Former national security adviser John Bolton said the Saturday meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Rome is a “significant” step towards reestablishing a better channel of communication between the heads of state.
“I think the meeting was significant. I think this is a significant step back toward sensible conversation between the two leaders,” Bolton, a frequent Trump critic, said during his Saturday appearance on CNN.
He added that “both the president’s spokesman and Zelensky spokesman said it was productive. So, I think you’ve got to consider it good. It doesn’t necessarily mean much progress, but at least they’ve broken the image of what happened in the Oval Office on February 28th, so that’s a plus,” referring to the late February blowup between the two leaders.
Trump and Zelensky had a brief one-on-one meeting in Rome before taking part in Pope Francis’s funeral. It was their first in-person huddle since the contentious spat in the Oval Office.
“Good meeting. We discussed a lot one-on-one. Hoping for results on everything we covered. Protecting lives of our people. Full and unconditional ceasefire. Reliable and lasting peace that will prevent another war from breaking out,” Zelensky said after the meeting. “Very symbolic meeting that has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”
Trump later Saturday wrote that Russian President Vladimir Putin might be “tapping me along” in light of recent deadly strikes the Kremlin’s military launched on several Ukrainian cities.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump said on Truth Social. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
Bolton, who has been previously critical of the administration’s approach to facilitating a potential peace agreement in Eastern Europe, argued Trump’s recent criticism of Putin does not necessarily represent a “tone shift,” but said the Kremlin leader needs to be careful not to overplay his hand with the commander-in-chief.
“Trump has a short attention span, so for that period of time, that was the kind of message that he wanted to send. I do think that Putin has to be careful about overplaying his hand with Trump,” Bolton said Saturday.
“Trump can change his attitude toward people, but Putin has gotten so many concessions from Trump already that even though Zelensky is apparently, and the Ukrainians are poised to give their alternative possibilities for how this might proceed,” he added. “Really, the advantage is overwhelmingly on the Russian side now, so Putin doesn’t want to mess that up, but I still think he’s got plenty of room to play with.”
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