Trump shifts focus to supporting Putin after tense meeting with Zelensky

US President Donald Trump has signaled a shift in support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is seeking an early end to the war in Ukraine, likely worrying Ukrainian officials.

President Trump held a tense meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, during which the possibility of supplying the U.S. long-range Tomahawk cruise missile was a topic of discussion.

Not only did Zelenskiy walk away from the meeting empty-handed, Trump appeared to accuse Ukraine of accepting Russia’s terms for ending the war by handing over the entire eastern territory of the Donbas, the epicenter of ongoing fighting in Ukraine.

President Trump told reporters this weekend that they should “stop the status quo” on Donbass.

“Right now it’s being cleared. I think 78 percent of the land is already occupied by Russia,” he said on Air Force One on Sunday. “They should stop at the front now…go home and stop killing people and be done with it.”

Trump also warned the Ukrainian leader that during a lengthy phone call with Zelensky on Thursday, during which Putin agreed to hold a face-to-face meeting in Hungary, Putin said Putin would “destroy” Ukraine if he did not meet his demands.

The Financial Times reported that the meeting between President Trump and President Zelenskiy turned into a “screaming match,” with President Trump “constantly swearing,” according to an unnamed person familiar with the matter cited by the FT.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the meeting was “very interesting and cordial” but that he “strongly indicated” to both leaders that it was time to end the war.

“Let us both claim victory. Let history decide!” he said in a post on Friday.

“We are not losing this war, and Mr. Putin is not winning,” Zelensky put on a brave face Friday in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” recorded after his meeting with President Trump. He also remained optimistic, even though he left the White House without the much-needed Tomahawk missiles.

“I’m glad President Trump didn’t say ‘no,’ but he didn’t say ‘yes’ today,” Zelenskiy told “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker in an interview that aired Sunday.

He also said he was ready to participate in a summit between Putin and Trump in Budapest in the coming weeks. However, it remains to be seen whether Zelenskiy will be invited to Hungary.

Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the talks, that in an apparent effort to bring Russia to the negotiating table, Trump was mulling not only denying Ukraine Tomahawk missiles, as he had previously advocated, but also offering security guarantees to both Kiev and Moscow.

CNBC has reached out to the White House for further comment and is awaiting a response.

Those familiar with the Trump-Putin-Zelensky relationship worry that the US president could be easily swayed by the veteran Russian leader’s claims over Ukraine. They argue that President Trump does not seem ready or willing to apply further pressure on President Putin, whether it be through further arms transfers to Kiev or tightening economic restrictions on Russia.

“We continue to look down on Donald Trump as a kind of ‘fool of everyone’ because he’s so bombastic and says so many things at a mile an hour, but in reality he’s very transactional in his relationships,” New School international affairs professor Nina Khrushcheva told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday.

“Everyone keeps pulling him to one side or the other, whether it’s the Russian side or the Ukrainian side. But he doesn’t take sides and, interestingly, he really plays with both hands.”

He said Trump still wants to defeat Putin, but he has put Putin on a “tight leash,” as evidenced by his threat to send more arms to Ukraine.

“So far, I think it’s going well. He hasn’t given either side what they want, but he continues to move forward and he may eventually agree to potentially some kind of peace deal,” she said.

Michael O’Hanlon, director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, told CNBC that Putin is likely to wait for Trump to emerge.

“I think it would be more effective (for Mr. Trump) to combine a military threat with greater economic pressure, but maybe that will come later,” he said Friday.

O’Hanlon said there are several ways the U.S. could increase pressure on Russia, including new U.S. support for Ukraine and a larger crackdown on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers, which facilitate shipments of Russian oil to circumvent oil price caps and sanctions.

“We don’t have much trade with Russia, but of course we do trade with other countries. I think it’s time to talk about a strategy, not only with India but also with China, of looking at reducing interaction and economic interaction and threatening secondary sanctions if we don’t get that support,” he said.

“So these are different parts. They don’t all have to happen at the exact same moment, they can happen. You can phase them in, but I think President Trump is a little too obsessed with just the tomahawk, and also his personal relationship with President Putin, and I don’t think that’s enough[to stop Russia].”