Why Trump may be about to reveal his true colours on Ukraine and Putin

Donald Trump is losing patience with attempts to secure peace after trying for just three months. What he does next could result in another earth-shattering blow to the free world

Given Donald Trump had claimed he would end the Ukraine War within a single day, we should perhaps be grateful his administration has persisted with efforts to secure peace for almost 90.

However, it seems his patience is running out, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying that, while the US administration was “prepared to do whatever we can to facilitate” the end of the war, "if it's not possible... then I think the president's probably at a point where he's going to say, well, we're done”.

Given the pressure that Trump has put on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the lack of similar pressure on Vladimir Putin, and his parroting of Russian propaganda, the definition of “we’re done” is of extreme concern.

Trump himself said later “if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say, 'you're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people,' and we're going to just take a pass” on peace talks. The question is, who will he blame?

Trump, who falsely called Zelensky a “dictator”, recently backtracked on his equally false claim that Ukraine started the war, saying he did not hold Zelensky personally responsible. However Trump then said he was “not happy with him... I’m not a big fan”.

Donald Trump pictured with Vladimir Putin in 2017 during the US President's first term of office (Picture: Mikhail Klimentyev) | SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images

Trump’s ‘weasel language’

The most hopeful analysis of Trump’s remarks and his threat to walk away from the peace talks is that this is part of a negotiating strategy by a self-declared business genius who uses tactics few others can understand.

Pessimists will point out that Trump has so far entirely failed to dissuade Russia from continuing the war and that his claim the recent Russian missile strike on Sumy was a “mistake” made him sound like a Putin apologist.

Speaking on the One Decision podcast, Grant Shapps, a former Conservative Defence Secretary, compared this remark to the “weasel language we used to hear… from the IRA”. He added he was “disgusted” by the idea that “the leader of the free world cannot tell the difference between the dictator who locks up and murders his opponents and invades innocent, democratic countries, and the country itself that has been invaded”.

Trump’s claim he would end the war in a day was never anything but an empty boast. We’re about to find out what stance he will take after abandoning his perfunctory attempt to secure peace. If Shapps is right, the free world should prepare for yet another earth-shattering blow.