Putin Has Pulled The Wool Over Trump's Eyes Before. Will He Do It Again?

Vladimir Putin and Donald TrumpDonald Trump made it clear last week – Vladimir Putin’s chance to end the war in Ukraine will expire this Friday.The US president said if his Russian counterpart did not stop his brutal invasion, then he would impose full-scale sanctions on Russia.To prove he meant it, Trump followed through on his threat of slapping secondary sanctions on countries who still buy Russia’s cheap oil exports this week.He imposed a 25% tariff on Indian exports to the States, set to kick in later this month, because, according to the Trump, India “doesn’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”.Then the US’s special envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Russia for three hours of mysterious talks with Putin on Wednesday.Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, right, shake hands during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025.So, when the Kremlin says Putin plans to meet with Trump “in the coming days”, it definitely seems like that the White House’s threats have forced the Russian leader to cave.But the Russian president has played Trump before – and there’s no suggestion that he will not just do it again.Even during the Republican’s first term in the White House, Trump was expected to pressure Putin to stop Russia’s occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.Instead, he seemed to emerge from their meeting in Helsinki, disagreeing with the FBI who claimed Putin had interfered in America’s 2016 presidential election.“President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be,” he said at the time – sparking accusations of being “Putin’s poodle” in the international press.He went on to call Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine “genius” and “savvy”, and has spoke highly of the Russian authoritarian over the years – even as Putin massacred the Ukrainian people.Trump has even repeated Kremlin talking points, like falsely calling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” for staying in power, even though the country is under martial law right now due to Putin’s war.Their bromance has slightly faltered in recent weeks though, as Trump has finally realised that Putin is probably not always telling the truth...He said in July: “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”By the way, the Russian president’s land grab has triggered more than a million Russian casualties and up to 400,000 Ukrainian losses – which is the opposite of “nice”.Still, there is one major lever Trump could pull, as long as Putin does not charm him too much during their meeting: full-scale sanctions.The Russian war machine relies on the money from its cheap oil exports to stay afloat.If Trump imposed such penalties, 10% of the world’s oil supply – which comes from Russia – would be affected danger, sending energy prices around the world upwards – and leaving Putin in the lurch.So the Russian leader will know he has to keep Trump on side – but that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up on his war.Putin believes he is winning, with troops moving towards their next targets in eastern Ukraine.His ultimate goal of subduing Ukraine, keeping it away from Western influence and turning it into a Russian proxy appears to be dangerously within reach.After all, Ukraine is struggling with morale right now, amid Zelenskyy’s attempts to tighten his own control over anticorruption agencies and ongoing conscription.After the one-to-one between Trump and Putin, the men will hold a trilateral meeting with Zelenskyy, the US president allegedly told his European counterparts on Wednesday night.Those allies are not invited to the talks, of course, setting the stage for the White House to take all the credit for any significant progress towards peace.And, judging by the decision to not invite Zelenskyy to the first sit-down, he’s probably going to be left out of any major negotiations.But what could Trump possibly offer Putin which the authoritarian leader would agree to, and which would allow the US president to declare another win for America?Will he force Ukraine to cede its occupied territories to Russia, or oust Zelenskyy in favour of another, more pro-Putin, alternative?It’s not yet clear – but, with Putin on the front foot, it almost definitely won’t be the Ukraine-first peace deal that Zelenskyy and his European allies once hoped for.Related...Did Donald Trump's New Nuclear Threats Alarm Vladimir Putin?Trump Threatens Putin Ally After He Dared To Compare Him To ‘Sleepy Joe’Trump Tries To Give Putin Another Slap On The Wrist With New Deadline To End Ukraine War

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