It took him more than 7 months as president to realize that Putin does not want peace. American leader Donald Trump learned who was good and who was bad in the war launched by Russia against Ukraine.
After intervening with 13 tons of bombs to restore troubled peace in the Middle East, the head of the White House was counting on resolving yet another conflict in the world. But a phone call with the Kremlin brought him back to earth and a conversation that went wrong with Russian President Vladimir Putin angered Trump to the point that even the words about him changed. In the early days of the presidency, he was praised as a leader who wanted peace, to serious warnings to stop the attacks on Ukraine, to official dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in peace negotiations, to the harshness of inappropriate language that he was fed up with Putin's bullshit. An exclusive audio published by CNN reveals another side of the negotiations that Trump conducts behind closed doors. "If it continues in Ukraine, I have no other alternative, Mr. Putin, I will bomb Moscow hard!" was the threat that the Republican had directed at the Kremlin leader, which he himself affirms in the secret audio belonging to 2024 at a campaign fundraising event. But what does all this change in the public and secret statements of the president of the free world signal?
"I told Putin: if you go into Ukraine, I will heavily bomb Moscow. I'm telling you because I have no other choice. Then he said to me: I don't trust you. But I know he trusted me 10 percent," Donald Trump's audio.
Trump later claimed to have given a similar warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping about a possible invasion of Taiwan, telling him the United States would bomb Beijing in response. “He thought I was crazy,” Trump said, before insisting he had never had a problem with him. The statements and audio released by CNN show the other side of the US president’s coin, practically the way he negotiates behind closed doors. The Kremlin has reacted to this threat issued by Trump, whose language has changed towards Vladimir Putin. Russia says the veracity of the article published by CNN about the threat to bomb Moscow is not guaranteed. “These days there is more fake news than real information. However, I can confirm that at that time there were no telephone conversations between Trump and Putin. We are talking about a time when Trump was not president of the United States,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. The latter also commented on the strong criticism that came from the Head of the White House, towards the Russian president, underlining that Moscow is calm regarding the strong statements. "We continue to improve the broken relations between Russia and the United States," said Peskov.
“Frustration is the word that comes to mind for this situation. Trump has spoken to Putin six times. It’s been about six months since Trump took office and he’s been trying to end this war, and he basically has nothing to show for it. Putin is not only unwilling to make peace, he’s stepped up his bombing campaigns in Ukraine. And so I think what you’re seeing here is that Trump is just running out of patience. I gave this guy a good chance to make peace, and he hasn’t picked up the baton yet. I think there’s probably a couple of other things at play. One is that he had a really good NATO summit, and I think behind the scenes, everyone was telling President Trump: Don’t put pressure on Ukraine. And the third thing that might be at play here is Iran, where Trump took the risk of joining Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, and that really worked. Now we have a whole new diplomatic landscape that’s opens up in the Middle East, and I think Trump understands that now. He has to put more pressure on Russia if he's going to make a deal in Ukraine. What happened here is you have a group in the Pentagon led by the chief of policy, his name is Bridge Colby, who for the last several years has been saying that we need to stop sending weapons to Ukraine. We need to focus on the great challenge of our time, and that's China. And I think he's the person who said, hey, the stockpiles are running low. We need to suspend these pending arms transfers. Whether Trump knew about it, it's unclear, but I think it's clear that when Trump found out and got frustrated after the phone call with Putin didn't go well and then Putin escalated the bombing campaign, he said, no, I'm going to turn that flow back on and now we have to wait and see. Now, if you watch Trump, read his body language, he's running out of patience and I think you understand that if he's going to get a deal from Putin, Ukraine has to stop Russia on the battlefield. For Ukraine to stop Russia on the battlefield, it will take a steady stream of American and European weapons. I think it depends more or less on the weapons system we’re talking about, but there’s no question that the United States has allowed its military-industrial complex to atrophy to the point where it simply can’t push a button and produce more Patriot missiles or more 155-millimeter artillery. And Europe is in the same situation.”
Another development that is being considered positive is the rapprochement that is taking place between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart. We all remember that first meeting in the Oval Office of the White House when the leader of the free world embarrassed Volodymyr Zelensky, with strong criticism that he should return the money to America and stop seeking new weapons. The dollars were returned, not in the form of hard currency, but by giving the United States access to Ukraine's underground resources. From the get-go, Washington understood that in this war, Kiev was the ally and strategic party, while Moscow was the aggressor who continues to take the lives of innocent people. The change of course has already begun, but it found the Pentagon unprepared. President Trump's order for the Department of Defense to continue arms shipments to Ukraine brought to the surface a decision that Secretary Pete Hegseth had made without approval from the White House. US media reports that President Trump is considering sending additional Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine, after vowing in recent days to strengthen Kiev against Russian attacks. He also directly threatened Putin with severe sanctions if he does not sit down at the table to accept peace. But how should these changes be read in the context of the war in Ukraine and what signals do they send to the Kremlin?
“By the fall, we understand that we have reserves. The military, always, by default, first accumulates reserves and then gradually uses them. And for this reason today it is impossible to completely abandon the American anti-missile system, especially the Patriot-3 Pact and other Patriots, nor American intelligence. It is precisely missile defense, ballistic ones, that unfortunately cannot be replaced by the SAMP/T complex, a Franco-Italian battery, the only system produced in Europe that can intercept ballistic missiles. In terms of quantity, the Patriot systems are the most widespread and effective, but still, it is a system for the armed forces. If any American administration comes now and says 'we are going to change this agreement, we are canceling this agreement, we are not going to fulfill our contractual obligations', then the same question arises as this winter, when we already had an arms embargo, remember. Is the US a reliable partner? Today, the issue of "The issue of sending weapons to Ukraine is a much broader issue, this is more of a global issue than European security, and Ukraine is the cornerstone of the European security structure itself," said Serhiy Kuzan | Center for Security and Cooperation, Ukraine.
While words are thrown here and there by the most powerful in the world, in Ukraine the flames of war have not been extinguished. The situation on the ground continues to change constantly, but only in favor of the aggressor, Russia. Meanwhile, the acts of war are not stopping, with Moscow carrying out the largest attack ever with over 700 drones and missiles launched at Kiev and other regions. Victims, injuries and massive material damage, consequences that convince Washington even more to come to the aid of Ukraine. Before changing his way of articulation, Trump assessed that the reality on the ground cannot be changed at the peace negotiation table, that is, that the occupied and annexed regions will remain with Russia. It is not known whether this will change, but Ukraine at the table demands that the borders remain those defined by the United Nations, which also include Crimea. Amid the uncertainty of division or a united country, President Zelensky is desperately seeking to get seized Russian rubles to rebuild his country, devastated by missiles, bombs, and drones launched by Putin's military. But what is really happening in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?
In a world shaken by the consequences of the war in Ukraine, the role of the United States remains not only crucial, but also historically defining for the fate of global peace and stability. As the war front continues to come to life and upset international balances, the question that arises forcefully is: what course will America follow in the months and years to come? In particular, how will this role change if President Donald Trump, with his harsh and often unpredictable rhetoric, decides to deepen the distancing from the traditional positions of the White House and hit Russia with strong criticism? Is the world facing a direct clash between the two nuclear superpowers – a scenario that has been carefully avoided so far, but which increasingly seems to be appearing on the horizon as a real danger? And if escalation becomes inevitable, who will stop the slide towards global catastrophe? How will peace be achieved in this tense phase, what is America doing on the diplomatic and military front, and is there still light at the end of the tunnel for a solution that avoids catastrophe? A battle between war and reason, as the world holds its breath. (A2 Televizion)
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