Trump Reveals Reason for Not Calling Putin With European Leaders: 'Didn't Want to be Disrespectful to Putin'

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Trump Reveals Reason for Not Calling Putin With European Leaders: ‘Didn’t Want to be Disrespectful’

Trump called in to Fox & Friends Tuesday morning and detailed, at length, the details behind the Monday multilateral meeting he hosted with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Charlie Hurt asked, “During the meeting yesterday, when you decided to call Vladimir Putin, what was the reaction among the other people in the room, and what was President Putin’s reaction to being brought into a phone call in the middle of your meeting?”

“Well, I think they expected it,” Trump replied. “I didn’t do it in front of them. I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. You know, I wouldn’t do that, because they have not had the warmest relations. And actually, President Putin wouldn’t talk to the people from Europe. I mean, that was part of the problem.”

“So can you describe for us how that happened?” Hurt pressed again. “Did you just announce that you were gonna go into the other room to make the phone call, and then you got up and left, and then came back?”

“I think they sort of knew I was at the end of the meeting. I was going to call President Putin, and President Putin expected it,” Trump explained. “And he was there now by the time I called him. It was one o’clock in the morning in Russia — Russia’s a big place, you know, they have 11 time zones, I believe 9 or 11, but I think it’s 11. That’s a lot of time zones — so it was late it was like one o’ clock in the morning, but he was he picked it up very happily sure he works very hard like we all do.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/trump-reveals-reason-for-not-calling-putin-with-european-leaders-didn-t-want-to-be-disrespectful/ar-AA1KO6qL

The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline · 1h
Q: "During the meeting yesterday when you decided to call Putin, what was the reaction by the [European leaders] in the room?" Trump: "I didn't do it in front of them, that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I wouldn't do that."

Link to tweet

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1 1h
BREAKING NYT:

Trump paused his meeting with European leaders and Zelenskyy this afternoon to call Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin has since confirmed the call. It lasted for 40 minutes.

As Trump met with European leaders and Zelensky, Trump paused the proceedings to call Putin, according to two people familiar with the matter. Earlier today, Trump said he would call the Russian leader after the meeting. The call was reported earlier by several German news outlets, including NTV and Bild.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08/18/us/trump-zelensky-ukraine-putin/ccbdec82-a9ea-5587-9740-4030ced88645

[BeyondGeography]

1. Today would be a good day for Schumer and Jeffries to openly wonder what Putin has on Trump

This weekend would have been good, too. Or yesterday. Or tomorrow.

They could also get creative and say “I don’t know if Donald Trump is a pedophile, but he has sure said some crazy things about sex and young girls.” Or, “Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of Russian friends. He even met Putin, didn’t he?” Or, “What did Putin say in Anchorage that had the whole Trump tribe so upset afterwards?”

Or all of that.

Of course, a betting man would say they won’t go there at all.

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Excellent suggestions, all. For some reason we don't "go there."

Thus, we miss every opportunity to score "political points" off of Trump as Putin's Poodle, Trump as Epstein's Best Friend, Trump as un-American imbecile...etc etc etc. Again.

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4. he didn't say this thing I thought up, so...

Chuck Schumer, Sat. August 16: "Looks like once again Trump is selling out Ukraine and bowing down to dictator Putin."

Link to tweet

Jeffries says Trump administration ‘playing footsie’ with Russia

“Vladimir Putin has spent an entire year punking Donald Trump and the Trump administration,” said Jeffries.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5392229-hakeem-jeffries-donald-trump-russia-ukraine-war/

...there's obviously much more out there, but I think the thing where someone complains about our leaders not repeating some retort of theirs that they say is the end-all, beat-all response, isn't more important than what these leaders actually say which most of these critics should take the time to look for and promote.

Neither of them have held back in their rhetoric about the oddly close relationship between the two.

We only have this party, not some fantasy majority where our leaders have the benefit of piping their messaging directly to us. The media is only going to do so much, so I think it's incumbent on us to make certain we aren't just projecting what we think they are saying and doing, but actually looking for and promoting OUR party leader's actual advocacy and efforts alongside of our expectations.

From my pov (and it's a deep one) , I don't see a speck of daylight between their advocacy against Trump and Putin, and your own admonitions, no matter how you phrased it here.

[BeyondGeography]

5. Lacks cowbell

Ever wonder why these quotes sink like a stone? They are generic one-offs. Plus, you have to do it every day until it enters the mediasphere and forces a response from Trump. Link the attacks to larger themes such as how Trump is weakening America across the board and synch them up with other messaging along those lines that you are also doing every day. None of this is happening.

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6. it's because you've cherry-picked and projected ONE suggestion

...and no one here is going to take their time to dig up and post all of the statements from these two leaders you apparently have missed to have someone pick them apart with their own bias. (well, maybe me, for a minute)

You're misrepresenting their myriad statements about Trump and Putin by reducing them to what you want them to say, and what you mistakenly believe they haven't said, playing off of what I took the time to find and post (actually, I did that without much effort or care).

And I'm always amazed at the disconnect of folks complaining about Dem messaging while stepping all over advocacy against Trump or republicans to point out some perceived Democratic fault.

Nothing for that. Not here for that.

I do agree it would be nice to hear them say those things, but I'm really not sure they haven't already. I just don't have the need or desire to go search, and I've already heard enough rhetoric from them about Trump and Putin. They haven't held back at all.

In speeches, not just statements, on the floor in their respective chambers; in myriad media interviews and appearances which you have apparently missed.

[Johonny]

2. You wouldnt hire Trump to run your carwash

But GOP voters think he is great at running our country. The disconnect is amazing.

Trump apparently doesn't understand how to negotiate or the power of leverage. Fuck respecting Putin, because he has no respect for you Trumptard.

Sad really.