Trump no longer respects Putin, prioritizes ties with other leaders - analyst

This was stated on Espreso TV by American political strategist Jason Smart.

"Personal relationships are extremely important to Trump. He believed he had a good rapport with Putin and wanted to persuade him to agree to a ceasefire. But during his second term, he’s already developed close relationships with other leaders, for example, with French President Macron, the President of Finland, and also with Chancellor Merz," Smart said.

According to the strategist, Trump and Putin no longer have a strong relationship, whereas Trump has built strong ties with other international leaders.

"It’s all about personal connections. And it's actually a good thing that Putin turned out to be too arrogant and isolated himself from everything that’s going on. Trump has now lost respect for him, because for a long time he genuinely believed he could persuade Putin," Smart noted.

"Trump had a certain level of respect for him, but things didn’t go as planned. At this point, maintaining personal communication is very important. Fortunately, relations between Trump and Zelenskyy have improved. It’s also important to note that there is a warming in bilateral relations between Ukraine and the U.S."

• U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Russia had proposed a “new and different approach” to resolving the war against Ukraine — but he did not clarify what that entailed.