He was right the first time. Even Fox News recognized it:
Heinrich, the network’s senior White House correspondent—whom Trump has previously targeted—spoke about the summit’s conclusion with anchor Brian Kilmeade, who also said he hadn’t expected things to wrap up with the usually talkative Trump walking away without taking questions.[..]
“I was surprised no questions,” Kilmeade said, after Trump and Putin were vague about what—if anything—was accomplished at the Alaska meeting, which began with Trump clapping and rolling out the red carpet for the Russian leader, who is accused of war crimes. “I was surprised no details on what progress was made,” Kilmeade continued. “You and me and everyone else in this room was surprised,” Heinrich replied.
“We were told we would have an opportunity to put questions to both leaders after a joint press conference in the event that meeting went well enough that they could set the stage for a second meeting. And President Trump said if that didn’t happen, he was likely to call off the joint presser and just address the media solo and send people home. Neither of those things happened,” she said.
“And what was really stunning to me, as someone who has been in a lot of these press conferences, a few things were very unusual,” she continued. Heinrich noted how Putin spoke first and in his native language, despite the U.S. being the host country.
“Putin started right off in Russian, and we all had to get our headsets on and listen to him rattle off this diatribe about the history of the U.S.-Russia relationship,” she said, adding that the Russian leader repeated phrasing about Ukraine that put the onus on them to end the war that Russia started.
Heinrich went on to say that the joint appearance was “unusual” and “atypical.”
Actually, it’s always like that when Trump meets Putin.
The upshot? Total capitulation to his buddy Vlad— allow him to keep the pieces of Ukraine he wants in return for a “promise” not to take any more:
After his summit with Russian President Putin in Alaska on Friday, President Trump will meet Ukrainian President Zelensky for what could be a difficult meeting at the White House on Monday afternoon.
Trump’s positions coming out of the meeting — that he no longer supports a ceasefire, and it’s “up to President Zelensky” to make peace — appear highly unfavorable to Ukraine.
Zelensky and Trump announced their upcoming meeting after a phone call between Trump, the Ukrainian president and several NATO leaders during which the president briefed them on his meeting with Putin.
The call, which lasted more than an hour an a half, “was not easy,” a source with direct knowledge said. The meeting will take place six months after their disastrous Oval Office meeting in February.
Trump called Zelensky from Air Force One on his way back to Washington from Alaska. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House envoy Steve Witkoff, who were in the Trump-Putin meeting, were also on the call.
They spoke with Zelensky for an hour and then the leaders of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Finland, NATO and the European Commission joined the call for another half hour. According to the source, Trump told Zelensky and the NATO leaders that Putin doesn’t want a ceasefire and prefers a comprehensive agreement to end the war. “Trump said on the call that he thinks a fast peace deal is better than a ceasefire,” the source said.
That’s the opposite from the approach Trump originally endorsed. Zelensky has been adamant that there must be a ceasefire before peace talks.
Trump also told Zelensky that Putin had told him that Russia was making significant progress on the front lines and that if he wanted, he could capture the entire Donetsk region and other areas where fighting is taking place.
According to the source, Zelensky told Trump that Putin was misrepresenting the situation on the front. During the call, Witkoff briefed Zelensky and the NATO leaders on how Putin sees the issue of territory and what he’s willing to give in return.
“The impression was that in return for territory, Putin is willing to end the war and commit not to try and occupy more areas in Ukraine and to not attack other countries,” the source said.
Essentially Putin demanded that Ukraine surrender and Trump said fine. It was just as we thought it would be when Trump became president in January.
By the way, Putin’s “commitment not to try and occupy more areas in Ukraine and to not attack other countries” is worth about what Trump’s “commitment” not to grope women is worth — nothing. He has learned that helping Trump and his idiot cronies gain and maintain power will pretty much take the United Stater and its economic and military power out of the equation. Others are seeing the same thing. (Taiwan???) He will do what he wants.