President Trump and Russian officials are engaged in a war of words, a sign of escalating tensions between the two powers as Trump grows increasingly frustrated over the lack of progress toward a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Trump has in recent days posted on social media that Russian President Vladimir Putin had gone “absolutely CRAZY” and warned he was “playing with fire” with continued strikes on Ukrainian cities.
Moscow, meanwhile, has issued coy responses to Trump as they carry out deadly strikes against Kyiv, cautioning the U.S. president against “emotional overload” and warning that the only bad outcome would be “WWIII.”
Lawmakers in both parties have used the shift in tone to urge Trump to take a tougher stance through sanctions on Russia, while experts argued it was still unclear whether the president would match his stronger rhetoric with action.
“We’re going to find out whether he’s tapping us along or not. And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently. But it will take about a week and a half, two weeks,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday when asked if he thought Putin wanted to end the war.
“They seem to want to do something, but until the document is signed, I can't tell you. Nobody can,” Trump added. “I can say this – that I'm very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation."
Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022 after amassing troops near the border for weeks. Tens of thousands of troops on both sides of the conflict have been killed in the more than three years since.
Trump campaigned in 2024 on a pledge that he would end the war in Ukraine before even taking the oath of office. But he has found it more difficult than expected to strike a peace deal, and he has lashed out in recent months at both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump aides have met separately with officials from both Russia and Ukraine, and Russian and Ukrainian officials spoke directly earlier this month for the first time since the war began. While Ukrainian leaders have said they would back a 30-day ceasefire, Russia has not shown a serious interest in any kind of pause in fighting.
In recent days, Trump’s ire has been directed mostly at Putin. Trump has in the past drawn intense scrutiny from Democrats for his friendly approach to the Russian leader and his desire for good relations with Moscow.
But Trump’s patience appeared to be wearing thin as Putin launched a barrage of strikes on Ukrainian cities in recent days while the U.S. pushed for a detente.
The president claimed Tuesday that he was the reason “lots of really bad things” had not happened to Russia. That came two days after Trump said Putin was “needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers.”
Some experts see Trump’s newfound frustrations as a change in tone.
“I do think it’s a shift, and one that may be designed to send a signal to Putin that Trump is not going to write him a blank check,” said Brett Bruen, a former diplomat who was director of global engagement in the Obama White House. “Whether or not he’ll accept something far short of what is smart remains an open question.”
Bruen likened Trump’s back-and-forth with Putin to his first-term dalliance with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which shifted between bombastic rhetoric that raised the specter of conflict and two in-person summits that presented a chance at diplomacy but ultimately yielded limited results.
Senators in both parties, perhaps sensing an opening with Trump’s public frustration with Russia, have urged the president to take a firmer posture toward Moscow.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Trump should take “decisive action” against Putin like he has done in cutting off federal grants for Harvard University.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally and a leading backer of a bill in the Senate that would impose additional sanctions on Russia, argued Tuesday that Putin has shown he is “not willing” to end the war.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Wednesday that the U.S. “must join our allies in levying new sanctions on Russia to intensify the economic pressure.”
Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday that Trump indicated during a recent meeting in the Vatican that he supported additional sanctions on Russia.
“Our conversation was positive from the point of view that I perceive our conversation as a confirmation of the U.S. policy of imposing strong sanctions against Russia if Putin does not agree to a ceasefire,” Zelensky said.
While lawmakers and foreign leaders waited to see if Trump’s tough talk toward Putin would lead to action, the U.S. president has signaled he may feel the need to meet with the Russian leader face-to-face for there to be any clear progress.
Trump shrugged off Putin’s absence at negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey earlier this month, arguing there was no reason for Putin to attend if Trump himself would not be there.
Trump has talked repeatedly about a potential in-person summit with Putin this summer, though the timing and location of any such meeting is still up in the air.
Experts cautioned that it plays to Putin’s advantage the longer the U.S. continues to bide its time.
“He’s learning how difficult this kind of diplomacy with the Kremlin is,” Bruen said. “I think he’s significantly underestimated what is a pretty shrewd actor in the case of Putin.”
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