“We will tell them: you are foolish, you are are fools, you are horrible people and we will just take a pass,” said Trump in his own unique style.

Then, on April 20, another apparent volte-face by Trump: “Trump says he hopes Ukraine, Russia will make a deal this week”, Reuters could report.

Not for the first time, Putin took the breather provided by the U.S. President as a carte blanche to hit Ukraine, again bombing Kyiv, on April 24, killing 12 people.

This angered a clearly increasingly desperate and confused U.S. President:

Although when questioned, Trump explained that “we’re putting a lot of pressure on Russia, and Russia knows that.” He also, again, excused Putin by saying that a possible agreement by Moscow not to take over the entire country (Ukraine) would be a “pretty big concession”.

By April 26, Trump seems to have had a little rethink about his “friend” the Russian dictator: “…there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through “Banking” or “Secondary Sanctions?”

This was, to my mind, the first time that the U.S. President has ever expressed doubts about the good intentions of the Russian dictator.

Trump officials had let it be known that their boss had very much wanted a deal to mark his first 100 days in office - April 30. As it became obvious that that would not happen, the briefings turned to focus still more on Trump’s increasing exasperation with both parties, as here in the Financial Times, April 28, 2025, although Ukraine was still bearing the brunt of Trump’s snide side remarks when taking questions.

Then on Tuesday May 6, Keith Kellogg, Trump’s Envoy to Ukraine, spilled the beans. And what surprising beans they were. In what, at first glance, seemed another nothingy, usual praise of this boss, Kellogg went on to state that Putin and not Ukraine i the “impediment to progress.”

My first reaction was: Did Trump’s Envoy to Ukraine just admit that Trump is impotent, has hit a wall, overestimated his relationship with Putin - and that everything now depends on the Russian dictator?

Yup, so it seems that he did. Not least when this interpretation was supported by Vice-President Vance a day later, May 7, also laying the blame for the lack of negotiation progress at Russia’s doorstep. “We think that the Russians are asking for too much”.

This is a first.

Vance’s words are hugely surprising, in several ways: this is the man who once proudly declared that “I don’t really care about Ukraine”, and who already, as a VP candidate, agreed with all Russian demands - most importantly, that Russia would ‘get’ Crimea and the four eastern and southern regions of Ukraine they presently occupy, and that Ukraine would have to forego any notion of becoming a member of NATO.

Last night, asked about Vance’s comments, the U.S. President at first seemed a bit surprised (he had to ask the reporter when his own VP had said that), but then Trump added: “It is possible that he is right. He may know something that…. We are getting to a point where some decisions are going to have to be made. I am not happy about it, I am not happy about it.”

OMG, Vladimir, what have you done?