Martin Schram: Trump says no to 'Tap-along Putin'

Martin Schram, Tribune News Service on May 6, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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Buried – and virtually out-of-sight – after a landslide of poll-driven OMG! insight-journalism that quantified America’s wide and deep discontent with the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s 2.0 presidency, is a two-sentenced quote that historians may someday declare historic.

But it was easy to overlook. It was tacked onto the end of yet another long, ho-hum Trump Truth Social rant. Yet it may end up hailed as history’s missing link in the first hopeful harbinger for world peace we have seen from Trump 2.0. At best, it may be the first sign of long overdue reversal of this president’s personal (but definitely not presidential) manipulation-vulnerable mindset.

It is a concern that has long puzzled a world of historians.

For reasons that perhaps only he understands, Trump has made himself appear publicly vulnerable to being easily manipulated by Russia’s Vladimir Putin, ever since the early days of Trump’s 1.0 presidency. Remember Helsinki? On July 16, 2018, after a summit with Putin, America’s still new President Trump gave a most untraditional answer when a reporter asked if he believed America’s intelligence agencies who concluded Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election (by sponsoring cyberattacks and fake social media news) – or if he believed Putin, who denied it.

Trump stunned the world by picking door number 2. “President Putin says it's not Russia. I don't see any reason why it would be.” Ever since, Trump and his team seemed to often repeat Putin’s refrains – including blaming Ukraine for being invaded by Russia.

Fast forward to the morning of April 26, 2025. Trump, now America’s 47 th president, seemed to be in one of his moods where he is feeling unappreciated and disrespected. So he self-medicated with the Rx that always seems to work best – his Truth Social app. And he chose the dosage that makes him feel better: name-calling opposition pols and the press.

“No matter what deal I make with respect to Russia/Ukraine … even if it’s the greatest deal ever made, The Failing New York Times will speak BADLY of it.” He went on to ridicule a journalist’s height, Joe Biden’s age and called Putin’s 2014 Ukraine landgrab an “Obama Crimea Giveaway.”

But then Trump tacked on two very different sentences. They weren’t about bullying, but a truth-admitting turnabout and a unique self-revelation:

“With all that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days. It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’”

“ … he’s just tapping me along…”???

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. After seven years of posing as a presidential strongman but willing to seem easily manipulated by Putin, U.S. President 45 & 47 actually acknowledged that even he gets what we have long seen. Tap-tap, tap-tap, tap-tap.

Trump had been promoting his own idea of a Russia-Ukraine peace plan – and been sharply criticized for it – because he conceded in advance that Putin could get the things he most wants: U.S. recognition that Crimea is now Russia’s; Russia can remain in all the Ukraine land it has seized; and importantly to the Kremlin, U.S. concession that Ukraine will never be part of NATO. Trump was being sharply criticized for giving all that away as a pre-concession.

Then Putin interrupted Trump’s peace promotions by massively bombing Kyiv, slaughtering men, women, children and elderly. Trump, now shamed as the world watched, erupted at Putin as never before. “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

But Trump’s April 26 post had gone further. He had post-blurted that most personal realization that as the U.S. president, he had been gullible and vulnerable to being tapped along, all along, by Russia’s strongman bully.

Why did Trump change? Well we don’t know. But for just a moment, let’s put ourselves in 45/47’s shoes. Trump has just endured the most godawful 100th Day analyses of any president in seven decades. Even polls from staunch conservative media showed people saying they overwhelmingly disapprove of his performance in handling just about all issues, domestic and global.

Maybe Trump was so shaken that he decided he must change – at least on things where he knows, deep down, he’s long been vulnerable. Maybe change just enough so he can win back the support of those once-loyal Trump voters who apparently feel his chaotic presidency is starting to hurt their families more than even Biden’s ever did.

He can start by at least standing strong, presidentially, to a dictator who has been tap-tap-tapping him along while seizing more land than any despot since Adolf Hitler.

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