How the long running Trump Putin bromance is still not delivering

The phone call between President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin may not have achieved great strides on ending the war in Ukraine, but it did confirm one thing: The bromance is real. But a question is left hanging: What does this bonhomie actually deliver for the men in the Kremlin and White House? 

“The tone and spirit of the conversation were excellent,” Trump said of his Russian counterpart after their two-hour conversation Monday, adding that Putin is a “nice gentleman.” Putin adviser Yuri Ushakov, meanwhile, said Trump and Putin called each other by their first names and “neither of them wanted to end the conversation.” 

Earlier this year, Putin commissioned a portrait of his American counterpart and delivered it to him. One of Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff, told Tucker Carlson in March that the president was “clearly touched” by what he called a “beautiful” portrait.

Trump is not just seeking an end to the war in Ukraine, which Russia started by launching its large-scale 2022 invasion; in addition, he has made no secret of his desire to do lucrative deals with a Kremlin reintroduced to the international financial fold.

In April he wrote on Truth Social that he was “hopeful Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week,” adding that “both will then start to do big business with the United States of America.”

Before that happens, Trump and his team have suggested they want the war to end, something the president has made a clear political goal, having promised during his presidential campaign that it would take just 24 hours to secure, although he later told Time magazine that this was an “exaggeration.”

His call with Putin appears to have brought that no closer to fruition, with a chasm still aching between Ukraine’s willingness for a 30-day ceasefire and Russia’s demand for Kyiv’s effective surrender.

It’s not been a total love-in between the leaders of these former Cold War foes. Trump has expressed frustration with his Russian counterpart for continuing to launch missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians while negotiations to end the fighting are ongoing. 

And Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the White House is not asking the Senate to hold back on a bill that would slap a 500% tariff on imports from countries that buy Russian oil, gas and other products.

But one thing that Putin’s personal connection with Trump does is buy him time, according to Mark Galeotti, director of the British consultancy Mayak Intelligence.

Putin has shown little desire for any sort of ceasefire that does not satisfy his maximalist goals. And right now his forces continue to make slow but steady battlefield advances in eastern Ukraine, according to independent monitors like the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank.

So, with negotiations at an impasse, Putin will be more than happy to delay any definite decision — on both American support for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, Galeotti said.

“Every week counts” in this “particularly pivotal moment,” Galeotti said. If his call with Trump delays making any decisions, then “I think Putin will see it as a good job done,” he said.

As with its lack of detail on how the war might end, the call also provided little clarity on whether or when Trump and Putin might meet in person, something they have both suggested could happen. If and when this real-world tête-à-tête does take place, it will be harder for Putin to resist giving Trump something, according to Galeotti.

The Russians are “trying to avoid giving anything because they are very, very hard-nosed negotiators,” he said. “But if they do meet in person, then Trump will have to leave with something.”

While no date for a meeting between the two leaders has been set, their longtime fondness has long caused widespread alarm across the West. Intelligence agencies see Putin as a foe who has challenged international norms through hybrid warfare such as cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns against democratic institutions.

NBC News has asked the White House for a response.

The American president’s connection with Putin has roots at least as far back as 2013, when he visited Moscow for the Miss Universe pageant and pondered on Twitter whether Putin will “become my new best friend?”

By 2015, before the two men had even met, Putin was heaping praise on Trump as a “colorful, talented person,” something the American leader said was a “great honor” coming from the “highly respected” Russian leader. 

A year later, Trump openly urged Putin to influence the American presidential election, telling a rally in Doral, Florida, that “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” This was in the eyes of many observers an overt invitation for Russian intelligence services to hack into the account of his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Putin would indeed conduct a campaign to interfere, according to a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report released in 2020.

During Trump’s first term, the pair met on multiple occasions without any staff present, a highly unusual departure from standard protocol. But the Russian government would ultimately conclude that while the president himself was friendly, his administration was not. The Trump White House imposed sanctions and withdrew from a nuclear deal it said Russia wasn’t respecting.

Now Trump’s second term looks like it could be a repeat.

Asked about future opportunities for face-to-face diplomacy between himself Putin, Trump replied: “We have to meet. He and I will meet. I think we’ll solve it, or maybe not.”