Has President Putin Not Lied Or Not Said No To President Trump Because President Trump Has Avoided Asking A Direct Question That Would Elicit A Lie Or A No? For Example, The 30-Day Case-Fire.
Has President Putin Not Lied Or Not Said No To President Trump Because President Trump Has Avoided Asking A Direct Question That Would Elicit A Lie Or A No?
Has President Putin Specifically And Directly Said No To President Trump When Asked By President Trump To Agree To A 30-Day Cease Fire?
Has President Trump Asked The Question? And If Not, Why Not?
Maintaining An Illusion To Prevent A Bilateral Rupture
Last week, Donald Trump, President of the United States (2017-2021 and 2025-2029), shared “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, [if] you want to know the truth. He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”
Yesterday, President Trump shared “I am very disappointed with President Putin, I thought he was somebody that meant what he said. He’ll talk so beautifully and then he’ll bomb people at night. We don’t like that.”
What President Trump did not share is if Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation (2000-2008 and 2012-2030), had during any of their six reported conversations thus far in 2025 either directly lied to him or directly said no to him in response to a request from President Trump.
Unknown since his inauguration at 12:00 pm on 20 January 2025, is if President Trump specifically asked President Putin to accept the thirty-day ceasefire proposed by President Trump and accepted by Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine (2019-2024; term extended due to imposition of martial law in 2022)? Meaning, asked for an answer: yes or no.
There seems to be a narrative crafted by President Trump and President Putin where they each engage in linguistic acrobatics to avoid directly setting-up or responding with a no when the question is about a want from President Trump.
President Trump does not want to provide an opportunity for President Putin to respond with a no and President Putin does not want to provide President Trump with a reason to reduce direct dialogue.
A result is the statement last week from President Trump where he did not share that President Putin responded with a no. However, he did come quite near, but not yet there linguistically to confirm President Putin had lied to him- and used the word lie to describe it.
Reviewing statements and reporting about statements by President Trump and other officials within The White House and from officials at the United States Department of State, there does not seem to be specific reporting (quoting) that President Trump specifically asked President Putin to accept the thirty-day cease fire and if President Putin said no. The White House and the United States Department of State have not responded to a request for comment. There are statements from officials of the government of the Russian Federation reflecting opposition to a thirty-day ceasefire.
There does not seem to be a publicly confirmed statement from President Trump where he said “I asked President Putin directly to agree to the thirty-day cease fire and President Putin responded directly to my request with a no.”
During the Trump-Pence Administration (2017-2021), President Trump shared that President Putin never lied to him.
During the Trump-Vance Administration (2025-2029), President Trump has repeated that President Putin has never lied to him.
Since 24 February 2022, President Zelensky has shared repeatedly that President Putin lied to the Bush-Cheney Administration (2001-2009), the Obama-Biden Administration (2009-2017), the Trump-Pence Administration (2017-2021), the Biden-Harris Administration (2021-2025), and to the Trump-Vance Administration (2025-2029).
