New Analysis: Has Trump Ditched Putin?

Trump now say he wants Ukraine to regain Russian occupied territories. Has the president switched sides?

When reporters asked Trump on Tuesday whether NATO countries should shoot down Russian aircraft entering their airspace—a direct question about Monday’s Copenhagen drone attacks—he responded “Yes, I do.”

His Truth Social post called Russia a “paper tiger” that’s been “fighting aimlessly.”

Then he met warmly with Zelensky, praising Ukrainian forces and supporting full territorial restoration including Crimea.

It’s a plot twist as ludicrous as ‘Who Killed J.R.?’ when we were asked to forget an entire season because Bobby was only “dreaming” about killing his brother. Yet this isn’t Southfork, and we’re definitely not dreaming - all these things actually happened, which begs the question:

Has Donald Trump finally ditched Vladimir Putin?

The Copenhagen Probe

Start with what prompted Tuesday’s question. Sophisticated drones shut down Copenhagen Airport for four hours Monday night, performing advanced maneuvers over critical infrastructure before vanishing. Oslo experienced identical attacks. Danish PM Mette Frederiksen called it “the most severe assault on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”

Denmark is 95% certain Russia’s behind it. The administration’s response beyond that reporter Q&A? Silence. No formal statement. No condemnation. No action.

This silence speaks volumes. A genuine break with Putin would demand thunderous condemnation of attacks on NATO capitals. Instead, Trump gave reporters a qualified soundbite about shooting down aircraft he’ll never actually target.

The Pattern

Look at Trump’s actual record on Ukraine:

Patriot Missiles

Promised three times. Demanded payment. Cancelled delivery. Three times in nine months.

Military Aid

Now flows through the PURL initiative—requiring European allies to fund US weapons purchases. September saw two $500 million packages approved, but Europe’s paying, not America.

Sanctions

Trump threatens “powerful tariffs” on Russia but makes them conditional on every European nation first stopping Russian energy purchases—an impossible requirement he knows won’t be met.

Troop Levels

Continue declining in Europe despite the rhetoric.

The pattern is unmistakable: tough talk, no action

What Happened in Anchorage

The August 15 Trump-Putin summit in Anchorage turned out to be a sham farce in which Putin pissed all over Trump after three hours without a ceasefire agreement. Trump emerged humiliated later, saying Putin had “let me down.” By September, he was using profanity about Putin publicly, calling his niceness “meaningless.”

This apparent deterioration in relations coincides perfectly with Trump’s plummeting approval (39%), disastrous economic indicators (August added just 22,000 jobs versus 75,000 expected), and a looming government shutdown.

There is a slim possibility, though, that Trump has had a road to Damascus conversion—but even if he had, there’s no way he’d jettison the carrot Putin and Xi have dangled before him.

Crypto Corruption

The Trump family has accumulated billions in cryptocurrency wealth since taking office—but the value of those shares grows exponentially if Trump continues on his mission to tank the US dollar, tariff American, and ultimately replace teh Fiat currency with crypto. That’s the Gordian knot Putin and Xi have Trump trapped in: he gets to be king and the richest man in America but only if he sells out democracy and destroys the US.

And therein lies the rub—unless a group of senators and former presidents offer him an equally enriching scheme to walk away, he’s not switching sides.

- The $TRUMP memecoin peaked at $27 billion market cap

- Eric Trump holds $500-600 million in American Bitcoin

- Melania’s token holdings hit $1.1 billion

- Total family crypto wealth: Reports range from $2.9 billion to $16 billion

This isn’t traditional corruption. It’s a new model with a sliding scale, where the presidency becomes a wealth extraction machine powered by digital assets that transcend borders and oversight.

The dollar’s 11% crash this year—worst since abandoning the gold standard in 1973—isn’t a coincidence. It’s the intended outcome.