Donald Trump grows angrier as Vladimir Putin exposes his impotence
As Washington settled in for a typically sleepy Memorial Day following the passage of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” in the House, the president fired off one of his trademark furious rants on Truth Social, but the target was a surprise.
This time, the target wasn’t any of his domestic political foes — like the Democrats who voted in lockstep against the budget package he endorsed, or the handful of Republicans who refused to fall into line. It wasn’t even aimed at the various law enforcement figures who have attempted to hold him to account over the years.
Sunday evening’s rant was aimed squarely at Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite what he called a “very good relationship” with Putin, Trump in his latest statement on the Ukraine-Russia war blasted the Russian leader as “absolutely crazy.”
“He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” Trump warned.
He echoed the same thoughts as he spoke to reporters in New Jersey on Sunday ahead of his return to Washington that day.
“He’s killing a lot of people,” said the president. “I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin, I’ve known him for a long time.”
Trump sudden harsh turn was illuminative, if not for the reason he may have intended. A throwaway jab aimed at Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky (“everything out of his mouth causes problems … it better stop”) in the same post solidified the underlying intention of the screed: Trump was massaging a bruised ego.
With his pride wounded, Trump has turned to lashing out at the Russian leader who is now publicly refuting his repeated claim that he could end the destructive three-year-old conflict in “24 hours.” Four months after Trump took office, supposedly poised to immediately shut down the war, attacks on Ukrainian targets intensified over the weekend, with Russia launching its largest aerial assault of the war thus far.
Loath as he is to give Zelensky any credit for correctly predicting that Russia’s leadership had no real intentions of ending the war, Trump’s emotional outburst comes as he seems to be realizing that the issue could become a major blemish on the “dealmaker” perception he has sought to cultivate.
More importantly than representing a threat to his ability to live up to his own boasting, the attacks also refute many of Trump’s more recent statements about the Russian president and his supposed desire to see the war end. Trump, who famously hates being made to look foolish by his allies, said as recently as last Monday of Putin: “I do believe he wants to end it.”
But France’s president Emmanuel Macron believes Trump is beginning to realize the truth about Putin’s war stance.
“I believe that President Trump has realized that when President Putin told him he was ready for peace, he was lying,” Macron said on Monday. He pointed to the severity of Russian offensives as the persuading factor.
“You cannot claim to be ready for negotiations and carry out attacks at the same time. Such double rhetoric demonstrates the insincerity of any statements about dialogue,” said the French president.
Now, Washington is already beginning to wonder if Trump will back up his rhetoric with action. He has repeatedly vowed to slap damaging sanctions on Russia if the invasion continues without a resolution, most recently doing so this month in an interview with Fox’s Bret Baier.
But in a press gaggle days after those remarks, Trump also suggested that his administration may “just back away” from the conflict, which would “keep going” without U.S. involvement if a deal was not reached.
Capitol Hill is not keen to let that happen — a bipartisan resolution to impose a new slate of sanctions on Russia hit 81 co-sponsors in the Senate last Wednesday, according to a press release from joint co-sponsors Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal.
The bill, which is designed to be snapped into place if peace talks fall apart, would slap sanctions on a range of Russian top ministers, as well as on businesses and entities that transact with the Russian armed forces.
“Russia has agreed to provide its term sheet for a ceasefire in the next few days. Its contents will speak volumes as to whether or not Russia is serious about peace. We suspect it will be more of the same,” the pair said in a joint statement.
“If it is more of the same, Russia can expect decisive action from the United States Senate.”
Tommy Robinson released from prison after sentence reduced
Far-right political activist Tommy Robinson has walked free from prison after his jail term for breaching an injunction was reduced by four months last week.
The 42-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, left HMP Woodhill, Buckinghamshire, on Tuesday after his 18-month sentence was cut back at the High Court.
He was jailed for the civil offence of contempt of court in October 2024 after admitting breaches of an injunction which barred him from repeating false allegations against a Syrian refugee who successfully sued him for libel.
After his release, he was filmed speaking on his X social media channel for around 20 minutes with longer hair and a bushy beard, and wearing a rosary around his neck.
Yaxley-Lennon was previously due to be released on 26 July, but had applied to the High Court to purge his contempt order.
He was jailed for 10 admitted breaches of the injunction, after the solicitor general issued two contempt claims against him.
The first claim alleged that he “knowingly” breached the order on four occasions, including by having “published, caused, authorised or procured” a film called Silenced, which contains the libellous allegations, in May 2023.
The film was pinned to the top of the activist’s profile on the social media site X. He also repeated the claims in three interviews between February and June 2023.
The second claim was issued in August 2024 and concerned six further breaches, including playing the film at a demonstration in Trafalgar Square in central London last summer.
