European Leader Shares A Very Alarming Take On What Trump Really Means To Russia

President Donald Trump, right, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands during a joint press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.The Portuguese president claimed this week that Donald Trump is a “Russian asset”.The US president has repeatedly taken Vladimir Putin’s side in his attempts to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war, upending years of western unity over the Russian invasion.Speaking on Wednesday at the PSD Summer University, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said: “With one peculiar and complex thing — the supreme leader of the world’s greatest superpower is, objectively, a Soviet or Russian asset. He functions as an asset.”In comments broadcast by CNN, he added: “Objectively, the new US leadership has strategically favoured the Russian Federation.”A special counsel investigation into Trump’s possible connections with Russia was launched during his first term, but it found no evidence he was ever recruited by Russian security services.But Sousa still criticised the US president’s inaction towards Russia and lack of support for Ukraine.He pointed out that the US makes “terrible threats” to impose sanctions on Russia, but Trump is yet to impose any further trade impediments. Sousa also claimed the US president is trying to negotiate a peace deal with just “one of the teams”, meaning Ukraine and its European allies have to “impose themselves” on the White House to make sure their own demands are included.But the continent is not entirely blameless either, according to the European leader.He said Europe has “downplayed Mr Trump and Trumpism”, and did not consider the real possibility of “suddenly having a new balance of power” after the Democrats lost the 2024 presidential elections.His words are at stark contrast to the kind of sentiment publicly expressed by other European officials.The UK prime minister Keir Starmer, French president Emmanuel Macron and Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte have all praised Trump, claiming he helped break a deadlock in the war by hosting Putin in Alaska earlier this month.Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also thanked Trump repeatedly for all of his help – even though the US president is yet to make any serious headway towards a peace deal.However, outside the government, there is growing concern over the US president’s response to the war.For instance, former Conservative defence secretary Grant Shapps, who lost his MP seat last year, told Times Radio on Friday that Trump “has had the wool pulled over his eyes by Putin”.He claimed the US president has been “incredibly naive about Putin’s intentions, which have always been to continue this war”.Shapps also questioned why Trump thought it was “OK to deal with a dictator invading a democracy in the same way – or perhaps giving him more – actually a lot more respect than he gave to the democratic country.”“I think that should worry us all,” he said. Like Sousa, he blamed Europe for allowing the US to take the reins, although he said it was down to a lack of investment in defence – and “unfortunately, we’ve got a president who rolls out the red carpet for an internationally indicted war criminal in Putin.”Related...'We Are Out Of Time': Trump Sent A Bleak Reality Check After Putin's Deadly Kyiv AttackTrump’s White House Is ‘Bothsidesing' Putin’s Bloody Attacks On Ukraine'My Heart Is Just Breaking': Ukraine Mourns After Russia's Deadly Kyiv Strike Kills 15 People

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