“Putin is approaching the burning of the golden bridge.” Donald Trump loses patience. Backstage of agitation in Washington
“Putin is dangerously approaching the burning of the Golden Bridge, which Trump developed before him,” said the administration officer of Trump, who wanted to remain anonymous to share the details about the current plans of the president.
Fred Fleitz, vice -chairman of the Republican Thinn Tank America First Policy Institute, which is closely related to the Trump administration, confirms the impatience of the president and claims that the breakthrough in his approach to Putin is close.
According to four American officials, Trump has not yet decided whether to impose additional sanctions on Moscow in response to the severity of Putin's attacks on Ukraine.
Although Trump's administration officials, which were talked about by Politico journalists, see the possibility of imposing further sanctions on Russia, the president himself has not yet decided to take this step. Although Trump is apparently frustrated by the fact that Putin disregarded his proposal to reset the US relations after the conclusion of a peace agreement, he still did not decide to change tactics.
Supporters of Ukraine on Capitol progress carefully, calling on the White House to consider the realization of threats to Putin and introduce new sanctions. Allies in Europe, in the face of the possibility that Trump can withdraw from peace conversations without punishing Russia, try to determine how they could take the initiative in the matter of support for Ukraine.
“Vladimir Putin does not realize that if it wasn't for me, Russia would have had really bad things, and it's really bad,” Trump wrote on Tuesday, May 27 in a pole on Truth Social. “He Igra with fire!”
On Sunday, May 25, Trump told journalists that “absolutely” considers the introduction of additional economic sanctions against Russia, and in a post on social media he wrote that Putin “completely went crazy”.
From the beginning of his term, the president has repeatedly threatened Russia, but he never took specific actions and did not increase the pressure on Moscow, despite the fact that Putin repeatedly provided Trump about the support for peace, while intensifying the bombing of Ukraine.
– I am very, very skeptical now, whether Trump will ever apply any serious sanctions or resources to Russia. He had so many opportunities to do this, but he always withdrew – said Kurt Volker, who during Trump's first term served as a special envoy for Ukraine.
“Sanctions will hurt American companies”
Many of Trump's attacks on Putin were alleviated by sharp words at other people. On Sunday, Trump wrote that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelnski and former President Joe Biden bear part of the responsibility for the war started by Putin, which has been going on for the fourth year.
“This war is the fault of Joe Biden, and President Trump clearly hinted that he wanted to negotiate a peace agreement.” President Trump wisely left all the options open – said in a statement for Politico the press spokeswoman of the White House Karoline Leavitt.
Fred Fleitz, vice -chairman of the Republican Think Tank America First Policy Institute, closely related to the administration, praised Trump for “making every effort to solve this problem”, but stated that “if for some reason it is impossible to achieve it, the failure would belong to Biden.”
Fleitz said that Trump's patience towards Putin ends. Stated:
According to two people from the Circle of the President of the USA, when Trump talked last week with several European leaders after telephone conversations with Zelanski and Putin, he seemed to justify Putin's reluctance to take peace talks. Trump hypothesized that Putin could have refused to talk about suspension of weapons after the threats of new economic sanctions from Europe and the United States.
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin during telephone conversations (illustrative photos)
Despite Trump's frustration towards Putin, he gave Europeans it is clear to understand that he did not support sanctions and hoped that he would manage the Russian leader to take action without pressure. European leaders hope that Trump begins to understand that the mild approach to the Kremlin will not work, and adapt its strategy.
The American official stated that some members of the administration and people outside told Trump that “sanctions would harm American companies and pus the Russia away from conversations.”
“Russia wants to trade with the United States”
Several republican legislators currently support the threats of Trump's sanctions.
The Republican management of the Senate is supported by a two -party bill on sanctions, but is waiting for the formal consent of Trump that this law will support. Without his blessing, Republicans are afraid that the project can be rejected in the House of Representatives, where management does not want to expose the president. And if Trump had formally against further sanctions, it could weaken support for the act or force Republicans to formally break with Trump.
The leader of the majority in the Senate John Thune said that the Sanctions Act would easily go through the Senate and that its submission to the meeting. However, he is careful not to overtake the administration.
“If Russia does not get involved in serious diplomacy, the Senate will cooperate with the administration to consider additional sanctions,” he said last week.
Senator John Barrasso (Republican of Wyoming), the second -ranking republican in the Senate, added in Tuesday's post to X that “if Russia is playing delay, the Senate would take definite actions to lead to a lasting peace.”
However, Thune has to face the growing pressure of members of his party who want to take sanction activities, even if Trump does not agree. According to two participants of the talks who wanted to maintain anonymity, Republican Senators discussed the draft sanction act last week.
Senator Kevin Cramer said on Tuesday, May 27 that he sees Thune's possibility for Thune to submit a law without Trump's consent, although he added that the leader would prefer a signal from the White House.
“We want to be part of the solution and give the president an advantage, but it is not that he does not know what we are going to do,” said Cramer.
Republicans largely left pressure on Trump regarding subsequent sanctions against Russia Senator Lindsey Graham. The Republican from South Carolina marked on Tuesday in a letter to the Wall Street Journal that he worked closely with the administration on refining the draft law on sanctions.
Graham recently traveled with the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and said that he used this journey to talk about the draft law on sanctions and tell foreign allies that the Senate is “an independent organ and that we are heading towards Putin's pulling to responsibility.”
European officials and long -time Russian observers note that Moscow is trying to separate the war in Ukraine from wider relations between the USA and Russia, in which both Putin and Trump see the significant potential of economic rapprochement.
– It seems to us that the Russians would like to separate these two topics. One of them is relations between Russia and the USA. The second, separate topic is Ukraine – said one of the European officials in an interview with Politico.
Representatives of the USA and Russia suggested that the normalization of relations between these countries after the end of peace talks can bring lucrative possibilities.
“Russia wants to conduct extensive trade with the United States when this catastrophic” bloody slaughter “ends, and I agree with this” – wrote Trump in social media after the last telephone conversation with Putin.