In a ruling last Tuesday, Mr Justice Johnson said there was an “absence of contrition or remorse” from Yaxley-Lennon, but that he had shown a “change in attitude” since he was sentenced.
The judge said: “He has given an assurance that he will comply with the injunction in the future [and] that he has no intention of breaching it again.”
The injunction was issued after Yaxley-Lennon was successfully sued by Jamal Hijazi, a then-schoolboy who was assaulted at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, in October 2018.
After a clip of the incident went viral, Yaxley-Lennon made false claims on Facebook, including about Mr Hijazi, leading to the libel case.
Mr Justice Nicklin ordered Yaxley-Lennon to pay Mr Hijazi £100,000 in damages and his legal costs, as well as making the injunction preventing Yaxley-Lennon from repeating the allegations.
Last week, Mr Justice Johnson warned that Yaxley-Lennon could be jailed for up to two years if he breached the injunction again in the future.
Macron plays down video of wife shoving him in face as ‘squabbling’
French president Emmanuel Macron appeared to be stunned after his wife Brigitte Macron shoved him in the face in front of the international press.
The Macrons arrived in Vietnam on Monday on a six-day tour of Southeast Asia and were disembarking the plane when the apparent physical altercation took place.
The president, 47, later shrugged it off and claimed the couple had just been “squabbling.”
“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” Macron told reporters. “I’m surprised by it, it turns into some kind of global catastrophe where people are even coming up with theories to explain it,” he said. “It’s nonsense.”
The Elysee Palace, the official residence of the French president, also attempted to play down the incident.
“It was a moment when the president and his wife were relaxing one last time before the start of the trip by having a laugh,” an official said. “It was a moment of closeness.”
Macron was standing at the top of the aircraft stairs when his wife appeared to smack him on the mouth and push him towards the media and hosts waiting to greet the couple.
France’s first lady, 72, dressed in a red suit, appeared to shove her husband’s face with both hands as soon as the cockpit door opened.
The French president appeared flustered before he composed himself, smiled and waved awkwardly as the two disembarked.
Brigitte Macron, who was Macron’s high school teacher, remained momentarily hidden behind the plane’s fuselage, which blocked the view of her expression or body language. She refused to take his arm down the stairs.
Macron arrived in Hanoi late on Monday – a first visit by a French president in nearly a decade – in an effort to boost France’s influence in a former colony.
The video quickly went viral on social media.
Many observers found it hard to believe that it was playful banter and said it was an “embarrassing” moment that Mr Macron would be compelled to navigate during and after the tour.
Gilbert Collard, a former EU lawmaker from France, said “everyone is laughing” at the couple and asked if the former teacher slapping her student was true.
“Looks like even world leaders have to navigate a little domestic turbulence! Just goes to show, no matter how high you fly, there’s always someone to keep you grounded,” X user Rob Frasca said. “What a moment!”
“French President Emmanuel Macron & wife Brigitte caught in a heated moment the second they touched down in Vietnam. Scuffle caught on camera showed Brigitte taking a swing mid argument. The plane may have landed smoothly… her slap dint quit,” another user, Nabeela Jamal, said.
Many others shared close-up images of Macron’s clenched jaw and a hard fist as he faced the camera with his wife by his side.
The couple met at Lycée La Providence, a Jesuit high school in Amiens, where Brigitte Macron was the future president’s drama teacher. He was 15 years old at the time.
Macron is 24 years younger than his wife and they married in 2007.
The incident came just as Macron was coming out of the “cocaine controversy”. France furiously denied a fake claim that a viral video showed Macron removing a small white object from a table which some social media users, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova falsely claimed was a bag of cocaine.
Macron, British prime minister Keir Starmer and German chancellor Friedrich Merz were travelling on a train from Poland to Ukraine to visit President Volodymyr Zelensky when the incident occurred.
Zakharova suggested the leaders were using drugs on the train when reporters entered their cabin, calling it a “cocaine party”.
The Elysee Palace refuted the claims saying the object was a crumpled tissue. “This is a tissue. For blowing your nose. When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs,” it said on X.
From Vietnam, Macron is scheduled to visit Indonesia and Singapore.
The visit comes soon after President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on European Union goods from June 1, fuelling tensions with the 27-country bloc, though he later delayed that deadline to July 9.
Trump last month imposed tariffs on Vietnam, an export-dependent country facing pressure from Washington, D.C. to buy more American goods or faces a 46 percent tariff.
The visit saw France sign 14 deals with Vietnam and covered airplane purchase, cooperation on nuclear energy, defence, railways, Airbus earth-observation satellites and Sanofi vaccines.
Vietnam’s president Luong Cuong said the defence partnership involved “sharing of information on strategic matters” and stronger cooperation in the defence industry, cybersecurity and anti-terrorism.