Trump unloads on Putin after promising more military aid to Ukraine

President Donald Trump expressed mounting frustration Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, promising during a lively Cabinet meeting to boost U.S. military aid to Ukraine.“We get a lot of bull--- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told reporters, who attended a nearly two-hour stretch of the meeting.

President Donald Trump expressed mounting frustration Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, promising during a lively Cabinet meeting to boost U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

“We get a lot of bull--- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told reporters, who attended a nearly two-hour stretch of the meeting. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

The comments echoed his remarks from Monday, when he described himself as “not happy” and “disappointed” with Putin’s actions. The last known conversation between the two leaders was last Thursday, July 3.

When asked about a reported pause of some weapons shipments to Ukraine, Trump seemed to dismiss the idea, saying he wanted to equip “brave” Ukrainians with defensive arms. Putin “is not treating human beings right,” he said. “He’s killing too many people, so we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I’ve approved that.”

At last month’s NATO summit at The Hague, Trump suggested the U.S. was exploring options to send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine. “They do want to have the anti-missile missiles,” Trump said of Kyiv at the time. “As they call them, the Patriots, and we’re going to see if we can make some available.”