CNN's Dana Bash played a "very interesting" clip on Inside Politics of President Donald Trump admitting that he's been jerked around by Vladimir Putin over ending the war in Ukraine.
The clip was recorded during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, when Trump declared, "We get a lot of bull---- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."
Bash said that in the past month or two, we've "heard much tougher language from the president when it comes to Vladimir Putin than we did in the almost 10 years that he has been on the political scene."
Politico's Eli Stokols agreed, proclaiming that the soundbite was "10 years in the making."
"It's taken him 10 years to come to that point of view that a lot of...his predecessors and a lot of people in both parties, Republicans and Democrats, have had that view of Putin for a long time," Stokols said.
"What's changed, I'm told, is that the president's simply frustrated that Russia has shown no interest in his efforts to attempt to bring about negotiations to end the war."
Stokols cited Putin's increased bombing of Ukraine even after Volodymyr Zelensky accepted a 30-day ceasefire.
Stokols added, "I'm told he's been cooler to Putin in their phone conversations. They had a long conversation last week -- did not go very well. You heard the president afterwards saying he was frustrated. And, so, we are hearing the president's frustration rhetorically. We're not seeing that translate yet into any kind of response."
Bash interjected, "I would argue that the action is what he is doing vis-à-vis Ukraine. Meaning, that he is not listening to those in the MAGA wing of his party who don't want to have anything to do with Ukraine...but the fact that the president is now sort of allowing weapons once again to go from the U.S. to Ukraine, perhaps, is a way to send a message to Vladimir Putin."
