RT, Russia’s state-owned propaganda network, mocked Donald Trump just a day after he offered up light criticism of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
RT posted a video of Trump apparently dozing off at a National Prayer Service in Washington along with the caption, “Trump must be tired after signing all those executive orders, deporting all those people and abolishing all those genders. Melania makes sure he doesn’t pull a Biden and fall asleep.”
Trump must be tired after signing all those executive orders, deporting all those people and abolishing all those genders Melania makes sure he doesn’t pull a Biden and fall asleep https://t.co/IvRUqDjz8f pic.twitter.com/eVPi3psrpq— RT (@RT_com) January 21, 2025
The jab at Trump comes less than 24 hours after Trump criticized Putin for “not making a deal” to end the war against Ukraine.
“He’s not doing so well. I mean, he’s grinding it out … it’s not making him look very good. … I think he would be well off to end that war,” Trump told reporters.
Trump has usually avoided criticizing Putin over the issue of Ukraine. Trump has even claimed that the war wasn’t Putin’s fault and blamed it on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The war began in 2022 after Putin lied and said areas of Ukraine were under control by neo-Nazis, justifying an incursion across the border by the Russian military who has been there since.
Not only has Trump offered up excuses for Putin, he has even blamed Ukraine for their predicament—at one point claiming that Zelenskyy “let that war start.”
RT has traditionally been in Trump’s corner. In September, the Department of Justice accused the network of being part of a scheme to funnel millions of dollars to pro-Trump media influencers. Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said RT was “functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.”
Trump, of course, benefitted from Russian assistance during the 2016 presidential campaign. A bipartisan report from the Senate released in 2020 detailed contacts between Trump associates and the Russians, who distributed pro-Trump disinformation.
The Russian criticism of Trump comes on the heels of signals from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that he would pursue his “toughest” anti-U.S. policy. Trump has lavished Kim with praise and during his last stint as president gave the international pariah state a public relations boost by posing for photos with the dictator.
Trump is already causing disruption and concern with America’s traditional allies in NATO while making threatening overtures against Greenland and Panama. Just a few days into his second presidency and Trump already has the beginnings of a foreign policy headache on his hands.
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