Trump is "in trouble" domestically and the Russians are taking advantage of it, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations said. US President Donald Trump is in "big trouble" ahead of November's midterm elections and is buying Russian diesel in a bid to bring down fuel prices before the vote, an expert has said. Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told TVP World that Trump and his Republican party are under pressure at home, and that the Kremlin has sensed an opportunity. The US president signed a diesel deal with Russia earlier in October – a move that has soured relations with Ukraine. "Trump is in trouble," he said. "He wants to bring down the price of gasoline and diesel. That explains why he's doing what he's doing with Russia. And the Russians are taking advantage of it." Commenting on Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff praising the Russian leader as a "humanitarian" for freeing US citizen Stephen Hubbard on Wednesday, Kupchan said the prisoner's release was "a gesture to try to reciprocate the affection that Trump has shown to Putin by buying diesel, by waiving sanctions, by seemingly pulling the United States away from Ukraine." "I don't think Vladimir Putin has a humanitarian bone in his body," the analyst said, adding that "on some level, we're living in an alternative reality." No breakthrough imminent Despite Witkoff coming away from Russia with a vow from Moscow to resume negotiations with Ukraine and the US on a technical level, Kupchan said he does not think a diplomatic breakthrough is imminent. He said Trump has vacillated between favoring Kyiv and Moscow over the course of the war because he is "erratic and unpredictable" but his current approach is misguided as it send Putin the wrong signals. He argued that by granting Moscow concessions before the Russians have shown good faith toward ending the war, Trump is "putting the cart before the horse." "I think in many respects, Trump is making a negotiated settlement less likely," he said. "Putin will stop when he is stopped. And that requires a long-term flow of military and economic assistance to Ukraine." He also cast doubt on the prospects of concrete results from any possible trilateral talks between Trump, Putin, and China's Xi Jinping. "My best guess is that if Trump sits down with Putin and XI, the meeting will produce nothing," he said. "Trump had a summit with Putin in Alaska. What came out of it? Nothing. So I think the most likely outcome from a trilateral in Shenzhen on the margins of the APEC summit is not much."
