Trump faceplants in Anchorage
“So what was that all for?” asks Jonathan Lemire about the “summit” between President Donald Trump and Russian dictator and indicted war criminal Vladimir Putin.
Donald Trump dominated the news for a day when he welcomed the Russian dictator to Alaska. So there’s that. But the summit was a bust for the “world’s greatest dealmaker,” probably a slogan written in gold on a Father’s Day coffee mug from Barron.
Putin got a PR coup and Trump got nothing for his 7,000 mile round trip, however Karoline Leavitt spins it. In the “press conference” after their meeting, the dictator and the wannabe took no questions.
Lemire explains:
In his brief remarks, Trump conceded that he and Putin had not reached a deal to end the war in Ukraine or even pause the fighting. “There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” the president said. He characterized their three-hour meeting—vaguely—as “very productive.” Of the outstanding issues between the two sides, he admitted that “one is probably significant,” but he didn’t say what that was. “We didn’t get there but we have a very good chance of getting there,” Trump insisted. The Russian president, for his part, made mention of “agreements” that had been struck behind closed doors. Yet Putin also provided no elaboration, leaving the distinct impression that it was a summit about nothing.
Call it The Seinfeld Summit. The impression left at the end was that if portrayed in a Looney Tunes cartoon, Trump would resolve into a large sucker.
If anything, Putin seemed to make clear that his demands regarding Ukraine haven’t changed. In his usual coded way, he said an agreement could be reached only once the “primary roots” of the conflict were “eliminated”—which means, basically, that Ukraine should be part of Russia. “We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works,” Putin said, in what sounded like a warning. “They will not make any backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.”
Read eliminating “primary roots” as Ukraine deposing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ceding territory, disarming, and forswearing future membership in NATO.
Trump went out if his way to flatter Putin, even offering him a ride in the presidential limousine dubbed “The Beast,” a virtually unheard of honor, and for a former KGB officer yet.
MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace was aghast. The former Republican and White House Communications Director under George W. Bush told former Russian Ambassador Michael McFaul that Trump’s fawning over Putin was “disgusting“:
“Why all the public adoration — this carefully, carefully — I mean, I worked on presidential events for six years. This is a lot of stagecraft. My understanding is that our reporting is that they timed their arrivals. There was a car there. We understand, from our bureaus around the world, for Putin. Trump put him in “The Beast.” There’s a lot of touching. I don’t know that we always see him touching Melania as much as he touched Putin today. The handshake and then the hand on top of the hand, I mean, everything that over nine years we’ve learned about Trump, this is as fawning as he can be with any public figure he’s ever photographed with. Why?” she asked McFaul.
Recall and contrast the ambush Trump and Vice President JD Vance prepared for Zelenskyy, officially a U.S. ally, at their February meeting in the Oval Office. There is nothing subtle about Trump’s allegiances in this war of Russian aggression. The president of the United States hates Zelenskyy almost as much as he admires Putin.
“The best thing you can say about the Alaska summit is that it could have been worse,” writes The Washington Post’s Max Boot.
But, if Alaska was not a disaster, it was definitely a defeat. Putin walked away the clear winner from his latest encounter with an American president.
The Chicago Council on Global Affairs finds Americans stand solidly behind Ukraine, the scrappy underdog. “[S]ix in 10 continue to support the United States sending arms and military supplies to Kyiv (62%, up from 52% in March) and providing economic assistance to Ukraine (61%, up from 55% in March).” Additionally, “Six in 10 Americans (60%) express a favorable view of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; just 10 percent view Putin favorably. “
According to a recent Pew poll, “59% of Americans say they are not confident that Trump can make wise decisions about the Russia-Ukraine war.”
But kissing up to dictators? Trump the flag hugger is hell at kissing up to dictators.
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