BAD BROMANCE

Fox News Analyst Rips Trump’s ‘Man Crush’ on Putin

Even Fox was forced to admit the president’s obsession with Vladimir Putin was a little weird.

Fox News analyst Brit Hume claims President Donald Trump’s longstanding “man-crush” on Vladimir Putin is officially over, and the president no longer considers the Russian leader a “friend.”

“I think he’s soured on him now,” Hume told host Bret Baier on Wednesday night. “The relationship, the friendship, if there ever was one, is over.”

Trump shocked the world on Tuesday by dramatically “breaking up” with Moscow, ending his years-long quest to court Putin’s favor and instead offering Ukraine his full support to fight back and regain all of their territory stolen by Russia.

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The decision appears to have been a long time coming. Trump bragged on the campaign trail last year that his personal relationship with Putin would allow him to negotiate a ceasefire on “Day 1” of his presidency. During their summit in Alaska last month, the president even went so far as to literally roll out the red carpet for his Russian counterpart.

Yet Putin has repeatedly rebuffed Trump’s attempts at forging a friendship and continued to escalate his invasion of Ukraine. After stiffing Trump during the highly anticipated meeting in Alaska, Putin appeared at a summit in Beijing several days later, where he warmly embraced Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un, and India’s Narendra Modi and offered the three countries his unconditional support.

Shortly afterwards, he blew off Trump’s invitation to host a trilateral meeting between the two of them and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, torched NATO’s peace plan by claiming any foreign peacekeeping troops deployed to Ukraine would be “legitimate targets” for the Russian army, and this week escalated tensions further by launching drone incursions in NATO member-states.

When asked if Putin’s actions “embarrassed” Trump with his latest round of provocations, Hume responded, “That is exactly right, Bret. I mean, I think he had almost a man crush on Vladimir Putin and his affinity for him, which I thought was peculiar to start with, went on for years and lasted well into this administration and up right into the meeting up in Alaska, in which he greeted him quite warmly and called him by his first name and all the rest of it.

“But I think he is soured on him now. And I think these recent attacks on—not attacks, but incursions into NATO countries have further soured him. And so I think that the relationship, the friendship, if there really ever was one, is over. And it certainly could change the course of all of this.”

But when asked if there is any way back into Trump’s good graces for Putin, Hume added, “But bear in mind, the president has really kind of left it up to Europe for the next steps. He won’t impose any new sanctions and so on unless Europe goes first. And at the end of his comment on Truth Social, which was quite notable, he said, ‘Good luck to everybody.’ So, it’s not entirely clear how much has changed.”

Over in Moscow, however, news of Trump’s deteriorating relationship with Moscow has been met largely with bemusement. Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and head of the Kremlin’s security council, predicted Trump would “return” to Putin’s side in a matter of days.

“He will return. He always returns,” said Medvedev. ”He’ll probably propose that [Zelensky] sign a capitulation. Or maybe fly to Mars with his pardoned Musk. Or come up with something else “historic” to claim a Nobel Prize.

“The key, after all, is to keep drastically changing your position on every major issue. That’s what makes for ‘successful’ governance through social media.”

The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment.

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