Putin praises Trump admin's ceasefire efforts ahead of historic summit in Alaska
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Time Magazine
17 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
Trump and Putin Didn't Make a Deal, but Putin Still Won
During the press conference at the end of his brief and lukewarm summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, an uncharacteristically subdued Donald Trump said something painfully honest: "There's no deal until there's a deal." There was no deal. In many ways, Trump and Putin got the show they wanted. The ubiquitous television graphics, TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT, with fluttering American and Russian flags. The split-screen of Air Force 1 and Russia's executive plane landing at a remote airport in Alaska, and then the two protagonists walking down a skinny red carpet like the end of a buddy movie. The grip-and-grin handshakes, with Trump patting Putin's hand in a gesture known to maître d's everywhere. The cosy ride in "the Beast," a prize not even offered to close allies. Trump is likely happy because the eyes of the world are upon him and he was executive producing the images on the world's television screens. (And no one was talking about Jeffrey Epstein). Putin is happy because a Russian president is always happy when they are treated as equal to American presidents. Remember, Barack Obama said Russia was a second-rate, "regional power." Putin got what he wanted: a summit with an American president, something normally you have to make elaborate compromises to get. An indicted war criminal who cannot travel to over 100 nations, the Russian President literally had a red carpet rolled out for him on United States territory by an American president. And he didn't have to give up anything for it—he just had to show up. Read More: The Real Danger of the Trump-Putin Summit At the press conference, Putin talked about how close Russia was to America (shades of Sarah Palin) and claimed that Russian trade with American has increased by 20%. He made sure to praise Trump in the over-the-top way that has become customary in diplomacy with America. Trump was uncharacteristically restrained and circumspect. Even though Putin had alluded to an agreement, Trump did not do so. The self-professed world's greatest dealmaker left without a deal. He did, however, get in several references to the 'Russia hoax,' while Vlad smirked. The truth is, Trump needed a deal more than Putin did. 'Deals are what I do,' he said, and he didn't do one. In a larger way, the nothing-burger outcome exposes the flaws in Trump's theory of diplomacy. Trump seems to believe personal warmth between leaders will make his adversary more likely to compromise or agree with him. That is naïve and delusional. Earlier this week a White House spokesperson described Trump as a 'realist.' This is the classic foreign policy term, in contrast to a foreign policy idealist, whose legacy comes from Woodrow Wilson and his quest for a League of Nations. But Henry Kissinger, the ultimate American realist, said nations have no permanent friends or enemies, they have interests. That's something Donald Trump doesn't quite understand. Trump stands for himself. Putin stands for Russia. Putin's goals are unchanging; his smile and his handshake are fleeting. Long before Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin wanted to Make Russia Great Again. I spent several hours with Putin in 2006 for TIME's Person of the Year cover, and it was in that interview that he said the greatest tragedy of the 20th century was the disintegration of the Soviet Union. I remember we all wondered for a moment whether that was really what he had said, but the transcript bore it out. He believes it, devoutly. He was a KGB officer in Dresden when the Wall came down, and he was bereft. The Russian President has always wanted to put the Soviet Union back together again. (His foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, was spotted wearing a USSR sweatshirt ahead of the Summit.) Putin believes in a kind of Russian exceptionalism with Russia as the great power between East and West. Putin is nostalgic not just for the Cold War, but the Russian empire of the czars. He has a profound and angry grievance about the West and America. He told me Westerners regard Russians as monkeys. (Yes, he said that.) But then he also told me Russian voters were not sophisticated enough to choose their own leaders. (Yes, he said that too.) Under his leadership, Russia has been trying to destabilize the West for decades. Just last week the U.S. Justice Department announced that Russian hackers had penetrated the federal court system. Putin has been trying to put space between the US and Europe for decades. In his eyes, West and America are always the aggressors and Russia is always the victim—even when negotiating about the war in Ukraine. Read More: Trump's Make-or-Break Moment with Putin Normally, in any wartime negotiation, the country gaining territory does not want to negotiate or give up anything, while the country losing territory wants to negotiate and is willing to compromise. Russia is gaining territory, slowly; Ukraine is losing territory, grudgingly. Russia has a 50-year goal, to re-unite parts of the old Soviet Union; Ukraine has a more immediate goal, to stop the war and not give up any territory to do so. When Putin said during the press conference that they still needed to address the 'root causes' of the conflict, that was a hint to what may have transpired inside. Putin can talk for hours about the idea that Ukraine is not a nation, that the Kievan Rus is the basis of Russia, that the Russian Orthodox Church grew out of the Ukrainian one, and he could have spent the whole time on any of those subjects. And maybe he did. According to the 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report, after the TIME Person of the Year cover came out, Trump sent Putin a handwritten note of congratulations to saying, 'As you probably heard, I am a big fan of yours!' Putin is still milking Trump's fanboy affection. He was the big winner today because he didn't have to compromise before or after the meeting. He got the superpower treatment even though he is a war criminal. He got equivalence with an American president on the world stage. Zelensky won by not losing. Ukraine could have been crippled today, and instead they live to fight another day. It's true that no deal is better than a bad deal. But what is the Dealmaker-in-Chief without a deal?
