What can be done to make Trump stop believing Putin’s disinformation?

The website of the leading American news channel Fox News, known for its loyalty to the Republican Party, which covers events through the prism of conservative views, has published the article «Putin vows victory in Ukraine in New Year’s address amid Trump-backed peace talks».

Fox News is one of the few information sources trusted by United States President Donald Trump, who continues to rely on it as the main platform for his administration’s messages.

Although he often praises and uses certain shows to communicate directly with his supporters, he also publicly criticizes the network when he considers its coverage to be not loyal enough. This article reveals that Putin is promising victory in Ukraine and describing the war as a fight for Russia’s survival. He has called the war a fight for Russia’s homeland, «truth and justice», signaling a determination to move forward despite mounting casualties and international pressure.

But the Russian dictator’s defiant rhetoric is not fooling anyone. For, as the Fox News article notes: «The defiant tone comes as the war approaches grim milestones. On January 12, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will surpass the 1,418 days that the Soviet Union fought Nazi Germany in Europe during World War II. On February 24, the conflict will enter its fourth year. Western estimates put the number of dead and wounded at more than 1 million, a figure the Kremlin disputes».

That’s right, although on February 24, 2026, it will be not the fourth, but the fifth year of the war. And here a natural question arises: if the Russian Federation is conducting supposedly «peace negotiations» with the United States, what do the words of the Kremlin leader about the victory over Ukraine mean?

After all, when in his New Year’s address on the eve of the New Year 2026, Putin declares to the Russian troops «We believe in you and our victory», this should be perceived by observers and allies of Ukraine as a call for the active continuation of this terrible bloody war. And this statement should dispel any illusions of Donald Trump about Putin’s readiness to agree on a «quick peace».

Especially since US intelligence reports published in early 2026 indicate that Putin has not abandoned his plans to occupy part of Europe and believes that a complete victory is still possible. According to the totalitarian ruler of Russia, he is not going to give in.

After all, the Kremlin’s constant rhetoric of victory should have been used by sober American politicians and their European allies to urge the Trump administration to abandon its constant «magical conversations» with Putin and to recognize his long-term aggressive goals.

It seems that by early 2026, Trump had finally begun to realize that the Russian autocrat was spreading deliberately false data, distorting reality for his own benefit, using fabricated stories as arguments in international politics, and manipulating facts.

The fact that on January 1, 2026, Donald Trump shared on his social network Truth Social a repost of a New York Post editorial column titled «Putin’s Bluff About «Attack» Shows That Russia Is the Obstacle to Peace», a publication that accused Russia of trying to sabotage the peace process, may indicate a certain change in his public perception of Russia’s actions. But how long will this disappointment of the US president with Moscow’s actions continue?

It is difficult to understand what Trump is counting on. When in 2025 and early 2026, numerous international leaders and geopolitical experts confirmed that Russian President Putin is an unreliable partner who cannot be trusted. This judgment is conditioned by the history of Russia’s violations of treaties, the Kremlin’s escalation after peace talks, and public statements by key figures in world politics.

The Russian Federation’s violation of international agreements and ceasefires is a long-term process of ignoring the principles of international law in order to achieve geopolitical goals. Therefore, any future ceasefire by Moscow may simply be a pause for Russia to regroup its forces.

It can be concluded that Putin’s use of «strategic deception», which is embedded in the Russian cultural concept of lying (when both the speaker and the listener know that it is a lie, but the speaker continues anyway), is the cornerstone of his geopolitical strategy.

This strategic approach is based on the use of several different methods, when a complex technique of transmitting specially prepared information to the opponent is used to induce him to voluntarily make a decision in favor of Russia. And to force him to begin to consider the current issue based on Russian interests.

At the same time, the Muscovites adhere to the insidious tactic of dulling the opponent’s vigilance with offers of dialogue, and then alternate this with nuclear blackmail or pseudo-negotiations in order to paralyze decision-making by the West.

In the event of a critical situation for Moscow, which has happened more than once during negotiations with the Trump team, the Kremlin uses the simultaneous launch of numerous propaganda statements on many channels, and priority is given not to their sequence, but to a large number of simultaneous messages.

And when this conveyor belt of Russian propaganda fictions is fully operational, the numerous propaganda theses, manipulative imperial claims, the flow of ideological machinations, the onslaught of chauvinistic rhetoric turn into effective tools of hybrid warfare and become an effective weapon in the information confrontation.

For a long time, Moscow had the advantage that this systematic replication of Russian propaganda narratives was not understood in the West. In 2026, the systematic dissemination of Russian propaganda messages remains a critical challenge to the security of the West and the stability of Western media.

