U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 13, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

London School of Economics Professor Peter Trubowitz told ‘The Pulse’ that President Donald Trump has good reason to run off to a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

“You have to keep in mind what [Trump’s] trying to avoid as well as what he’s trying to achieve,” Trubowitz told show host Francine Lacqua. “He’s got lousy poll numbers. He’s got pushback over the Epstein files and there’s a backlash in the heartland over the Big Beautiful ill. So, Trump is putting a lot of things out there and this was another opportunity to seize to change the narrative.”

Trump is meeting with Putin this week to negotiate a ceasefire in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Trubowitz said the meetings are not only a distraction, but they carry high risks.

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“He’s walking into negotiation that could go in directions that he’s not necessarily ready for,” said Trubowitz. “Trump said he will know in two minutes in a discussion with Vladimir Putin whether there’s a deal. What I interpret from that is he will know very quickly if there’s a ceasefire deal to be had, and if not he will go down a different path, and that path will be about normalizing relations between the U.S. and Russia.”

Trubowitz said Trump “will spin anything” that comes out of the meeting and frame it “as a win,” but “if he throws Ukraine under the bus, he’s going to have trouble with European leaders.”

Bloomberg News Reporter Stephanie Baker said Trump has had years of warm relations with the Russian dictator and has “been careful” with his language about Putin until the last couple of months when Trump “realized he’d been played.”

But Trubowitz warned that significant capitulation to Putin arising from his warm relation would “cost him with Europe and independent [voters] in the U.S.” if he comes away with a deal that “appeases Putin at Kiev’s expense.”

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“It will not cost him with the MAGA coalition who want him to normalize relations with Moscow—the Tucker Carlson’s and so forth who are all in the tank for this—but for average voters who are paying attention, a bad deal would not go over well,” Trubowitz said.

Watch the full ‘Pulse” clip at this link.