Trump shifts weight behind Putin after tense meeting with Zelenskyy

U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled a shift in support toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin as he looks for a quick end to the war in Ukraine, likely striking fear into Ukrainian officials.

Trump held a tense meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, with the potential supply of U.S. long-range cruise missiles, Tomahawks, on the agenda.

Zelenskyy walked away from the meeting not only empty-handed, but apparently upbraided by Trump, who said Ukraine accept Russia’s terms for ending the war — by handing over the entire eastern territory of Donbas, the epicenter of ongoing fighting in Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters this weekend, Trump said for Donbas to be “cut the way it is.”

“It’s cut up right now, I think 78% of the land is already taken by Russia,” he said on Air Force One on Sunday. “They should stop right now at the battle lines … Go home, stop killing people and be done.”

In the meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump also warned the Ukrainian leader that Putin had told him — in a lengthy phone call on Thursday in which they agreed to hold in-person talks in Hungary — that Putin would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree to the demand.

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The meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy descended into a “shouting match,” the Financial Times reported, with Trump “cursing all the time,” according to unnamed people familiar with the matter cited by the FT.

In a Truth Social post, Trump described the meeting as “very interesting, and cordial,” but said he had “strongly suggested” to both leaders that it was time to end the war.

“Let both claim Victory, let History decide!” he said in the post Friday.

Zelenskyy put on a brave face, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” in an interview recorded Friday after the meeting with Trump, that “we are not losing this war, and Putin is not winning.” He also remained optimistic despite leaving the White House without the Tomahawk missiles he was coveting.

“It’s good that President Trump didn’t say ‘no,’ but for today, didn’t say ‘yes,’” Zelenskyy told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in the interview, which aired Sunday.

He also said he was ready to join Putin and Trump’s upcoming summit in Budapest, which could take place in the next few weeks. Whether Zelenskyy will be invited to Hungary remains to be seen, however.

As well as declining to provide Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine, which Trump had previously mooted in an apparent bid to bring Russia to the negotiating table, Trump also mused about giving security guarantees to both Kyiv and Moscow, Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the talks.

CNBC has contacted the White House for further comment and is awaiting a response.

Close followers of Trump-Putin-Zelenskyy relations fear the U.S. president is easily swayed by the veteran Russian leader’s arguments over Ukraine. They say Trump does not appear ready or willing to exert more pressure on Putin, be it in the form of more arms transfers to Kyiv, or more economic restrictions on Russia.

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“We keep dismissing Donald Trump as kind of ‘Everybody’s Fool’ because he’s so bombastic and says many things a mile a minute, but he actually is being very transactional about the relationship,” Nina Khrushcheva, The New School professor of international affairs, told CNBC “Squawk Box” Friday.

“Everybody keeps pulling him one side or another, be it the Russian side or Ukrainian side. But he’s not taking sides, and he’s really playing, interestingly, both hands.”

She noted that Trump still wants to win over Putin, but is also keeping him on a “tight leash,” demonstrated by his threat to give Ukraine more weapons.

“So far, I think it is working. He’s not giving either side what they wanted, but he keeps going, and eventually, potentially, they may agree to some sort of a peace agreement,” she said.

Michael O’Hanlon, director of foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution, told CNBC that Putin is likely to wait Trump out.

“I think it would be more effective [for Trump] to combine the military threat with greater economic pressure, but we’ll see maybe that comes later,” he noted Friday.

O’Hanlon said there were several ways the U.S. could ramp up the pressure on Moscow, including another U.S. aid package for Ukraine and a bigger crackdown on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers facilitating shipments of Russian oil to circumvent the oil price cap and sanctions.

“We don’t do much trading with Russia, but, of course, other countries do, and I think it’s time to talk to not just India, but also China about a strategy whereby they would consider reducing their interaction, their economic interaction, and you threaten secondary sanctions if you don’t get that kind of help,” he said.

“So those are the different pieces. Not all of them have to happen at the exact same minute, and they can happen. They can be phased in, but I think President Trump is a little too fixated on just the Tomahawks, plus his personal rapport with Putin, and I don’t think that’s going to be enough [to stop Russia].”