After that White House meeting, President Zelenskyy called his meeting with President Trump positive despite the fact he did not get a delivery of Tomahawk missiles he requested.
Even though Trump backed off the idea of sending long-range missiles to Ukraine, Zelenskyy told reporters he believes Trump wants to avoid any escalation with Russia until he meets with its president, Vladimir Putin.
On the issue of supplying the missiles, national security analyst Bob Maginnis tells AFN it appears President Trump is holding back because of the upcoming meeting with Russia’s president.
“Zelenskyy, I believe, has it right,” Maginnis says.
President Trump is scheduled to sit down soon with Putin face to face in Hungary. No firm date has been set but that meeting is expected to happen in late October or early November. The two world leaders last met in August, at a U.S. air base in Alaska.
After that meeting in Alaska, Maginnis suspects Trump is “pretty leery” about Putin and his peaceful intentions, and is doing a bait-and-switch tactic to negotiate with him.
“And the switch part,” Maginnis explains, “is giving Tomahawks to Zelenskyy and, of course, maintaining a close relationship with Zelenskyy, as Trump has with the number of meetings and with the Europeans.”
