The divide inside president Donald Trump’s own camp over Vladimir Putin has now gone public. On Tuesday, when U.S. intelligence leaders appear in front of Congress to deliver their first Worldwide Threat Assessment of Trump’s second term, they will be forced to pick a side.
That report is expected to reflect either the long-standing intelligence stance that Putin is trying to crush Ukraine and weaken the U.S. and its allies—or the new framing pushed by Trump’s allies, who now describe Putin as a trustworthy future partner who wants to end the war, hold territory, and restart normal ties with the U.S.
According to The New York Times, that contradiction is at the center of growing tension inside the administration. The split got sharper after Steve Witkoff, one of Trump’s oldest friends from his real estate days and now his handpicked envoy to the Middle East and Russia, started echoing the Kremlin’s lines almost word for word.
Speaking to Tucker Carlson, the pro-Trump independent media journalist, Witkoff rejected the idea that Europe needed peacekeepers to hold Russia back, saying it was “a combination of a posture and a pose.” He called it paranoia. “It’s this sort of idea of we’ve all got to be like Winston Churchill, the Russians are going to march across Europe,” he said. “I think that’s preposterous.”
Witkoff downplays Ukraine invasion and calls Putin ‘straight up’
Three years after Russian troops rolled into Kyiv, Witkoff told Carlson that he doesn’t believe Putin wants to take over all of Ukraine. “Why would they want to absorb Ukraine?” he said. “For what purpose, exactly? They don’t need to absorb Ukraine. They want stability there.” He also described his meeting with Putin as honest. “I thought he was straight up with me,” Witkoff said, referring to the same man who told the world he wouldn’t invade Ukraine, right before he did exactly that.
This new tone has left American allies, diplomats, and even career intelligence professionals stunned. Before Trump came into power, the general consensus in Washington and across Europe was that they had underestimated Putin for far too long.
Back in 2007, Putin made it clear he believed parts of the former Soviet Union should be returned to Russia. He followed up with military action in Georgia, the annexation of Crimea, and sending unmarked soldiers into Donbas to fight a proxy war.
Even then, sanctions took time. Europe was late to rearm. That’s something Trump himself still uses when he demands more defense spending from NATO allies.
But while he pressures Europe to defend itself, he refuses to say plainly that Russia invaded Ukraine. That denial puts him at odds with several European leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said last week, “I don’t trust Putin.”
Starmer told The New York Times, “I’m sure Putin would try to insist that Ukraine should be defenseless after a deal because that gives him what he wants, which is the opportunity to go in again.”
Intelligence leaders walk a tightrope ahead of testimony
As of now, there is no sign that U.S. intelligence agencies have changed their assessment of Putin. Their conclusions still paint Russia as a threat. But when Tulsi Gabbard, the new Director of National Intelligence, and John Ratcliffe, the new CIA director, testify on Tuesday, they will have to find a way to talk about Russia without openly clashing with the narrative coming from the White House.
Witkoff, meanwhile, continues to describe a future where Russia and the U.S. cooperate. He told Carlson that the two countries could “share sea lanes, maybe send LNG gas into Europe together, maybe collaborate on A.I. together.” But in his scenario, Russia keeps the land it currently holds and Ukraine stays out of NATO permanently. “Who doesn’t want to see a world like that?” he asked.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said these comments from Trump’s people are causing confusion inside the intelligence community. “If you grew up in the intelligence community knowing all the awful things Vladimir Putin had done and all of a sudden you have a change in posture where you completely take Russia’s side, how do you make sense of that?” he said.
Warner also confirmed that the upcoming intelligence report is still in line with previous assessments and hasn’t been watered down. But what’s said publicly in front of Congress remains unclear. So far, he added, the administration’s public comments on Ukraine have ignored the traditional view that Russia is the aggressor.
Foreign governments see Russian talking points in Trump’s messaging
All of this is putting a strain on U.S. relationships with intelligence partners abroad. The U.S. has more collection capabilities than anyone, but the data from allies still matters.
If partners begin to doubt whether the U.S. is being honest or consistent about its analysis, they could stop sharing sensitive information. Officials from several allied governments said off the record that they were alarmed by how closely Witkoff’s remarks mirrored Kremlin propaganda.
For example, Witkoff defended the so-called referendums held by Russia in four occupied Ukrainian provinces. These votes were widely condemned as fake, with reports of people being threatened with torture or deportation if they didn’t vote the right way.
Still, Witkoff spoke about them as if they were legitimate elections. “There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule,” he said.
The response from Kyiv came fast. Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told Ukrainian media on Monday that Witkoff should be removed from his role.
“These are simply disgraceful, shocking statements,” he said. “He is relaying Russian propaganda. And I have a question: Who is he? Is he Trump’s envoy, or maybe he’s Putin’s envoy?”
President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking to Time magazine on Monday, took a more careful approach. He said he believed Russia had managed to influence parts of Trump’s team with false information. In a previous interview, he said the disinformation campaign surrounding Trump had damaged their relationship for years.
Still, Zelensky pushed back directly against one of Trump’s repeated claims. The U.S. president has said that retreating Ukrainian troops in western Russia had been surrounded. “That was a lie,” Zelensky said.
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This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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