Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume on Monday suggested Donald Trump has long been deluded about Vladimir Putin but has hopefully had a “moment of truth” about the Russian president.
“The president has always had a very odd conception of Vladimir Putin,” the conservative commentator said. “I think he’s thought that he and Putin could be kind of friends and partners, and could make deals together and so on.”
“I don’t think Putin has changed. I don’t know what the president’s talking about. This is the way Putin has always been,” he added. “He’s always been a particularly brutal dictator willing to take whatever measures he thought necessary to advance his interest, whatever he thought he could get away with.”
“He’s the same old Vladimir Putin. So I hope the president has had ... a real moment of truth about him, and will proceed accordingly,” he added, noting that the U.S. could apply economic or military leverage—supplying Ukraine with more arms—to help “turn the tide.”
Hume’s comments follow a wild weekend tirade from Trump amid escalating Russian attacks on Ukraine and stalled ceasefire talks, just a week after Trump and Putin held a two-hour call. Trump on Sunday claimed in a Truth Social post he had “always had a very good relationship” with Putin, but “something has happened to him.”
“He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote.
The president, who has long claimed to have a friendly relationship with the authoritarian leader, boasted on the campaign trail that he would end Russia’s war on Ukraine in a day.
His failure to do so after more than four months in office seems to be getting under his skin. While he’s so far avoided applying meaningful economic pressure on Moscow, he said Sunday he was “absolutely” considering additional sanctions.
The Kremlin responded to Trump’s weekend outburst with a statement suggesting the comments might be the result of “emotional overload” during “a very crucial moment.”
Trump admitted last month it’s possible that maybe Putin “doesn’t want to stop the war”—and has perhaps been “tapping me along.”
