‘Playing America as a Patsy’ – Some US Conservatives Say Trump Is Getting Hoodwinked By Putin

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said that Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin “is playing America as a patsy” and he urged President Donald Trump to lodge tougher sanctions in order to jump-start Russian negotiations with Ukraine.

“IVE SEEN ENOUGH KILLING OF INNOCENT UKRAINIAN women + children,” Grassley wrote on social media leading into the weekend. “President Trump pls put the toughest of sanctions on Putin. U ought to c from clear evidence that he is playing America as a patsy.”

At a Republican town hall gathering in Northwood, Iowa, on Friday, someone in the crowd asked Grassley about the mounting death toll in the war and what he thought the American response should be.

“I would put more sanctions on Russia right now,” Grassley said. “And if we don’t want to give more armaments (to Ukraine), we ought to at least have the Patriot missiles so they can protect themselves.”

Former US Ambassador to the UN and once presidential rival to Trump in Republican primaries, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, responded to Grassley’s tweet with an “AMEN”.

“Rewarding an aggressor will only lead to more aggressive actions,” she had written earlier in the week. “Failing to stand up for democracies who are invaded will lead to more invasions of free countries. To reward Russia for bad behavior and punish Ukraine for fighting to defend itself would be a terrible injustice, America should know the difference between right and wrong and want to be on the right side of history.”

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“Russia started this war and has been the aggressor and violator in the conflict. Ukraine deserves the right to defend itself,” she wrote.

According to a study performed by the Pew Research Center earlier this month, Republicans are less likely than they were a year ago to say that Ukraine has the right to defend itself against Russia.

“Republicans have also become less likely to say the US has a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself and to express concern about Russia defeating Ukraine or invading other countries in the region,” the authors of the study wrote. “As a result of this change in opinion, the partisan gap on many of these issues has grown.”

“For example, when asked whether Russia is an enemy, competitor, or partner of the US, 40% of Republicans say Russia is an enemy, down from 58% last year. The share of Democrats and Democratic leaners who see Russia as an enemy is down 5 percentage points over the same period. Overall, half of Americans now call Russia an enemy, down from 61% in 2024.”

But as Trump, their party’s leader, grows weary of Putin’s stalling in the peace process and angrier at Putin’s mounting civilian strikes, there is reason to believe other Republicans are feeling the same way.

In a Truth Social post following his meeting with the Ukrainian leader in the Vatican after Pope Francis’ funeral, Trump questioned whether Putin is truly interested in ending the war, suggesting Moscow might need to face tougher measures like “banking” penalties or “secondary sanctions.”

While Grassley and Haley have been fairly consistent in expressing worries that Trump is too cozy with Putin, others in Republican leadership have made efforts in recent days to put the screws to the Kremlin strongman.

Two dozen Republican senators last week, led by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, co-sponsored a bill that would increase that pressure.

The legislation, called “The Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025” calls for both primary and secondary sanctions against Russia and its enablers if the Kremlin refuses to engage in good faith negotiations for peace with Ukraine, “or initiates another effort, including military invasion, that undermines the sovereignty of Ukraine after peace is negotiated,” as they put it.

It also would impose a 500 percent tariff on imported goods from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products.

“They are hard hitting for a reason,” Sen. Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said in a joint statement.

That legislation, introduced on Tuesday, now sits in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for discussion.

When interviewed by ABC on Saturday, one Democratic observer, former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, emphasized, “Russia started this war, not Ukraine, and it’s Russia, Vladimir Putin in particular, who’s the main obstacle to getting a ceasefire, and there have been moments when it seems like President Trump might have gotten that.

“Today may be one of those moments. Unfortunately, every time there’s a glimmer of recognition that Putin’s responsible, President Trump snaps back and puts all the pressure on Ukraine and makes more concessions to Russia. I hope that doesn’t happen again,” he said.