Why Does Donald Trump Keep Choosing Vladimir Putin Over Ukraine?

President Donald Trump greets Russia's President Vladimir Putin, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, Alaska.Donald Trump just can’t seem to stop siding with Vladimir Putin.Despite supposedly being the leader of the free world, the US president appears to have a surprisingly warm relationship with the Russian authoritarian, and has repeatedly forgiven Putin for going back on his word.While his predecessors in the White House and his European allies have shunned Putin for his aggression towards Ukraine, Trump quite literally rolled out the red carpet for the autocrat last week in Alaska.Although he previously warned there would be “severe consequences” for Russia unless Putin agreed to end his invasion of Ukraine, Trump immediately dropped his demand for a ceasefire and walked away from the summit empty-handed – aside from a few photos.For Putin, the summit was a triumph, as it ended the Russian leader’s isolation on the world stage.The impact of their meeting clearly stayed with Trump, too. Day later, after meeting European leaders with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the US president was back to repeating Kremlin propaganda and blaming Ukraine for the war.The real question is: why?According to the director of international security at the RUSI think tank, Dr Neil Melvin, Trump simply does not see Putin as an enemy, as much of the West does, but as someone to negotiate with.The expert told HuffPost UK: “What he sees in that is a person with whom he needs to do what needs to be done.”The US president’s desire for a Nobel Peace Prize is well-known, and he has often complained that he should have already been nominated for the accolade.Trump is so keen to end the war on any terms possible that he’s unlikely to negotiate a hardline stance.Melvin said Trump was “quite agnostic” toward Putin, and sees himself as a “broker”, adding: “He much more sees himself as someone who’s negotiating between different parties than he is in that taking a moral position about building a better world order.”Trump’s ambivalence over Russia’s brutality has consequences, though – and not just for Ukraine and Europe. President Donald Trump, right, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin depart at the conclusion of a joint press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025.Assistant professor of history at Coventry University, Dr Darren Reid, told HuffPost UK: “Once this war concludes, what we’re going to see is that arming up of the axis of autocrats in the world.“World leaders who attempt to gather as much power themselves, in their respective countries. They’re forming an unofficial club that have each other’s backs.”He pointed out that it was already happening.A body of friendly autocrats has been developing over the last few decades and continue to help each other out. For instance, Iran has been giving Russia drones to attack Ukraine for months.But in Alaska, it seemed the US was informally welcomed into a similar kind of relationship.Putin told Trump that postal – or “mail-in” – ballots were threatening the security of his elections.The US president is now readying an executive order to make voting by post more difficult – if not altogether illegal.That Trump is taking electoral advice from a man known for rigging his country’s elections is, of course, alarming. But multiple specialists also told HuffPost UK that the US was moving away from its traditional role of upholding regional security even before Trump returned to office.“You’re getting these series of regional autocracies, taking on stronger and stronger roles as the US pulls back,” Melvin said. “Trump has given it a ‘turbo-charge’ rather than accelerated it.“His particular style of politics is definitely making it much more attractive, because he’s willing to do deals with these people.”Trump sees Putin as someone he “can do business with”, whom he understands more than the “complicated, alliance-building and diplomacy” built into in international organisations like Nato.As Melvin pointed out, Trump’s top negotiator Steve Witkoff often emphasises that he does not just talk about Ukraine with Russia but often hints about how they want to do “lots of deals”.He said that could include economic agreements which help get American business back into Russia, forming new deals in the Middle East or even exploiting resources in the Arctic.And the Trump administration is certainly suggesting that it is willing to shift away from the US’s old alliances in the west to join those whom it thinks are the most powerful – like Putin.Just this week, the US decided not to join its European allies in denouncing Moscow for its 2008 war on Georgia, a neighbouring nation where Russia still has a lingering presence. As Chatham House’s senior consulting fellow Keir Giles warned last year before Trump’s official return to office, the president promised voters he would shift away from liberal democracy.Giles wrote: “Trump’s promise to transform both America’s relationships with the rest of the world and the country itself raise a long-term prospect that for many has seemed unthinkable: that the world’s liberal democracies would find themselves competing with three major autocratic powers, Russia, China and the United States.”So does Trump simply recognise in Putin a fellow autocrat?The US president has made it clear how much he enjoys power, but it’s not that simple.University of Leicester’s director of civil safety and security, Dr Simon Bennett, described Trump as a “curate’s egg of a politician”.He said while the president is authoritarian in the majority of his opinions and behaviours, he has “certain liberal tendencies”, pointing to his disdain for big government.He also said the modern era has long overseen a period of ideological difference – and today, that manifests in a split between authoritarianism and liberalism, which the international community has to choose between.Bennett added: “Trump’s problem is that he lacks the moral compass required to navigate these stormy ideological waters with any semblance of dignity.”Bennett said his “amorality” and “self-interestedness means he sides with whomever he thinks can do him, Donald Trump, the most good”.But there is no guarantee that even his sucking up to Putin will work to end the Ukraine war and hand Trump the Nobel Peace Prize he wants – the US has repeatedly hinted that it could walk away from talks altogether if it does not seem to be going Trump’s way.Either way, Trump will be handing Putin another win – and their curious bond seems likely to persevere.Related...Top Putin Ally Scorns Trump's 'Clumsy' Peace Talks With Ukraine And European LeadersFormer Russian Prime Minister Neatly Sums Up How Keen Putin Is For Peace In UkraineAfter Days Of High-Powered Talks On Ending The Ukraine War, What Happens Next?

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