While in Alaska on Tuesday to campaign for incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan, President Trump was asked about his disagreement with Sullivan concerning Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Sullivan believes Putin is a dictator while Trump...well, I'll let him say it:
Well, look, I have to make deals with people so I don’t go around calling them names. I’m a deal maker. I’ve always been a very good deal maker. I became very rich because of deals. So I don’t go around mocking people.
As one can imagine much of the commentary to this statement revolves around Trump's dubious claim that he does not mock people. Name calling and mocking people is Trump's stock and trade. In the past few days, Trump has mocked a woman assaulted at his rally in Youngstown, Ohio, referred to South Carolina Democratic Senate candidate Annie Andrews as Trannie Andrews and just this past Wednesday afternoon referred to Arizona Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs as "a dumb person."
But I want to focus for a moment around Trump's unwillingness to describe Putin as a dictator because he is perfectly happy to describe Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky as a dictator as he did in February 2025. This was not long before Trump and JD Vance publicly berated Zelensky at the White House in front of the whole world.
It will come as no surprise that Putin has also referred to Ukraine as "a dictatorship." It is even less surprising to know this isn't the first time Trump has declined to refer Putin as a dictator. During a White House visit by French President Macron days before he and Vance ambushed Zelensky, Trump was asked if he considered Putin a dictator. He replied, "I don't use those words lightly."
Trump uses words lightly all the time. He certainly used the word dictator lightly when describing Zelensky. But where it concerns Putin, Trump treads carefully. He doesn't want to displease his boss.
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