Despite denouncing the bloodshed on the ground, Trump seemed to be allowing his Russian counterpart to drag out the conflict.

Donald Trump was optimistic that he could facilitate a ceasefire with one phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Instead, Trump seems to have bought the dictator even more time to continue his brutal war in Ukraine.

While Trump has repeatedly said that only he could produce a breakthrough via one-on-one talks with Putin, he has failed thus far to sway the Russian leader to make any substantive change.

In an op-ed Monday for The Washington Post, Max Boot — a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations — said that for all of Trump’s boasts of being a master dealmaker “in the face of Russian intransigence, he keeps violating the prime rule of successful negotiating: You must apply leverage.”

“Putin is playing him for a fool, and Trump doesn’t even seem to realize it,” Boot added.