LONDON — In case anyone believes President Donald Trump has revised his policy toward Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, don’t be fooled.

True, the president is piqued because Putin refuses to agree to Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize plan for a ceasefire with Ukraine. The Russian leader has been deluging Ukraine’s cities with drones and missiles despite a half dozen phone calls from Trump, with the biggest barrage right after the U.S. leader hung up from the last call.

Trump finally seems to grasp that Putin is making a fool of him in the eyes of the entire world. But the president’s much-awaited “big announcement” on Ukraine gave Putin another dangerous pass.

After repeatedly announcing and then ignoring his previous deadlines, Trump issued yet another, declaiming that unless Putin agreed to a ceasefire in 50 days, he would impose “severe” tariffs on Moscow.

Tough talk, but the United States does almost no trade with Russia, so the threat of tariffs is meaningless — even if this time, Trump takes his own deadline seriously. In a sign of how little Muscovites believe Trump’s bluster, the stock market went up after the vague and wimpy threat.

Moreover, Russia is in the midst of a furious summer offensive, trying to destroy Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and break the country’s morale in the next couple of months. So a 50-day time frame, backed by a threat the Kremlin knows is meaningless, gives Putin a green light to pour it on.

It is not for nothing that, when it comes to threatening Putin (or imposing tariffs) the president has become known as TACO Trump, meaning Trump Always Chickens Out.

The president has steadfastly refused to impose any new sanctions on Moscow, despite Putin’s blatant rejection of Trump’s past deadlines. Now, Trump indicates he might support a languishing Senate bill, with 85 Republican and Democratic sponsors, to impose secondary sanctions on countries that purchase Russian energy. Passage of the Senate bill, with Trump’s blessing, would allow him to claim he was acting tough when, in reality, he was still permitting Putin to ravage Ukraine.

But again, reality bites. Trump has insisted the bill include a carve-out that allows him to choose whether to sanction Russia at all. And he has told GOP senators to pause their sanctions bill for 50 days to see if his threats will scare Putin, an ex-KGB colonel who knows well that if Trump really wanted to sanction Russia further, he could do it on his own.

The only good news is that, despite refusing to permit new U.S. aid for Ukraine, Trump now says he will allow NATO countries to purchase U.S.-made weapons to pass on to Kyiv. This way, he can claim he is doing business, even as he refuses to recognize the moral and strategic imperative of preventing the Kremlin from destroying Ukraine.

Here, too, there is less to this “reversal” than meets the eye.

Kyiv desperately needs certain key weapons systems immediately to blunt Russia’s summer offensive. Prime among them are air defenses, especially Patriot systems, as well as the interceptor missiles they fire. Kyiv has only eight to 10 of the systems and needs another 10 or so to save its civilian infrastructure. The Patriots are the only means to defend against Russian ballistic missiles that are striking Ukraine’s cities every day.

A meager 30 interceptor missiles, part of a package agreed and financed under President Joe Biden, were recently halted by order of the Pentagon when they were already in transit. Under pressure, Trump supposedly countermanded that order with great fanfare. But, in reality, only 10 missiles will be delivered, barely enough for a couple of weeks.

As for letting the Europeans purchase more urgently needed Patriot systems for Kyiv, here, too, the prospects are still dicey. The United States owns the vast preponderance of those systems, but wants European countries to send some of theirs to Kyiv and backfill their needs with future U.S. production that will take several years. Never mind that Europe has already sent more Patriot systems to Kyiv than has the United States (Germany has sent three of its 12) and may not be able to spare more.

To sum up, it is a good thing that, after cutting off new U.S. weapons delivery to Ukraine, Trump has finally been moved by Putin’s insults to green light deliveries of U.S. weapons via NATO — so long as the Europeans pay. But the need for those weapons deliveries — especially the Patriot systems and interceptor missiles — is right now.

Moreover, the president still refuses to recognize that Putin has no interest whatsoever in a ceasefire or peace talks if they don’t include Ukraine’s surrender to Moscow’s control. The Russian leader will never come to the table unless the cost of the war becomes too high politically and economically for the Kremlin to bear.

Nor does an egotistical Trump yet grasp that Putin is aligned with China, North Korea, and Iran in trying to weaken the West and dominate both Europe and Asia, along with the Arctic and international waters. The Kremlin czar sees the American president as an easy mark to further his imperial vision.

A 50-day deadline — with no punishment likely at the end of the arbitrary time frame, and no rush to deliver key weapons to Kyiv — will further convince Putin that Trump can be easily rolled.

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