The week began with a diplomatic breakthrough and a (fragile) cease-fire in a years-long war. It ends with another conflict stuck in a bloody, frustrating rut. Donald Trump has made it his mission to achieve peace in both. But the deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and return the last living Israeli hostages came about in part because Trump used his leverage to push both sides to make concessions. The president’s willingness to exert maximum pressure to achieve peace has not extended to Russia, making it possible for President Vladimir Putin to keep waging war.
Trump famously boasted that the Ukraine conflict would be easy to solve. It didn’t look that way today. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House and called for the war to end, but declined to authorize—at least for now—the transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv. Those weapons would allow Ukraine to strike deep within Russia, a move Kyiv believes could force Moscow to the negotiating table. Zelensky instead offered his thanks and proposed a deal to share his country’s advances in drones with the United States. And he avoided a repeat of the two leaders’ Oval Office blowup from when they met in February.
Even before the meeting, Zelensky had already been undercut by Putin, who, in a surprise call yesterday, spoke with Trump while the Ukrainian leader was en route to Washington. The Russian president warned Trump about transferring the Tomahawks and offered something that our headline-hungry president couldn’t resist: the prospect of trade deals and another high-profile summit, this time in Budapest. That meeting will not include Zelensky, almost certainly ensuring that it will do little to end the war that has been raging in Eastern Europe for nearly four years.
Trump has yearned to be known as a peacemaking president. For months, he has touted the number of conflicts he alleges to have ended, a figure that seemed to steadily grow (six? seven?) even though some of the nations involved, such as India, have disputed his claims of being a conciliator. Last week Trump helped deliver a remarkable breakthrough in the Middle East. The president had finally run out of patience with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly after he was blindsided by an Israeli strike in Qatar that was meant to kill Hamas’s lead negotiators. Furious that an attack had been carried out within the borders of a U.S. ally, Trump forced Netanyahu to apologize to the Qataris. The prime minister, who can’t risk losing Trump’s support, did so in a call made from the Oval Office. Trump pushed Netanyahu to “take the win” in Gaza, recognizing that Israel had achieved its military objectives. But he also backed Israel’s plans to seize Gaza City, which could have devastated the last organized remnants of the terror group. Hamas capitulated. Israel withdrew. The final 20 living hostages were freed.
Days later, that cease-fire already looks fragile. But Trump has been unbothered by the details and has taken a victory lap for delivering what he believes is a historic peace deal. Zelensky took notice. Today he offered over-the-top praise, declaring the deal “extraordinary” and decreeing that Trump now has the “momentum” to achieve peace in Europe too. “I’m confident that with your help we can stop this war,” Zelensky said. Trump beamed.
Zelensky and Trump have had a tumultuous relationship, to say the least. In February, Trump and Vice President J. D. Vance dressed down Zelensky for, well, dressing down (he didn’t wear a suit) and for not showing, in their estimation, proper gratitude for help with the war. Trump has also, at times, parroted Kremlin talking points and, inexplicably, blamed Ukraine for starting the war. But more recently, Zelensky has played to the president’s ego and, with help from his fellow European leaders, stressed that Russia, not Ukraine, is the obstacle to peace.
[Read: Zelensky wasn’t going to repeat his Oval Office disaster]
Putin has long been a master at manipulating Trump. Last week, the Russian president declared that the Nobel Peace Prize had lost its credibility because Trump didn’t win for helping broker the Gaza cease-fire. Trump posted the video of those comments to his Truth Social account the same day, writing, “Thank you to President Putin!” When Putin called yesterday, he revived discussion of the U.S.-Russia trade deals that had intrigued Trump over the summer and offered another summit. It hasn’t been long since their last one—an August meeting in Anchorage, Alaska—yielded little.
Trump instantly seized on the idea of a Budapest meeting. And he backpedaled from the idea of supplying Tomahawks to Kyiv, saying today, “We’d much rather not need Tomahawks. It could mean a big escalation; it could mean a lot of bad things could happen.” Once more, Putin has bought his war effort more time.
The Ukrainians were blindsided by the Putin call and the prospect of the Budapest summit. It also came as a surprise to many in Washington that Trump would be willing to meet with Putin again so soon after Anchorage, which was widely considered a failure for the U.S. president. Putin agreed to nothing in Alaska and continued to defy Trump by pummeling his smaller neighbor with drones and rockets. Even so, Trump has yet to impose any sanctions on Russia or offer Ukraine concrete security guarantees.
If Zelensky was dismayed, he didn’t let it show. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, he said the U.S. administration hadn’t granted Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk missiles, but he appeared to signal that future provision of the weapons had not been ruled out. “This is the position of the American side for today,” he said. “But nobody canceled this dialogue, this topic, so we just have to work on it more.” Zelensky said that Tomahawks, used together with other weapons already in Ukrainian arsenals, would constitute a potent threat to Russia.
Emboldened by Gaza, Trump remains confident that his dealmaking abilities will yield a similar success in Ukraine. But the progress in the Middle East was made only when Trump used his power, applying enough pressure to force both sides to a deal. With Putin, he once more failed to do so. After the meeting with Zelensky, Trump left for Mar-a-Lago. As Air Force One took off, Trump took to social media and called for peace—but made no mention of what he would do to achieve it.
“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,” Trump wrote. “They should stop where they are. Let them both claim Victory, let History decide!”
Missy Ryan contributed reporting.
