U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s phone calls this year have sometimes lasted several hours because of Putin’s lengthy monologues, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing current and former U.S. officials. Aides said Trump, instead of showing his usual impatience or interrupting, listened closely.
WSJ sources said the two leaders have spoken by phone multiple times this year and exchanged messages through intermediaries.
A senior U.S. official told the WSJ that the conversations were generally friendly. During the calls, Trump often said he wanted to revive U.S.–Russian relations on the basis of economic cooperation. Putin, in turn, raised his demands — among them, international recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea and Donbas.
The leaders’ July 3 call lasted just an hour — far shorter than previous conversations. One source told the WSJ there was neither the warmth of earlier exchanges nor any “flashpoint,” but that Trump ended the call “perplexed.” The U.S. president later said Putin told him he wanted to end the war, even as Russian forces continued to shell Ukraine.
WSJ sources said there was no single moment of conflict between the two leaders. Rather, according to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, there were “series of moments” that led Trump to believe “Putin was trying to play him.” “You see now a turning of the page, and Putin has nobody to blame but himself,” Graham said.
On Thursday, the Kremlin announced that Putin and Trump plan to meet in the coming days. Trump has said he hopes to follow that meeting with a three-way summit involving Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russia has not yet agreed to such a meeting.