President Donald Trump’s phone calls with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, often last for hours because of the Kremlin’s leader’s penchant for launching into long, grievance-based monologues, according to a new report.
Trump is currently seeking an in-person meeting with Putin in an attempt to thrash out an end to the war in Ukraine, which the president pledged to wrap up within 24 hours of returning to the White House in January.
Trump and Putin have held “multiple calls and passed numerous messages through intermediaries” of late, according to officials cited by The Wall Street Journal.
Their conversations are “typically friendly,” the WSJ’s sources said. Still, whereas Trump likes to talk up the prospect of improved U.S.-Russian relations through enhanced economic cooperation, Putin commonly “lists his grievances and core desires,” such as the international community’s refusal to recognize his country’s claims over Crimea and the Donbas.
His “lengthy” diatribes and the need for translation can cause the calls to drag on, White House aides said, occasionally testing Trump’s patience.
“Putin does this very methodically,” said John Bolton, Trump’s estranged former national security adviser from the first term.
“He’s very knowledgeable, he knows what he’s talking about. When he wants to try and influence somebody, he just talks and talks and talks.”
“Putin’s done his homework. He’s had years of figuring out who Trump is,” added former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill.
The American started this year by rebuking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office for his supposed ingratitude towards his foreign allies for their support, but has lately pivoted to expressing his frustration with Putin.
He complained recently: “I go home, I tell the first lady, ‘And I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.’ She said, ‘Oh, really? Another city was just hit.’”
With the war still rumbling on and Trump said to be privately furious at the failure to make progress, he has begun to threaten other countries that buy oil from the aggressor with higher tariffs, notably hitting out at India and China for, as he sees it, thwarting his efforts to drive Putin to the negotiating table.
Fox News’ White House Correspondent Peter Doocy reported on Thursday that the Trump administration was “really optimistic” that the meeting between the two presidents “might happen next week.” However, his choice of words implied it was still uncertain.
Doocy added that none of the advanced logistical work had yet been done by the State Department to prepare for such an encounter, noting that planning of that nature would generally take place “at least a couple of weeks” before it is required to be put into action.
He also said that no location had yet been decided, with Putin expressing a preference for the UAE, but that Trump would probably prefer to host the Russians at his Doral golf resort near Miami, Florida, a suggestion made only partly in jest.
