In a stunning moment of contradiction on Monday, Donald Trump laid out how Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly fooled him—then claimed Putin has never fooled him at all.
During an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump described how he often has “nice” calls with Putin just before Russia launches deadly attacks on Ukrainian cities.
“I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done and I always hang up and say, well, that was a nice phone call, and then missiles launched into Kyiv or some other city,” Trump said.
“I go home, I tell the first lady, you know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She said, ‘Oh, really? Another city was just hit.’ So it’s like, look, he’s ― I don’t want to say he’s an assassin, but he’s a tough guy.”
But right after laying out how Putin has misled him repeatedly, Trump turned around and bragged that Putin never tricked him—unlike past U.S. presidents.
“He’s fooled a lot of people. He fooled Bush. He fooled a lot of people. He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn’t fool me,” Trump said.
The meeing was meant to highlight Trump’s new stance on Russia. He announced that he would impose “secondary tariffs” if Putin doesn’t agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine within 50 days. Trump also said he approved the sale of U.S. military gear to Ukraine—paid for by European NATO countries—including Patriot missile systems.
Later, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick corrected Trump’s wording, saying he meant “secondary sanctions,” not tariffs. Those penalties would target foreign governments or businesses helping Russia fund its war by continuing to trade with it.
Still, Trump doubled down, threatening tariffs of 100% or more on countries that keep doing business with Russia. He referenced a bipartisan sanctions bill in Congress that, he claimed, gives him power to raise tariffs up to 500%.
In reality, the bulk of that bill—backed by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal—focuses on banking and financial sanctions, not trade tariffs.
Trump’s sudden tough talk on Russia marks a sharp turn from his previous behavior.
In 2019, he tried to pressure Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, into launching an investigation into Joe Biden by withholding military aid approved by Congress. That scheme got Trump impeached. Most Republican senators refused to convict him.
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, Trump praised Putin as “savvy” and a “genius,” even as missiles were already falling on residential areas. Later, Trump blamed Biden for the war. Then he blamed Zelenskyy. Only recently has he started assigning blame to Putin himself.
Even now, Trump seemed to admire Putin’s aggression.
“Russia has really taken a very positive, very, very strong ― I mean, what they’ve done the last couple of weeks,” Trump said.
Rutte quickly stepped in to push back.
“This is not because of military goals. It is just creating panic, getting people out of their sleep, hitting towns,” Rutte said. “It’s really terrible and it is meaning a lot of people lose their lives.”
Trump shrugged it off and returned to his old line about the 2020 election.
“It was Biden’s war,” he said. “The election was rigged.”
So in the span of a few minutes, Trump explained how Putin misleads him with “nice” conversations before killing civilians—then insisted Putin has never fooled him.
Watch the clip below:
