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Remember when Joe Biden was facing off against Vladimir Putin?
Questioned about the Russian leader’s threats, old Joe memorably said: “Don’t.” Take that Vladimir. On another occasion, a year into the war, Biden got really tough: “I don’t have time” he warned Putin, before saying that the Russian dictator had made a “Big mistake.” Oof.
But today, President Trump continued Biden’s approach.
His reaction to one of the biggest missile attacks in the past year was to tell Vladimir Putin: “STOP.”
As if Putin is listening.
Seven weeks ago, on March 7th, Trump wrote that Russia was absolutely “pounding” Ukraine on the battlefield. In response, he said: “I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED.” He threatened to do this unless Russia and Ukraine “get to the table right now, before it is too late.”
The US President hoped that his Russian counterpart would respect some red lines. After speaking with the Russian President on March 18th Trump wrote that they had “agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure.”
Yet no sooner had Trump said this than Putin ordered one of the biggest strikes to date on Ukraine’s energy facilities.
On March 30, Trump told NBC News that if Russia proved “unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine” then he — Trump — was “going to put secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia.”
Since then US trade tariffs have been announced against almost every country on earth. Apart from Russia.
There is a good argument for Trump’s tariffs. The president, his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and others have been making that case. But when it comes to any threats against Russia there hasn’t been one that the US administration has followed up on.
Perhaps this is why the Kremlin seems to be defying President Trump time and time again.
Vladimir Putin knows — because President Trump has made it clear — that he wants the fighting in Ukraine to stop.
Along with his vice president, Trump has very publicly beaten up Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in front of the whole world. But it is President Putin who has kept defying President Trump’s orders to stop the killing.
In the early hours of Thursday morning Russia launched more than 200 drones and ballistic missiles at Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainian air force managed to shoot down around half of the missiles, but others landed. It was one of the deadliest nights in Kyiv since the beginning of the war, with more than a dozen people killed and over 100 injured.
In response to this President Trump said that he was “not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv,” said that it was “very bad timing” and asked Vladimir Putin to “STOP.”
President Trump came into office promising to get a peace deal done in the Middle East as well as in Ukraine.
It was always going to be one of his toughest promises.
Because there are plenty of things that are under the control of the US President.
For instance Trump has shown that the Southern Border of the United States does not have to be some turnstile through which everyone in the world can walk. Similarly the United States does not have to just let gang members and murderers and rapists who broke into this country just stay here. With his border czar, Tom Homan, he has shown that many things the Biden administration put up with, allowed and even encouraged do not have to stand.
But on the international stage there is a risk that the US is being outplayed.
Because dictators like Vladimir Putin do not always play by the rules. Nor do they respond to the language that, say, a Prime Minister of Norway might respond to. The Russian dictator — like the Ayatollahs and Mullahs who misgovern Iran — march to a different beat.
If you doubt that, just consider how the Ayatollahs have reacted to Trump while he was out of office and since he has been back.
In February 2023 Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh (the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Government’s Aerospace Force) boastfully threatened Trump on Iranian state television. Talking of Trump’s spectacular killing of General Qassem Soleimani the General said: “God willing, we are looking to kill Trump.”
On the fifth anniversary of Soleimani’s death, the Deputy Commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi said: “Trump has rendered the greatest service to the terrorist movement in the world, and he must pay for this.
“At the same time — long after Trump had been voted back into office — another Iranian military commander announced that “America has not yet received its full answer” for the Soleimani strike.
Soleimani’s military successor said that “Trump and others are all known to us” and that “they are all under the microscope.” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said that Trump should either be tried in a court or “Muslims will take our martyr’s revenge.” And Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei even dared to publish on his official website an animation of Trump being targeted by an Iranian drone.
The world is at its safest when dictators and tyrants fear America and its president. It is not clear that either Russia or Iran do.
Maybe the problem is the man Trump has sent as his envoy for solving both wars — Steve Witkoff.
Witkoff has an excellent reputation in New York real estate. But in the Middle East and Russia he seems to be learning on his feet. As a result the Kremlin, the Iranian Ayatollahs, Qatar and Hamas seem to be running rings around him.
To be fair, Witkoff´s role is probably too big a job for any one man to do. But it would be a good change of tone if Iran, Russia and other US adversaries felt even a smidgen of the pressure this administration has gleefully leveraged against our allies.