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Apparently, one phone call was enough: After Putin spoke to Trump, the Tomahawk deal with Ukraine was suspended. Is this because Trump admires Putin?
"Ultimately, Trump admires autocrats, in this case Putin, and avoids a tough policy towards Russia," Thomas Jäger, a political scientist and foreign policy expert, told Focus Online.
Other observers are also certain: Donald Trump respects Vladimir Putin more than Volodymyr Zelensky. That's why he backed out of the Tomahawk deal. What does this mean for the prospects for peace in the Ukraine war?
Is the failure to deliver Tomahawk missiles a success for Putin with Trump?
German media observers see the reason for this in Putin's conversation with Donald Trump on Thursday (October 16). Putin changed things, analyzes Michael Jäger in Focus Online.
Trump used the Tomahawk missile delivery as a threat to Russia to get Putin to talk. But Putin rescinded the threat.
"Why, he asked Trump, should US-Russia relations be damaged if the Tomahawks won't change anything militarily anyway?"
"By simultaneously feigning Putin's willingness to talk and agreeing to a quick meeting, cruise missiles are no longer a problem, at least until the meeting," Jäger concludes.
Journalist Patrick Diekmann, writing for T-online, also sees the (at least temporary) cancellation of the Tomahawks as a success for Putin: "this is a political success for Putin; he has taken Ukraine and the Europeans by surprise."
The fact that Putin has such a rapid and immediate influence on the US president may be due to Trump's admiration for him.
Thomas Jäger, as well as other political analysts, attest to this admiration. Francis Fukuyama teaches at Stanford University and is one of the world's leading political analysts. In May, he said in an interview with T-online: "Trump actually admires Putin because he sees in him a leader as strong and capable as he himself would like to be."
Trump, like Putin, imagines himself as part of a select group of exceptionally strong and visionary leaders, Fukuyama said. For that reason, Trump is refraining from putting real pressure on Putin in his negotiations over Ukraine. Fukuyama’s interview took place before Trump and Putin met in Alaska, but his words still ring true in the face of today’s political events.
Trump keeps all options open in Ukraine war
On the other hand, Trump has already taken every possible stance on Zelensky, Jäger explains. Early in his term in office, he called him a "dictator without an election."
By the summer, Trump was confident that Ukraine could regain its territory. "This gives him maximum freedom of action. Because Trump has no plan to end the war and no strategy to convince Russia to compromise."
For Trump, ultimately, it is not the outcome of the war that matters, but above all that he appears as a peacemaker. Jäger said this during another interview on Saturday (October 18) on Tagesschau.
While Zelensky was escorted out of the White House without eating during his first meeting with Donald Trump in February, Trump gave Putin the red carpet treatment in Alaska this summer. According to political analysts, this could be symbolic of the heads of state's standing with Trump.
It is currently unclear what will happen with the delivery of the Tomahawks; neither Zelensky nor Donald Trump have made any clear statements. Trump plans to meet Putin in Budapest for talks, but the timing is still unclear. / Source: Focus Online, Spiegel, T-online, Tagesschau/
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