Trump's attempts to threaten Putin over missile attacks on Ukraine fall flat -- other than providing amusement for members of Russia's state media

Vladimir Solovyov interviews Putin on state TV (Rossiya-1)

 

Donald Trump continues to voice his displeasure with Vladimir Putin's aggressive and deadly tactics against Ukraine. But we have seen little sign that Trump's complaints have had any impact in Putin's home country -- aside from providing a collective chuckle for members of the Russian state media. 

In a jointly published article, The New Republic (TNR) and Yahoo! News examine the current fragile state of the U.S. relationship with its longtime chief adversary. Under the headline "Russian Media Mocks Trump’s Pathetic Attempt to Threaten Putin,"  Hafiz Rashid writes: 

Donald Trump has resorted to vague threats against Vladimir Putin in the hopes of getting him to agree to a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The president posted to Truth Social Tuesday morning claiming that if it wasn’t for him, “lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” accusing the Russian president of “playing with fire.”

Trump told the press on Sunday that he was “not happy with what Putin’s doing.”

“He’s killing a lot of people, and I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin. I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all,” Trump said. “We’re in the middle of talking and he’s shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don’t like it at all.”

Trump’s comments follow Russia’s largest drone and missile attack on Ukraine since the start of the invasion in 2022, with a barrage of bombs falling on Kyiv over the weekend. Putin hasn’t officially responded to Trump’s post, but Russian state media mocked the president.

The RT TV Network (formerly Russia Today) is based in Moscow and funded by the Russian government. It recently posted the following, according to a screenshot from Ron Filipowski, an attorney, former prosecutor and Marine, and current editor-in-chief of the Meidas Touch Network:

The TNR/Yahoo! piece provides more examples of Russian media reacting with amusement to Trump's exhortations. They also seem to find a tad of hypocrisy in his words. Rashid writes:

Russian state television dismissed the idea of an immediate ceasefire, with one host asking, “Why would we stop? The enemy is strong and cunning, and we are winning.” TV host Vladimir Solovyov also belittled the U.S.-European alliance, pointing out that Trump was pushing high 50 percent tariffs against the European Union.

Trump has long been deferential to Putin, irking Democrats and even some Republicans, and Putin probably feels as though Trump can do nothing to pressure him. And why would he? Trump has a long history of giving Putin whatever he wants. Meanwhile, Russia continues to bombard Ukraine no matter what Europe or the U.S. says.