Two foreign leaders have become more vexing to President Trump than he expected: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Each of them has complicated the political calculus for Trump on the world stage, owing not only to the suffering each of them has imposed on Ukrainians and Palestinians, respectively, but also to their reluctance to change course.

The president’s shift in attitude has been starkest in relation to Putin, who has resisted Trump’s urging to bring down the curtain on the war in Ukraine. Russia started the war by invading its neighbor in February 2022.

On Friday, Trump announced he had ordered two nuclear submarines to unspecified “appropriate regions” in response to “highly provocative statements” from Moscow.

The backstory to that move lies in Trump’s declaration earlier in the week, during a trip to Scotland, that he was tightening his deadline for Russia to work toward a ceasefire. The president said he was bringing the time frame down to “10 or 12 days.”

Moscow responded with a shoulder shrug, however. A Kremlin spokesperson said the nation had developed “a certain immunity” to such threats.

The sequence of events — and the general tone toward Putin — is a massive difference from late February, when Trump and Vice President Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office for his supposed ingratitude over American assistance.

Several times earlier in the year, Trump appeared to blame Ukraine for starting the war. In April, he said of Zelensky:........

© The Hill