While the reason for his shift is not clear, Trump’s more conciliatory words — which contradict his own party’s official platform — follow his recent association with several people sympathetic to Russian influence in Ukraine. They include his campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has worked for Ukraine’s deposed pro-Russian president, his foreign policy adviser Carter Page, and the former secretary of state and national security adviser Henry Kissinger.
In the days after Putin annexed Crimea in mid-March 2014, for instance, Trump expressed strong opposition to the move. Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show on March 13, he said that the land grab — which Obama and top European leaders denounced as a gross violation of international law — “should never have happened.”
Trump has spoken positively about Putin for years and from the beginning of the Ukraine crisis, he has focused less on Putin’s aggression and more on what Trump calls Obama’s weakness.
But until recently, Trump also frequently suggested that the U.S. needed to take a stronger stand in response. “So far we have all lip service,” Trump said of the international reaction to Putin’s aggression during his comments in Kiev last September.
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