Just under one month ago, on March 30, President Trump said in an interview with NBC News that he was “very angry” and “pissed” at Vladimir Putin and that he was contemplating “secondary tariffs on oil, on all oil coming out of Russia.” This was supposedly a sign that “the talk of Trump ‘switching sides’ in the war was premature and exaggerated, even if his approach is a marked break with what came before and has obvious pitfalls.”

I went through the many, many policy decisions Trump has enacted that favor Russia, balanced against this one comment.

You may have noticed that since this declaration a month ago, other than one or two jotted-off posts on Truth Social, Trump has done Jacques mierde in terms of new tariffs or other negative consequences for Putin; in fact, Russia got no new tariffs during the big global tariff rollout while Ukraine did. (No, I don’t think tanking the global economy, reducing demand for Russia’s oil, counts.)

We continue to send Steve “maybe Hamas duped me” Witkoff into meetings with Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials without so much as his own U.S. translator, and Witkoff continues to repeat false Russian propaganda in his interviews.

Trump says a lot of things, which is why we ought to focus on what he does, rather than what he says.

Before Trump took office, U.S. policies – though deeply flawed under Biden’s hesitant, indecisive leadership and slow-walking of weapons systems – were at least broadly pro-Ukraine. Since Trump took office, they have been thoroughly anti-Ukraine. We have indeed effectively switched sides on the war.

I would also note that back on April 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace” in Ukraine. Well, it’s been almost four weeks, and Russia is still bombing the bejeezus out of Ukrainian civilian targets. Russia’s demands have barely budged at all — they want all four oblasts in the east, Ukraine demilitarized (and thus unable to fight off any future Russian invasion) and all U.S. sanctions lifted.

Any conclusions yet, Mr. Secretary?