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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
GOP increasingly says Trump has been played by Putin
Analysis by Aaron Blake, CNN
Updated:
5:12 PM EDT, Wed September 10, 2025
Source: CNN
attempts to give peace a chance with Russian President Vladimir Putin
appear to be going predictably poorly.
Since their meeting in Alaska last month, Putin has shown with Ukraine
that Trump tried to secure.
Russia has in Ukraine. It has continued . And most recently, it in an
apparently unprecedented event that has NATO spooked about a much-wider
war.
“What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?”
Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday. “Here we go!” he added,
without elaborating.
The president has previously mused that Putin may be “tapping me
along,” but he’s done little to act on that sentiment, repeatedly
blowing past the “two-week” deadlines he’s given the Russian
leader to make peace.
But even as Trump’s appeared highly reluctant to come to the
conclusion that Putin is playing him, Republican lawmakers have been
doing it for him.
They’ll often dress it up in order to avoid alienating Trump, but
they’re painting a picture of a US president who’s been had.
“President Trump wants to make sure that he is giving every
opportunity for peace to get this war resolved. But Putin is playing
him right now,” Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said Wednesday, before
adding: “And I think the president understands that.”
Sen. Thom Tillis made similar comments.
“I think Russia is playing – they’re really playing us like a
piano right now,” the North Carolina Republican said, while claiming
Trump wasn’t “being naïve.”
Neither senator is running for reelection next year, allowing them to
be more candid in their assessments of Trump’s handling of foreign
policy. But it’s not just departing Republicans going there.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi also during
a floor speech Monday before the developments in Poland.
He said Trump “has given Vladimir Putin every chance,” but that the
Russian president has “mocked the peace process” and “played
games with peace talks.”
Even a member of Trump’s Cabinet, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent,
has cast the Alaska meeting with Putin as bearing no fruit.
“President Putin, since the historic meeting in Anchorage … has
done the opposite of following through on what he indicated he wanted
to do,” Bessent last week.
These comments also follow some key world leaders’ remarks to this
effect. French President Emmanuel Macron said in late August that
Putin’s failure to agree to a meeting with Ukraine would mean “.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who’s been on the world stage this
year, cautioned those pushing for a peace deal that “” – without
invoking the American president specifically.
While this narrative is building on the GOP side, it’s not totally
new.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa wagered as far back as April that Putin was
just playing the US government.
“President Trump pls put the toughest of sanctions on Putin,” he .
“[You] ought to [see] from clear evidence that he is playing America
as a patsy.”
And Ernst has actually said what she said this week before. Back in
July, that Putin was “playing the United States. And President Trump
realizes that.”
“He’s always wanting to give the benefit of the doubt and give
peace a chance,” the Iowa Republican said at the time (before
announcing she’s not seeking reelection). “But Putin’s not
cooperating.”
The fact that Ernst has now said this twice, two months apart, gives
away the game.
She has said each time that Trump actually understands what’s
happening. But does he really? If he understood he was being played
back in July, as Ernst said, why go through with a meeting with Putin
in Alaska and ? Why has Trump continued to for making final decisions
on sanctions and other harsher measures? If Trump has understood he’s
been played, he’s had a funny way of showing it.
Trump did impose steep tariffs on India as punishment for buying Russia
oil — and he signaled on Sunday he’s ready to move to a second
phase of sanctions on Moscow — but he’s pretty much ignored the
legislative push for sanctions led by his friend, GOP Sen. Lindsey
Graham, that has widespread bipartisan support.
The latest strategy from Republicans appears to be an acknowledgement
that softer attempts to get Trump to be more hawkish on Russia
haven’t worked. Trump has for years, in ways that have tested the
Russia hawks in the party. Now they seem to be losing patience and
warning Trump that clinging to hope for a deal risks making him look
like a fool.
Rep. Don Bacon summed it up nicely on Monday.
“We’ve tried to be – hoping the president would get to the right
spot on Russia and Ukraine, and he’s not,” he . The Nebraska
Republican, who’s hanging up his hat in Congress next year, added:
“The administration’s policy towards Russia is weak and
vacillating, and Putin is taking advantage of it.”
These other Republicans aren’t saying it in so many words. But
they’re basically agreeing.
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