ANALYSIS
Donald Trump will speak to Vladimir Putin in a two-hour phone call today (Image: AFP/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Beyond the blonde bouffant, fake tan and simplistic rhetoric there is a real commanding aura around Donald Trump. I witnessed this firsthand a little over two weeks ago, standing just a few feet away from the US President inside the Oval Office.
He was holding talks with Sir Keir Starmer on the Ukraine war and UK-US trade links. The Prime Minister and his team, including David Lammy and Peter Mandelson, appeared pensive as the Republican strongman held court. It was an unusual sight, one a socialist human rights lawyer, the other a brash New York real estate developer.
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Trump's call to Putin comes after his meeting with Keir Starmer (Image: PA)
Although seated, the six foot three president, dominated both physically and verbally. It was King Kong prowling his lair.
Trump’s team, including his pugnacious henchman JD Vance and Marco Rubio agreed, beamed and laughed at his every word.
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But Trump was charming too, engaging warmly with journalists for a full 30 minutes as he answered questions about all the things he wanted to talk about.
To my left, next to his great big Oval Office desk, was Trump’s infamous map of the Gulf of America, another example of his binary approach to geo politics.
And this is how I imagine will approach his telephone call with Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin later today.
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The businessman in him wants a deal. He believes he can out-muscle Putin. And his plain speaking black and white view of the world will make talks with the Kremlin despot that much easier.
Trump may also turn on the charm, knowing full well that could gain an advantage with ice cold Putin.
Just 24 hours after I left the famous Presidential office Trump was at it again with another world leader, Volodymyr Zelensky.
But the mood couldn’t have been more different.
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The love-in with Starmer was discarded for a brutal and ugly assault on the hero Ukrainian leader.
It was a signal from Trump to Putin that ‘I can cut up rough if needed’.