“I speak to him a lot about getting this thing done,” Trump said on Monday.<\/p>\n
“And I always hang up and say: ‘Well, that was a nice phone call,'” Trump said. “And then missiles are launched into Kyiv<\/a> or some other city. After that happens three or four times, you say: ‘The talk doesn’t mean anything.'”<\/p>\n On Monday, Trump set a 50-day deadline for Putin to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine<\/a> or risk substantial economic sanctions. The deadline, like\u00a0others set by the president<\/a>, appears flexible. On Tuesday he said that, though he didn’t think 50 days was a long time, “it could be sooner than that.”<\/p>\n ‘Agent Melania Trumpenko’<\/p>\n The president revealed the role of his wife in highlighting the apparent hypocrisy in Putin’s dealings with the White House.<\/p>\n “I go home, I tell the first lady: ‘I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation,'” Trump said. “She said: ‘Oh really? Another city was just hit.'”<\/p>\n On platforms such as X and Telegram, Ukrainian social media users\u00a0shared posts and memes welcoming Melania Trump’s apparent role.<\/p>\n “So all this time Melania was for us?” the prominent blogger\u00a0Ihor Lachenkov posted.<\/p>\n “Melania for President of the United States \ud83d\ude48” a Telegram account with 1.5 million followers wrote.<\/p>\n Many have dubbed her “Agent Melania Trumpenko” and modified photos of the first lady to attach Ukrainian iconography to her clothing.<\/p>\n Others have used memes to poke fun at the suggestion that the first lady was the crucial voice that changed the US position on Ukraine.<\/p>\n One such post shared by the national TV news program TSN shows\u00a0a cartoon animal, a cinema detective and a picture of Melania Trump in a wide-brimmed hat at the 2025 inauguration with the text “Secret Agents: In cartoons, In movies, in real life.”<\/p>\n Another shows Godzilla marked as former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and King Kong marked as prime ministerial candidate Yulia Svyrydenko brawling, saying “A Woman Will Save Ukraine,” only for the Doge dog to attack both, saying: “It will be Melania Trump<\/a>.”<\/p>\n\n First lady’s influence<\/p>\n Melania Trump is Slovenian and grew up in the former Yugoslavia. Slovenia has provided humanitarian, economic and military support to Ukraine.<\/p>\n She has voiced her support for Ukraine previously, notably in a 2022 social media post on the platform X (formerly Twitter) calling on people to support the International Committee of the Red Cross’s humanitarian efforts after Russia began its full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n In an interview with DW TV, Tanja Fajon, Slovenian minister of foreign affairs, said she “really [doesn’t]\u00a0know what Melania’s\u00a0influence on Donald Trump” is.\u00a0But, Fajon added, it was “good to know we have a\u00a0first lady”\u00a0on Slovenia’s and Ukraine’s side.<\/p>\n Many Ukrainian users have noted that, because of her upbringing in Yugoslavia, which had a fraught relationship with Russia, she is the best-placed member of Trump’s circle when it comes to understanding the threat posed by Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n US first ladies have often exercised influence within the White House. Melania Trump’s predecessors have involved themselves with social programs and tried to help achieve policy outcomes for their husbands.<\/p>\n In an interview with Ukrainian television Kanal 24, former state security service officer\u00a0Ivan Stupak said he hoped that Melania Trump’s sympathies for his country were having an effect on US foreign policy.<\/p>\n “We\u2019ve seen in the histories of different countries that first ladies … it\u2019s not a 100% rule, but, in many cases, they don\u2019t just exist in the background, as a formality,”\u00a0Stupak said.<\/p>\n “I want to believe that she does have some influence,” Stupak said, “that she can say something, and Trump will listen to her.”<\/p>\n Ukrainian analyst: Trump disiilusioned with RussiaTrump stood with her husband as he surveyed the US military might on his birthdayImage: Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/AP\/dpa\/picture alliance<\/p>\n
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