President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE reportedly told aides not to publicly promote a decision last year to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine to bolster the country's fight against pro-Russia separatists.

NBC News reported Thursday that Trump wanted his aides to downplay the decision to arm Ukrainian forces because he was concerned it would rattle relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He doesn't want us to bring it up," one White House official sai. "It is not something he wants to talk about."

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Trump has faced scrutiny for his apparent reluctance to publicly criticize Moscow and Putin. But officials told NBC News that Trump has taken a harder line toward Russia in private.

In a phone call with the Russian leader last week, for example, Trump warned that if the two Cold War foes were to reignite the arms race, the U.S. would come out on top.

"If you want to have an arms race we can do that, but I'll win," Trump reportedly told Putin.

And after Putin delivered a speech earlier this month in which he unveiled nuclear weapons that he claimed were capable of evading missile defense systems, Trump called the leaders of France, Germany and Britain to say that their countries needed to band together, according to NBC News.

Just this week, Trump moved to expel 60 Russian officials operating in the U.S. That move came as part of a coordinated effort with two dozen other countries to punish Moscow for the poisoning of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter on British soil.

But even after that decision, Trump has not offered any public condemnation of Russia's alleged actions.