Trump says he believes Putin would abide by any Ukraine peace deal

While sitting beside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the Oval Office on Thursday, President Donald Trump said repeatedly that he trusted Vladimir Putin of Russia not to violate the terms of whatever peace deal that might soon be reached to end the war in Ukraine.

“I think he’ll keep his word,” Trump said of Putin. “I’ve known him for a long time now.”

The president referenced the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election that occurred during his first term in office and implied that it all just brought the two leaders closer together. “We had to go through the Russian hoax together,” Trump said. “They had to put up with that, too. They put up with a lot.”

His attitude toward the Russian leader could hardly be more different from the British leader sitting inches away in the Oval Office.

Starmer is the latest in a series of European leaders to come to Washington hoping to reason with Trump as he pushes for negotiations with the Russians to end the war they started in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron visited earlier in the week.

Starmer had come to the capital with a promise and a plea: He planned to tell Trump that his country is willing to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping effort once the war ends.

But in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon, Trump was asked about this hypothetical scenario: What if Britain sent those peacekeeping troops to Ukraine, only for Russia to renege on a peace deal, going on the attack again? Would the Americans come to the aid of the British in Ukraine?

In the span of one minute, Trump seemed to say no (“They can take care of themselves very well”); and then yes (“If they need help, I’ll always be with the British”); before landing back on no (“They don’t need help”).

“Could you take on Russia by yourselves?” Trump asked Starmer, and uneasy laughter broke out in the room. (All this was said while Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat on the other side of Trump.)

Starmer intended to use his visit to urge Trump not to abandon Ukraine to the demands of Putin.

Ukraine has felt the consequences of weak security agreements before: In December 1994 Ukraine gave up its Soviet nuclear weapons, which were still controlled from Moscow, and the United States, Britain and Russia agreed to respect the existing borders of Ukraine.

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