U.S. President Donald Trump meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte (not pictured), on the day he announces a deal to get weapons to NATO, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard
President Donald Trump revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have "very lovely" conversations with him — and then turn around and attack Ukraine right after.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump vowed to place 100% secondary tariffs on Russia if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire in 50 days.
"How did you tell Putin this was coming?" one reporter asked.
"I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done," Trump explained. "And I always hang up and say, well, that was a nice phone call. And then missiles launched into Kiev or some other city. And I said, strange."
The president said he had come to believe that Putin's "talk doesn't mean anything."
"My conversations with him are always very pleasant," he remarked. "I say, isn't that a very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night. 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," Trump added. "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."
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