President Trump has been buoyed by the ceasefire deal in Gaza, despite the many caveats that hang over the search for a durable peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

Now, with a wind in his sails from the Middle East, Trump turns to the Ukraine war. It’s a conflict he famously promised to resolve on his first day back in office. Yet it still burns almost a year after he won reelection.

Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday. It is expected to be a vastly different encounter from the fractious meeting between the two men that unfolded in late February.

Back then, Trump and Vice President Vance berated Zelensky, casting him as an ingrate with respect to the abundant U.S. aid that had gone to his nation.

These days, Trump’s frustrations seem to be more focused on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has not been swayed by his American counterpart’s urging to bring the war to an end.

The conflict began with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor.

Trump has grown frustrated with Putin’s apparent willingness to offer warm, vague words — and then ramp up military offensives regardless.

“We get a lot of bulls--- thrown at us by Putin, [if] you want to know the truth,” Trump complained over the summer. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Trump’s latest plan to bring the recalcitrant Russian leader to heel includes threatening that he might

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