Trump's ultimatums are always in 2 weeks

From the CNN:

"In Trump’s telling, a resolution in Ukraine is always two weeks away

By Kevin Liptak, CNN, May 28, 2025 

It’s been a long two weeks.

Since at least the end of April, President Donald Trump has been telling reporters he will decide what to do in Ukraine in two weeks, using the timeframe over and over to suggest he is close to a final assessment on how to proceed.

It is not a new tactic. Trump has been setting two-week deadlines since at least the start of his first term in 2017 — for policy plans, long-awaited decisions or unspecified major announcements. Many never arrived.

Now, as Trump faces a decision on whether to apply new sanctions on Moscow or to walk away altogether from efforts to broker peace, he again says it will take a fortnight to determine whether his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is serious about ending the war in Ukraine.

“We’re going to find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not. And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently,” Trump said Wednesday when questioned in the Oval Office about Putin’s intentions. “But it’ll take about a week and a half, two weeks.”

Trump did not say what, exactly, he was waiting to learn in the next two weeks that would cause him to finalize his assessment of the Russian leader. Nor did he say exactly what he was prepared to do when the deadline was up...

As far back as April 24, Trump suggested a reporter follow up – in two weeks – with their question about continued military assistance in Ukraine.

“Let’s see what happens,” he said. “You can ask that question in two weeks, and we’ll see.”

Three days later, it was as if no time had passed.

“We’ll let you know in about two weeks,” he told a reporter that day who asked whether he trusted the Russian president.

As it turned out, Wednesday was exactly two weeks from another of Trump’s assertions, on May 14, that he would soon provide an update on whether Putin was “tapping him along.”

“I’ll let you know in a week,” he told reporters on Air Force One. “I’ll let you know in a few days.”

About a week after that, on May 19, he said it would take another two weeks to determine whether Ukraine was doing enough to end the conflict.

“I’d rather tell you in about two weeks from now because I can’t say yes or no,” he said...

The plodding pace of talks has led Trump to worry Putin could be dragging things out. Yet the US president has, so far, stopped short of imposing sanctions or taking other action. He acknowledged this week there was more he could do.

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “He’s playing with fire!”

Even as Trump continues to mull new sanctions on Moscow, potentially targeting the banking or energy sectors, he voiced concern new measures could push Putin away from talks...

This week... he deemed Putin had gone “absolutely CRAZY.” On Wednesday, he insisted his forceful new tone was itself a strong rebuke of Moscow, even absent new sanctions.

“The words speak pretty loud,” he insisted. “We’re not happy about that situation.”

But when asked whether he still believed Putin wanted the war to end, he said he would need more time.

“I can’t tell you that,” he said, “but I’ll let you know in about two weeks.”"