Analysis: Trump’s Rhetoric on Ukraine Aligns with Kremlin Narratives
Since his February 12 phone call with Vladimir Putin, President Donald Trump has increasingly echoed Russian talking points on Ukraine, The Gaze reports, citing the Bloomberg analysis.
Using AI tools to examine over 300 of Trump’s public comments and 3,000+ social media posts, researchers found notable alignment with Putin’s narratives on NATO, Crimea, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The shift began shortly after Trump’s Feb. 12 phone call with Putin, their first publicly disclosed conversation since Trump’s return to office. Just a day later, Trump dismissed Ukraine’s NATO ambitions as the cause of the war:
“They’ve said they cannot have Ukraine be in NATO… I actually think that that was the thing that caused the start of the war.”
That same position has been central to Putin’s justification for the 2022 invasion. On June 14, 2024, Putin told senior officials:
“They sought to transform Ukraine into their stronghold, an ‘anti-Russia’.”
Trump’s February 19 remarks went even further. Speaking at the FII Priority Summit, he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections,” echoing Putin’s long-standing narrative:
“Just like in 2014, the executive power in Ukraine has been usurped and is held illegally,” Putin said during a June 2024 ministry meeting.
Trump mirrored: “He refuses to have elections. He’s low in the real Ukrainian polls.” In fact, a poll published after those remarks showed Zelenskiy’s trust rating had increased to 65%, contradicting Trump’s claim.
Critics and former officials say the shift in tone is undeniable — and potentially deliberate. Fiona Hill, Trump’s former top Russia adviser, said: “Trump parrots Putin… He wants to get close to Putin.”
Despite multiple high-level US-Russia meetings, a peace deal has not yet materialized. Trump has publicly expressed frustration: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along,” he posted on April 26.
Read more on The Gaze: Why Recognizing Crimea as Russian Contradicts Decades of American Diplomacy