Memorandum: Putin and Netanyahu Fix Trump on the world stage

Two foreign leaders have become more worrying to President Trump than he expected: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Each of them has complicated Trump’s differential calculation and integration on the global stage, due to the suffering that each of them imposed only on Ukrainians and Palestinians, respectively, but also to their reluctance to change the path.

The president’s transformation in his most striking position was for Putin, who resisted Trump’s urge to drop the war in Ukraine. Russia began the war by invading its neighbor in February 2022.

On Friday, Trump announced that he ordered two nuclear submarines with “appropriate areas” in response to “very provocative data” from Moscow.

This step lies in Trump’s advertisement earlier this week, during a trip to Scotland, that he was tightening his date for his corridor to Russia to work towards a ceasefire. The president said he was attending the time frame to “10 or 12 days.”

Moscow responded with the shoulder’s ignoring, however. A Kremlin spokesman said the nation had developed a “certain immunity” for such threats.

The sequence of events – and the general tone towards Putin – is a big difference since late February, when Trump and Vice President Vancer reprimanded Ukrainian President Volodimir Zellinsky at the Oval Office because of his supposed obstruction of American assistance.

Several times earlier this year, Trump blamed Ukraine to start the war. In April, he said about Zelinski: “When you start a war, you have to know that you can win the war, right?

The reason for the recent change in a clear and direct tone. Trump wants to bring war in Ukraine to the end and Putin that does not play the ball.

Trump seemed particularly angry at Putin’s tendency to constructive or friendly phone conversations with the president – only for Russia to launch a fierce bombing against Ukrainian cities after hours.

“We get a lot of Putin’s bulls, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said in early July. “It is very nice all the time, but it turns out that it has no meaning.”

One of the reasons for Trump’s anger, most likely, is that the re -account of Putin puts the president in a difficult political place.

During the presidential campaign last year, he promised that he would be able to bring war in Ukraine to the extent “within 24 hours”. This promise has proven hollow, and there is no penetration soon.

On the other hand, Trump seems unlikely to ignore his long doubts about helping in Ukraine completely.

This leaves the president in a kind of uncomfortable forgetfulness, nor to end the war and does not change the tide in favor of Ukraine.

The details are very different with Netanyahu. But in this case, too, there are reasons for the lack of political comfort by Trump.

Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu is in some ways more turbulent than Putin.

The president is very supportive in Israel in his comprehensive view. During his first term, he moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and reached a “peace plan” that corresponds to the Israeli priorities so that it was rejected by the relatively moderate Palestinian Authority.

But Trump also fell with Netanyahu after the Israeli Prime Minister confessed to the victory of former President Biden in the 2020 elections. Then he disturbed him to broadcast a complaint that the Israeli Prime Minister had originally retracted what was perceived as a joint operation to kill the head of the Iranian Jerusalem force, Qassem Soleimani. The United States advanced alone, killing Solimani in January 2020.

“Baby Netanyahu has failed,” Trump said in late 2023.

Trump’s actual policies remained supportive of Israeli in the first six months of his second term, but his dialect is in great directions.

He pushed the Israelis towards the ceasefire even before assuming his post – but it seemed somewhat unpopular when they broke him in March, preventing all aid from reaching Gaza for more than two months.

Trump talked about the idea of removing the Palestinians from Gaza, and even suggested converting one of the most places on the ground into a type of coastal resort.

But it also erupted early this week with Netanyahu’s insistence that there is no hunger in Gaza. Trump modified that he watched footage of children “looks very hungry”, adding, “You can’t be fake.”

On Friday, Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkeov and the American Ambassador of Israel, visited Mike Hakapi, the relief distribution site in Gaza, which is run by the controversial Gaza Human Foundation.

Witkev said that part of this purpose is to “help formulate a plan to provide food and medical assistance to the people of Gaza.”

Returning to the house, there were signs that the strong support that Israel received from the right began to fade, which increases the complexity of the image of Trump.

Representative Margori Taylor Green recently became the first prominent Republic to call what Israel is doing in Gaza “genocide.” The influential commentators at the Trump base, from Tikkar Carlson to Podosters, such as Theo Von and Joe Rogan, have become more likely to criticize Israeli policies and their effects.

But any of this ensures that the Israeli Prime Minister will turn.

Among the balances are the repeated assurances of Netanyahu that the goal of the war is not only the release of all hostages that Hamas maintains, but “complete victory”; His desire to maintain his ruling alliance, which includes very difficult personalities from small parties; And his supposed interest in continuing to delay the trial of his long -term corruption.

Trump can play a harsh ball with Netanyahu more easily than Putin, given the tremendous assistance that the United States provides to Israel. But if he has the desire to do so, it is widely open to the question.

Currently, it seems likely that the Russian and Israeli leaders will anger Trump’s political expectations for some time.

The memo is a column reported by Niall Stanage.