
Trump 'not happy' with Putin after Ukraine peace call
He was taking a victory lap after the GOP-controlled Congress passed the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill,' before Trump's Fourth of July deadline - his biggest domestic achievement thus far. But he voiced frustration with world affairs when asked about Putin.
'We had a call. It was a pretty long call. We talked about a lot of things including Iran and we also talked about, as you know, the war with Ukraine,' Trump said. 'And I'm not happy about that,' he said.
On Monday the Pentagon halted some weapons shipments to Ukraine - with the White House pushing back on some reporting that suggested that the move was made without coordination with the State Department. The move worried Trump critics who fear the president isn't fully onboard helping Ukraine fight the Russians. The president left the G7 last month before a planned sit-down with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky due to Israel and Iran's fighting in the Middle East.
He did get together with Zelensky, without cameras present, during last week's NATO Summit in the Hague. A back-and-forth between Trump and a Ukrainian BBC journalist whose husband was fighting in the war went viral. 'Wow. That's rough stuff, right? That's tough,' the president told her. 'Let me just tell you, they do want to have the anti-missile missiles, as they call them, the Patriots. And we're going to see if we can make some available,' he said.
On Thursday morning, Trump spoke with Putin for more than an hour, with the White House saying the two leaders discussed the war in Ukraine and Iran. Trump announced on his Truth Social account just 20 minutes beforehand that he was hopping on the phone with his Russian counterpart.
The Kremlin released a readout of the call before the White House and claimed that the Russian president recommitted to its interest in negotiating a settlement to the conflict with Ukraine. Putin's aide claimed the conversation was wide-ranging and that Trump expressed his desire for a swift end to Russia's war with Ukraine. Meanwhile, they said that Putin wanted to keep negotiating but said Moscow remained focused on ending 'root causes' of the conflict.

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