While the West is finally beginning to realize the scale of the information threats coming from Moscow, and Western civilization is changing its view of the Kremlin’s information aggression, the Kremlin’s disinformation industry and operations based on artificial intelligence have become more professional, which means that Russian narratives are increasingly difficult to distinguish from genuine domestic discourse.

The Russian information strategy is to critically overload the media space with contradictory information, making the truth seem unattainable. The result can be to undermine public trust in the authorities and experts by creating an information environment where «nothing is veracious». The consumer of such disinformation is lost in the labyrinths of falsifications, and is no longer able to distinguish the truth from a deliberately created false picture of what is really happening.

Moscow’s information expansion is dangerous because it involves state-level influence operations and disinformation campaigns that actively undermine the foundations of democratic governance and global security in Western countries.

The goal of Russian information operations is to erode trust in democracy, aimed at exploiting social divisions, weakening democratic processes, and intensifying polarizing political discourses within the country. By creating a long-term deficit in trust in state institutions, these efforts fuel destabilization in the regions of the state chosen to destabilize the socio-political situation in order to change political outcomes in favor of pro-Russian or anti-European sentiments.

At the same time, the Kremlin uses disinformation as a weapon, often using falsified websites of reputable news sources to mislead public opinion. This activity in the «gray information zone» is carried out in an ambiguous manner, and is aimed at unbalancing Western countries and making it difficult for their governments to reach a consensus on making the necessary decisions. Which has happened repeatedly when making decisions on assistance to Ukraine.

In addition, information expansion serves as a tool for achieving the Kremlin’s broader goal of restoring Russia’s sphere of influence. Under the guise of promoting «multipolarity» Moscow uses propaganda to justify the occupation of Ukrainian sovereign territories or to tie neighboring states to its integration structures, such as BRICS or the Eurasian Union.

Putin often uses false historical justifications to justify military aggression against Ukraine. His historical revisionism and the use of statements about the mythical «genocide» of Russian-speakers or the need to «denazify» Ukraine are used to legitimize the illegal invasion of our country’s lands.

Putin’s regime systematically uses cruelty and fear as fundamental tools of power. The dictator has further consolidated his rule through the constant instillation of fear in the minds of the Russian population and the escalation of the mechanism of repression. The Kremlin has expanded its legal and physical tools to completely eliminate domestic opposition.

And in the occupied Ukrainian territories, the totalitarian Moscow regime uses a system of «silent terror», which includes the mass looting of Ukrainian property, the forcible appropriation of their homes and apartments, forced labor, and imprisonment of those who refuse to accept Russian citizenship.

At the same time, the Russian authorities have tightened internal military control by introducing criminal liability for «volunteers» and «front-line soldiers» for desertion or disobedience. In effect, forcing them, under threat of long imprisonment, to continue the genocidal terror of Ukrainians.

Protecting Ukraine is not only morally correct, but also strategically necessary for America. But Donald Trump was struck by Putin’s disinformation about Ukraine. Because of this, in 2025, President Trump’s rhetoric regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine often coincided with statements whose roots clearly grew from Russian disinformation.

The question naturally arises, what can be done to make the President of the United States Trump stop believing Putin’s disinformation?

It is obvious that the willingness of America and Europe to sharply increase spending to neutralize sources of Russian disinformation, strengthen sanctions against Russia, or rapidly increase military aid to Ukraine, could fundamentally change the calculations of the Russian Federation and reduce its attempts to influence the US leadership.

In addition, it is important that the dissemination of truthful and verified information about the Russian-Ukrainian war continues to spread through such information sources as Fox News and the New York Post, which Donald Trump trusts.

In 2026, the geopolitical landscape will increasingly be defined by the strategic confrontation between Russia and the West for influence over the foreign policy of the Trump administration, in particular regarding the war in Ukraine and the future of European security.

In this competing strategy of influence, the Russian Federation, as well as America’s Western allies, will continue to actively try to reformat the perception of President Trump in order to secure favorable outcomes for themselves.

Russia will seek to influence Trump’s view of the war in Ukraine in order to secure territorial gains and «peace terms» that are favorable to itself. To do this, Moscow will once again tempt Washington with the establishment of a new world order, where the United States will dominate the Western Hemisphere, while the Russian Federation will maintain influence over the former Soviet sphere, including Ukraine.

The fight for Trump will become one of the main factors in the confrontation between Russia and the entire Western world. And the fate of not only Ukraine or the European continent, but also the entire Western civilization, will depend on who wins it.