Trump says he's 'not happy' with Putin and blames him for 'killing a lot
of people' in Ukraine
[July 09, 2025]
By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's “not
happy” with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, saying Moscow's
ongoing war in Ukraine is “killing a lot of people” on both sides.
“I’m not happy with him, I can tell you that much right now. This is
killing a lot of people,” Trump said of Putin during a meeting with his
Cabinet.
The president also acknowledged that his previous suggestions that he
might be able to cajole Russia's president into bringing the fighting to
a close and quickly ending the war in Ukraine has “turned out to be
tougher.”
It was notable for a president who has all but aligned himself with
Putin at moments in the past and has praised the Russian leader
effusively at times — though less so in recent months.
The Cabinet meeting comments came a day after Trump said the United
States will now send more weapons to Ukraine — dramatically reversing a
previous announcement of a pause in critical, previously approved
firepower deliveries to Kyiv in the midst of concerns that America's own
military stockpiles have declined too much.
“We wanted (to) put defensive weapons (in). Putin is not, he's not
treating human beings right,” Trump said during the Cabinet meeting,
explaining the pause's reversal. "It's killing too many people. So we're
sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine and I've approved that.”
Trump’s decision to remove the pause follows his privately having
expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing a halt in
some deliveries last week — an action he felt wasn’t properly
coordinated with the White House, according to three people familiar
with the matter.
But the president refused to provide more details on that matter
Tuesday.
“I don’t know," he said sarcastically to a reporter who pressed him on
the weapons pause's original approval. "Why don’t you tell me?”
Still, his expressing open displeasure with Putin — especially after
approving a resumption of U.S. weapons to Ukraine — underscores how much
Trump's thinking on Russia and Ukraine policy has shifted since he
returned to the White House in January. It also lays bare how tricky
navigating the ongoing conflict has proved to be.
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President Donald Trump, center, speaking during a cabinet meeting
with from l-r., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Secretary
of Housing, Eric Scott Turner, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary
of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright at the White House, Tuesday, July
8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Trump suggested during last year's campaign that he could quickly
end the Russia-Ukraine war. But by April, he was using his Truth
Social account to exhort Putin to end military strikes on the
Ukrainian capital.
“Vladimir, STOP!” he wrote. But large-scale Russian attacks on
Ukraine have continued since then and Trump's public pronouncements
on Putin have continued to sour.
Trump said after a call last week with Putin that he was unhappy
with Russia's president and “I don’t think he’s looking to stop” the
war. Then, speaking at the start of a dinner he hosted for Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday
night, Trump said, “I’m not happy with President Putin at all.”
Asked during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting what his growing displeasure
with Putin might mean for U.S. foreign policy, Trump declined to
discuss specifics.
“I will say, the Ukrainians were brave. But we gave them the best
equipment ever made,” Trump said. He also said that without U.S.
weapons and military support, Russia's invasion of Ukraine in
February 2022 might have otherwise sparked what “probably would have
been a very quick war.”
“It would have been a war that lasted three or four days," he said,
“but they had the benefit of unbelievable equipment.”
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