‘It’s more shouting’: Finland’s president says he’s not exactly a ‘Trump whisperer’

Alexander Stubb has been called Europe’s “Trump whisperer” in some circles, but according to the Finnish president, that’s not quite accurate. 

“President Trump has very much his own mind. If I get one idea out of 10, I’m very happy, but quite rarely is it a whispering — it’s more shouting that happens, and that’s absolutely fine,” Stubb said.

The first-hand insight into what Stubb calls a working relationship with the U.S. president was just one of many revelations he shared in an interview with CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.

Stubb was in Ottawa this week for his first official bilateral meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. 

“It is clear that you never agree on everything. So I just think it’s important in diplomacy you have to engage, even if sometimes it feels quite uncomfortable,” Stubb said when asked about navigating conversations with Trump.

And while he may not think the whisperer moniker is accurate, the Finnish president clearly appears to have Trump’s ear. 

“We’ve been friends for a long time,” Trump remarked during Stubb’s visit to the White House in October 2025. 

The pair have golfed together at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and according to Stubb, they message each other quite frequently. 

Among the topics the pair have discussed is Russia’s war in Ukraine, Stubb said. 

‘We need to turn the tide’ 

Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre border with Russia — the longest among NATO and EU members — joined the NATO alliance in 2023, following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since then, Stubb has become an influential voice of support for Ukraine’s war effort. 

Now, with the response to that full-scale invasion well into its fourth year, he believes Ukraine is in a stronger position than at any point since 2022. A large part of Ukraine’s advantage, as Stubb describes it, is the successful emergence of its drone warfare capabilities. 

Stubb said Russian soldiers are dying at a rate five times higher than Kyiv’s, largely due to Ukraine’s steadily improving drone kill rates. While the five-to-one-ratio may be slightly inflated, the data shows Russian casualties are still outpacing Ukraine’s. 

A January report published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies found that the ratio of Ukrainian combat casualties and fatalities to Russia’s was roughly 1:2.5 or 1:2.

And for the first time since 2023, in February Ukraine gained more territory than it lost, according to the Finland-based Black Bird Group analysis team.

“We need to turn the tide. This is not anymore about giving alimony to Ukraine. We have to think about it the other way around. Can we afford to keep Ukraine outside [NATO] in the sense that they now have the greatest military know-how,” said Stubb. 

He pointed to Ukraine’s recent decision to deploy 228 experts to assist in fighting against Iran’s Shahed drones in multiple Middle Eastern countries.

Russia has been launching Iranian-made Shaheds, and more recently their own version of the fixed-winged drones, at Ukrainian cities since the full-scale invasion began — sometimes hundreds in a single night.

“They’re showing that in the Gulf region [they’re] defending the Gulf states from Iran, and I hope the Americans understand and see this,” said Stubb. 

It appears the U.S. is in fact taking notice. 

After initially rejecting offers of Ukrainian counter-drone support following its attack on Iran in February, the Trump administration has since reversed course, acknowledging Iran’s Shahed drones pose a significant challenge to U.S. air defences, and accepting Ukraine’s aid.

But that doesn’t mean the U.S. sees a future where Ukraine is in NATO. 

In 2025, Trump expressed firm opposition to Ukraine’s desire to join NATO and pressured Kyiv to abandon membership hopes as part of a ceasefire with Russia. That ceasefire never came to fruition. 

One thing that is certain, for Stubb at least, is that the Russian threat to NATO is “not going away.” 

“So what then gives us comfort?” he asked Barton. “In my mind, it’s Ukraine.”