By any fair measure, Donald Trump ensured that Wednesday was a very good day for Russia’s Vladimir Putin. The Republican president, among other things, publicly vouched for Putin’s interest in peace, despite the devastating war in Ukraine that the Russian leader began and can end at any time.
Trump also declared that he expects Russia to keep at least some of the land Putin took from Ukraine by force, hedged on whether he considers Ukraine an equal member of the peace process, and again suggested that Russia’s invasion was Ukraine’s fault.
As Wednesday came to an end, former White House national security adviser John Bolton told CNN, “Putin has scored a whole series of victories today. It’s hard to encompass them all.” The former Trump aide added, “They’re drinking vodka straight out of the bottle in the Kremlin tonight. It was a great day for Moscow.”
After another embarrassing display in the White House, the next day was pretty great for Moscow, too.
Over the course of a single afternoon, Trump once again declared that Putin “wants peace,” all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding; once again vouched for the Russian leader’s trustworthiness; blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Joe Biden; suggested Barack Obama might also bear responsibility for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; and hedged when asked what Russia should give up in negotiations with Ukraine.
In case that weren’t quite enough, Trump also apparently has a gift in mind for his counterpart in Moscow. NBC News reported:
Trump lamented the fact that Russia was thrown out of the G8 international group as he answered questions from reporters in the Oval Office. “I’d love to have them back,” he said. “I think it was a mistake to throw them out.”
Russia, of course, was suspended from the international organization after it annexed Crimea in 2014. The idea was to impose a diplomatic punishment. More than a decade later, the Republican president apparently prefers the idea of a diplomatic reward.
Note, Trump added that Putin “would love to be back” in the G7. Though he didn’t elaborate on how, exactly, he knew this to be true, it suggests the two leaders spoke privately about the subject.
For the record, this was not the first time the president broached the subject. Trump first called on the G7 to readmit Russia into the group in 2018, sparking domestic and international pushback. The American president made a related effort in 2020, which went nowhere.
Trump has a notoriously short attention span, but it appears that on this issue, he’s persistent.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that Trump has helped spark “elation in Moscow,” and there’s no great mystery as to why.