Trump changes rhetoric on Putin thanks to Macron and Starmer - Politico
French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have made a lot of effort to get US President Donald Trump to reduce pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy and direct some of his anger at Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
According to Censor.NET, Politico writes about this, citing sources in European governments on condition of anonymity.
The publication notes that Starmer and Macron focused on getting Trump to ease pressure on Zelenskyy and direct some of his anger at Putin, using the argument that Putin is making Trump look like a fool.
"The U.S. president’s public dig at Putin permitted diplomats in London and Paris the smallest of fist pumps, as their endeavors over the past three months appeared to bear fruit," the publication states.
The key role in the negotiations with the US administration was played by the UK National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell and Defence Secretary John Healey. Their efforts were coordinated with US Ambassador to the UK Mark Burnett. For his part, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said that he had 13 conversations with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this year alone, while Starmer and Trump had "almost" as many.
"Zelenskyy had clearly managed to affect Trump’s thinking in Rome," said one of the former British ambassadors on condition of anonymity.
He also added that the leaders of France and Britain constantly emphasised in their conversations that Putin "was disrespecting Trump by consistently breaking the ceasefire he claimed to be implementing." This, according to the source, could be a particularly sensitive topic, as Trump is "squeamish about people being killed — it bothers him."
However, the UK and France are now forced to wait anxiously to see if the US president's tougher stance on Putin will sustain his impatience to move on, Politico writes.
Steven Pfifer, a senior fellow at U.S.-based think tank the Brookings Institution, also said that Trump had had "a blind spot for Putin ignoring U.S. requests". But that his recent statements on social media seemed to suggest he thought he was being played by Putin," Pfifer stressed.
