Memorandum: Trump takes a new positive stance against Russia

President Trump took a more active foothold with Russia on Monday and pledged to use NATO allies to weapons to Ukraine and threatened to impose sanctions on Moscow’s trading partners.

Even if there is a 50-day prolonged sanctions to take effect, this is still a significant shift compared to the president.

Trump has long been skeptical of the pace and scale of U.S. aid to Ukraine.

He has been more than four months since he and Vice President Vance held a famous meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.

After this meeting, Zelensky was attacked for his so-called dissatisfaction and weakness in his bargaining position, which seemed almost certain of the suffocation of U.S. military aid to Kiev. In turn, this would also be equally inevitable in the war of Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion.

Now, the pictures look very different. Trump, as strategically for reasons of his performance, has become increasingly annoyed by Putin’s refusal to end the war.

Trump met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House on Monday, complaining that he liked the “very pleasant” call with Putin and just saw Russia “the missiles were extinguished that night.”

Putin’s double deal or unwise allegations of Putin’s slander have been at the heart of recent Trump remarks.

On Monday, he argued that Putin “had not deceived” him, even if he believed that the Russian leader had pulled the wool into the eyes of past Presidents Biden, Obama and George W. Bush.

Just last week, Trump made a similar point from his sharper words, saying: “If you want to know the truth, we get a lot of bulls – Putin throws at us.

Of course, the question now is how meaningful Trump’s own transformation will be.

The most obvious substantive move is to provide weapons, especially Patriot air defense systems.

The deals of those and other weapons that European NATO members will buy appear to resolve a central tension in the conflict. It allows Trump to significantly reduce the cost of the U.S. Treasury Department that provides military aid to Ukraine, while strengthening Ukraine’s defense and alleviating panic among European allies, believing that Trump’s isolation will invite greater Russian expansionism.

“We will send them weapons and they will pay for them. We are not buying it, but we will make it, and they will pay for them,” Trump said on Monday.

The Wall Street Journal cited two unnamed sources familiar with the upcoming weapon transfer, reporting that the package is worth about $10 billion.

The State Department said that the United States has provided nearly $67 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

The elements of the sanctions proposed on Monday were blurred.

Trump initially used the term “tariff” to describe his idea as a strategy to deepen Russia’s economic isolation. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick clarified that Trump actually implied economic sanctions on Moscow’s trading partners.

Those sanctions will take effect if no peace agreement is reached within Trump’s 50 days.

There are some obvious warnings.

Most obviously, given whether Trump’s tendency to move in unpredictable ways will follow.

The second is whether Putin tried to convince the president during that period, in fact, Ukraine was a more stubborn party.

Even Monday, when Trump showed lukewarmness on proposed Congressional legislation, which directly strengthened sanctions on Russia.

Even so, more hawkish members of the Republican Party, including Senator Lindsey Graham (RSS.C.), were enthusiastic about Trump’s obvious turnaround.

In the Republican circle, there are also some who believe that Trump’s instinctive isolationism is perceived by the success of recent air strikes on Iranian targets, which has left the United States with any casualties and no serious danger.

The American public also seems to have an appetite for stricter economic measures against Russia.

An economist/YouGov poll last month found that 44% of Americans surveyed favored sanctions on Russia, while 19% wanted to keep sanctions at their current levels, while only 15% wanted to reduce or eliminate sanctions.

Still uncertain, including Putin’s response to Monday’s announcement. And, of course, the biggest annoyance is how much concessions Russia or Ukraine is willing to make to end the war.

But Trump has long been ridiculed for his critics’ softness towards Putin, this time it’s a harder route than ever before.

This memorandum is a column reported by Niall Stanage.

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