From praising Putin to Patriots for Ukraine: What is behind Trump’s big u-turn?

United States President Donald Trump’s position on the war in Ukraine is changing.

On Monday, Trump announced a major shift in how military assistance to Ukraine would be managed.

In an Oval Office meeting with Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the US president unveiled a plan under which Nato countries would finance the purchase of American-made weapons to support Ukraine’s defence.

“We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them,” Trump said, referring to a proposal initially put forward by Ukraine and now embraced by Nato leadership.

The model would involve European nations paying billions of dollars for equipment produced by the US defence sector, thereby easing the financial burden on the United States.

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Rutte praised the agreement as “really big,” calling it proof that Europe was “stepping up.” Trump stressed that the weapons, including Patriot missile systems, would be “the best in the world,” and highlighted the economic benefit to American arms manufacturers.

“We’re in it for a lot of money and we don’t want to do it anymore,” Trump remarked, reiterating that the war began before he returned to office. “This is not Trump’s war. We’re here to try and get it finished and settled.”

The plan allows Nato members to count these expenditures toward a newly adopted goal of spending 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035.

Countries such as Germany, Finland, Canada, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Denmark are among those participating. According to Rutte, some weapons would be fast-tracked to Ukraine and replaced later with US-built versions.

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The actual financial scale of this programme remains unclear, as Trump did not mention specific figures.

However, any package valued at over $10 billion would likely signal a serious commitment, especially in contrast to the $67 billion in aid provided under US President Joe Biden over nearly three years.

How Trump has changed his tone towards Putin

Once confident that he could swiftly broker a peace agreement between Kyiv and Moscow, Trump now appears increasingly disillusioned with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose military continues to target Ukrainian cities despite repeated diplomatic overtures.

This marks a dramatic shift for Trump, who during his 2016 campaign had described Putin in admiring terms, calling him “savvy” and “a genius” for his aggressive geopolitical manoeuvres.

Even after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Trump continued to maintain that he “got along with him really well,” despite characterising Russian attacks on civilians and the abduction of Ukrainian children as “terrible.”

However, Trump’s recent public statements signal deepening discontent. Speaking on July 7, the US president said, “I’m not happy with President Putin at all.”

A week earlier, following a phone call with the Russian leader that yielded no progress, he told reporters: “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth.”

Expressing frustration over what he called duplicity, Trump added, “He talks nice, and then he bombs everybody in the evening.”

How Trump is warming up to Zelenskyy

The U-turn is also reflected in Trump’s changing dynamic with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At the beginning of his second term, Trump displayed scepticism toward Ukraine’s leadership.

In February, the two leaders had a contentious exchange during a televised meeting in the Oval Office. Trump criticised Zelenskyy and halted military aid and intelligence sharing shortly after, contributing to what appeared to be a deterioration in bilateral relations.

Over the course of several months, the Pentagon paused arms shipments to Ukraine on three separate occasions.

One of the most recent pauses took place in July when US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and policy chief Elbridge Colby stopped the transfer of air defence munitions sitting in Poland, a move that caught both US State Department officials and European allies by surprise.

Yet Zelenskyy refrained from publicly escalating tensions. Instead, he expressed hope that the US president would eventually recognise the futility of negotiating with Putin. That hope now appears validated.

In recent days, Zelenskyy reported a renewed conversation with Trump, stating that they had “discussed the necessary means and solutions… to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions.”

The Ukrainian leader added that Trump had “agreed to catch up more often by phone and coordinate our steps in the future.”

Trump gives Putin an ultimatum… again

In a further escalation, Trump announced that unless a peace agreement is reached within 50 days, his administration would impose “100 percent” tariffs on Russia.

He also floated the idea of secondary tariffs on Russia’s trading partners as a way to intensify economic pressure and isolate Moscow globally.

These proposals represent a departure from Trump’s earlier views. At various points since his re-election, Trump seemed to believe that Putin was genuinely interested in peace.

As recently as March, he said, “I believe him. I think we’re doing very well with Russia.”

He also dispatched envoys to Saudi Arabia to discuss potential peace deals with Russian surrogates — negotiations that notably excluded Ukraine.

Trump’s comments during the recent Nato summit suggest those assumptions have been replaced by a more pragmatic and confrontational stance. “They have to be able to defend themselves,” he said of Ukraine.

“They’re getting hit very hard. Now they’re getting hit very hard. We’re going to have to send more weapons, defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess.”

So what may have changed Trump’s mind?

Several factors appear to have influenced Trump’s recalibration. First is the absence of progress despite multiple conversations with Putin.

Trump said he believed he had reached agreements on four separate occasions, only to see “bombs… thrown out that night.” This pattern convinced him that the Russian leader was not serious about peace.

Second may have been Trump’s wife Melania Trump who challenged his optimism about Putin after learning about Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.

“She said: ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit,’” Trump recalled, describing how her reaction led him to reassess his approach.

Third, strategic pressure from Nato and Ukraine has likely shaped the White House’s decisions.

At the recent Nato summit, air defence emerged as a key focus. Ukraine presented a plan for European countries to fund US weapons — a plan now adopted by the Trump administration.

While Trump continues to maintain that the war must end and that Europe must carry more of the burden, he now backs a multinational effort to sustain Ukraine’s defence.

“They feel strongly about it and we feel strongly about it, too,” he said, echoing a new-found alignment with European partners.

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With inputs from agencies