Trump believes that if he has good personal relations with the head of a foreign government, then the US automatically has good state-to-state relations with that country—a belief that explains why he thought he could resolve the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours by sitting down with his 'friend' Putin, even though Putin pursues fixed Russian national interests regardless of any personal rapport.

causalpending

Speaker

John Bolton

Evidence Quote

whatever Putin thinks of Trump... Putin knows what he thinks Russian national interests are. And that's what he's pursuing. He's not pursuing a deal uh to make Donald Trump happy

Source

John Bolton Warns: The System Is Breaking Down. The World’s Out of Control And No One's in ChargeDecoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl
Created: 6/18/2026, 1:57:40 PM

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