Russian state media has launched a barrage of criticism against U.S. President Donald Trump after he accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of saying "a lot of bulls***" about the war in Ukraine, the exiled news outlet Agentstvo reported Wednesday.
Trump’s sharp rebuke followed his phone call with Putin on July 4, during which the two leaders again failed to make progress toward ending Russia's war on Ukraine despite Trump’s repeated pledges to end it.
State outlets that once portrayed Trump as a pragmatic alternative to his predecessor Joe Biden are now openly questioning his judgment, intelligence and political reliability.
Prominent pro-Kremlin television host Vladimir Solovyov on Tuesday chastised Trump on his flagship talk show for addressing Putin in what he described as a disrespectful tone.
“Trump has started to speak rudely,” Solovyov said. “It seems to us that he’s undergoing a ‘Bidenization.’ His belief that he’s the only person able to speak with Putin has made him transform into another version of Biden.”
He added that Russia had no obligation to accommodate Trump’s preferences.
The next day, state TV anchor Olga Skabeyeva suggested that the U.S. could use Ukraine’s request for an investigation into Russia’s alleged use of chemical weapons as a justification to “crush our regime.”
“Will we see a test tube from [CIA Director John] Ratcliffe?” she asked, insinuating that American intelligence agencies could fabricate evidence of Russia’s guilt.
The state-owned media giant Vesti argued that Trump’s dissatisfaction with Putin reflects his worry that the war in Ukraine is “not developing according to Trump’s plans.”
And on state broadcaster Rossia 1, a correspondent went further: “Trump’s ‘personal Afghanistan’ is drawing closer after the collapse of Ukraine. The White House leader is increasingly resembling his predecessor, whom he so strongly despises.”
The shift in rhetoric has also appeared across Russian pro-war Telegram channels and social media pages known as Z-channels.
War correspondent Alexander Kotz mocked Trump’s diplomatic gaffe at the White House when he asked how Liberian President Joseph Boakai spoke English so well despite English being Liberia’s official language.
“Trump could surpass Biden in making public missteps by the end of his term,” Kotz wrote.
On VKontakte, the country’s largest social media platform, criticism of Trump has surged. According to Botnadzor, a watchdog group tracking state-linked bot activity, over 2,000 comments attacking Trump appeared under posts discussing his recent remarks.
Many of the comments labeled Trump a “fool,” “blabbermouth” or “bipolar,” while others said that he was “bluffing” about increasing weapons supplies to Kyiv and would not take real action.
Following his phone call with Putin on July 4, Trump promised that the U.S. would resume weapons shipments to Ukraine to defend against Russian attacks.
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