See Trump’s shifting blame game on the Russia-Ukraine war

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s inability to find peace in Ukraine — a war he once claimed would be over the day he took office — has caused him enormous frustration. But the focus of his ire has zig-zagged throughout his second term in office.

At moments, Trump has flashed anger toward Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky, casting him as ungrateful and unwilling to compromise.

Other times, he has vented about Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he once hoped would agree to a peace deal because of their close relationship.

Tracking the back-and-forth has become a pastime for European officials, who have worked to keep Trump on Ukraine’s side, even as he sometimes parrots Russian talking points.

Who Trump appears to favor often reflects who he spoke with last. Trump will have a face-to-face meeting with Zelensky on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Turkey on Wednesday.

But he also spent more than an hour on the telephone this weekend with Putin.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Data sources: CNN reporting, NBC News, Truth Social (@realDonaldTrump), Rev transcripts, Roll Call transcripts.

Photo credits: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Donald Trump/Truth Social; Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images; Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images; Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images; Aaron Schwartz/AFP via Getty Images.