Maddow Blog-The more Trump talks about Russian sanctions, the less Russia seems to care [View all]

[LetMyPeopleVote]

For the fourth time in four months, Trump threatened Russia with sanctions. In each instance, Putin shrugged — and Trump failed to follow through.

Quite a pattern:
- January: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs
- Early March: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs
- Late March: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs
- May: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs, & Trump embraces Putin's diplomatic plan www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-05-12T13:36:59.757Z

Quite a pattern:
- January: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs
- Early March: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs
- Late March: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs
- May: Trump threatens sanctions, Russia shrugs, & Trump embraces Putin's diplomatic plan

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-talks-russian-sanctions-less-russia-seems-care-rcna206225

Hours after Vance’s comments, Donald Trump weighed in, threatening sanctions unless Russia and Ukraine agreed to a 30-day “unconditional ceasefire.” NBC News reported:

‘The U.S. calls for, ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire. Hopefully, an acceptable ceasefire will be observed, and both Countries will be held accountable for respecting the sanctity of these direct negotiations,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. ‘If the ceasefire is not respected, the U.S. and its partners will impose further sanctions,’ Trump added.

Soon after, Moscow shrugged. “He is most welcome to do whatever he can do but we have our basic interests in this crisis,” Konstantin Kosachev, a member of Russia’s Federation Council told CNN, referring to the American president.

If the circumstances seemed familiar, it’s not your imagination.

Two days after Trump’s second inaugural, the Republican published a message to his social media platform, telling Russia that if it failed to end the conflict quickly, the White House “would have no other choice” but to impose new economic sanctions.

Putin ignored the threat, and Trump failed to follow through......

That said, there were some developments of note over the weekend. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he would participate in direct negotiations in Turkey later this week — a position the Ukrainian leader adopted at Trump’s urging.

This might’ve seemed like progress, but it was not: One day earlier, the Trump administration sided with U.S. allies in Europe on a plan intended to push Putin to accept a 30-day ceasefire. Less than 24 hours later, Trump rejected his own administration’s position, undermined U.S. allies in the process and embraced Putin’s preferred approach.

A charitable interpretation of the events is that the American president simply didn’t know his own position on the diplomatic process that he ostensibly supports. The less charitable interpretation is that Trump was siding with Moscow — again