Calculated or chaotic? Decoding Donald Trump’s ‘pivot’ towards Putin (Representative AI image)
NEW DELHI: Is US President Donald Trump, in his second term, aligning himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin — or is he simply echoing a worldview that conveniently overlaps with the Kremlin’s? A recent analysis by Bloomberg suggests the former, sparking a wave of commentary about whether Trump’s rhetoric and policies are veering dangerously close to Russia’s.
Titled “Trump Tells Americans What Putin Wants Them to Hear”, the Bloomberg investigation presents a data-driven assessment of how Trump’s public statements and online posts mirror the Kremlin’s narrative. Using a large language model to examine over 300 public comments by Trump between August 2024 and mid-March 2025, as well as more than 3,000 social media posts from the Trump administration, the study found notable parallels in tone and message.
The findings reveal that Trump’s commentary — particularly regarding Nato, Ukraine’s sovereignty, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy — often aligns with positions publicly held by Moscow. This includes a recurring narrative on the occupation of Ukrainian territory and criticism of Kyiv’s Nato ambitions, both long-standing Russian talking points.
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However, world politics expert Prof Pushpesh Pant disagreed with this analysis and said that Trump’s foreign policy cannot be simply reduced to an alignment with Putin.
“Donald Trump is irrational and unpredictable. Any attempt to interpret his foreign policy through tweets or Western media analysis is ultimately futile,” Prof Pant said in a discussion with Times of India.
“No matter how much he wants to appear aligned with Putin, that stance will hold only as long as he needs to counterbalance China.”
Referring to past presidential misjudgements, Pant added, “As George W Bush once famously said about his first meeting with Putin, ‘I looked into his eyes and I saw his soul. I trusted him.’ That quote has become emblematic of how easily some leaders have misread Putin, and Trump is no different from that list.”
This rhetorical shift is also apparent in Trump’s own remarks. At a February rally, he recounted a conversation with a foreign leader: “One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent?’… ‘No, I would not protect you.’” The comment, which drew condemnation from US allies, was interpreted as a direct challenge to Nato’s collective defence commitments — a position long sought by Russia to weaken the alliance.
Bloomberg also noted that social media content from Trump administration officials prioritises themes like immigration, internal discord
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