Epoch Times
an hour ago
- Epoch Times
Lawmakers Split on Party Lines About Trump–Putin Summit
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska on Aug. 15 to discuss an end to the Russian–Ukrainian conflict, and lawmakers' reactions are largely falling along party lines. The summit ended without any firm commitments to ending the conflict, with Trump commenting during a joint press conference, 'There's no deal until there's a deal.'
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
'No deal': Takeaways from Trump's Alaska summit with Putin
WASHINGTON – Vladimir Putin caught a ride in the presidential limousine and achieved recognition on the world stage. Donald Trump flew more than 4,000 miles and rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader in Alaska – and left empty-handed after some three hours of negotiations. A much-hyped summit between Trump and Putin that saw the U.S. president flex his deal-making skills achieved no major breakthrough in peace negotiations over Russia's war against Ukraine. The talks culminated in a vague statement to the media in which Putin spoke of an 'agreement.' Trump was then left in the awkward position of declaring 'no deal' had been reached. A planned press conference? Called off. The two leaders spoke briefly and answered no questions. 'There were many, many points that we agree on,' Trump said without elaborating. 'A couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there,' he added. 'So there's no deal until there's a deal.' More: 'No deal': Live updates from Trump-Putin Alaska summit Trump said he'd be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO allies on his way home to debrief them on the conversation with his Russian counterpart, who had been isolated by western leaders after invading Ukraine in 2022. As the American president, who'd warned of 'severe consequences' if a ceasefire wasn't reached, waved goodbye to press while boarding Air Force One for Washington, Putin taxiied down the runway in the distance. Putin invokes 'root causes' of war, jabs Trump foe Biden For a television president who regularly fields questions from reporters, Trump's quick exit after the meeting was abnormal. The two men spoke for a combined 12 minutes – with Putin going first. He praised Trump for convening the meeting, saying relations between the two countries had fallen to their lowest point since the Cold War. But he soon brought up old charges about the 'root causes' of the conflict that he's long blamed on NATO enlargement and Ukraine's alignment with the West. And while Putin notably said 'the security of Ukraine should be secured' and Russia was 'prepared to work on that' he did not say what he had in mind. 'I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine,' Putin added, without saying what it entailed. He then warned Ukrainian and European leaders not to 'throw a wrench in the works' with 'backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.' 'I just don't think we heard anything that signaled any sort of shift in Russia's maximal position,' David Salvo, a former State Department official who served in Russia. He cast Putin's comments as 'grandstanding' and said of security guarantees for Ukraine, 'I don't think he's ready to soften his position quite yet.' Putin also jabbed at former President Joe Biden and said he agreed with Trump's assertions that the war never would have happened if the Republican had won in 2020. Trump said Putin's comments were 'very profound.' He described the meeting as 'extremely productive' and said the two sides agreed on 'many points' without divulging the details. 'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there,' Trump said. Trump leaves without a ceasefire agreement Hanging over the summit was a potential ceasefire, which Zelenskyy and European leaders thought could emerge from the talks. But expectations fell quickly as Trump talked up potential 'land swaps' that have been rejected by Zelenskyy. Trump sought to lower expectations ahead of the summit and cast the conversation as talks about future talks. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told CNN while the summit was happening, 'I think the best that we could hope for is that there is a commitment coming out of Putin to a ceasefire with enough contours to it that it is believable that it will be more than just a brief moment to check a box here.' The summit ended without any mention of a ceasefire by Putin or Trump, who repeated in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity after the summit that he believed an agreement was in sight. Trump added: 'Now it's up to President Zelenskyy to get it done.' He indicated that a prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine was part of the discussion. Putin teases possible business deals with Trump First, there were joint hockey games. Then, there were films promoting 'traditional values.' And at their Alaska summit Putin made another enticement: potential economic investments. 'It is clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential," Putin said. "Russia and the U.S. can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high tech and in space exploration. We see that arctic cooperation is also very possible.' Accompanying Putin at the summit was Kirill Dmitriev, the special envoy for investment and economic cooperation. The Putin adviser met with Witkoff in Washington in April. 'He's bringing a lot of business people from Russia. And that's good, I like that, because they want to do business,' Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way to Alaska. 'But they're not doing business until we get the war settled.' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick came with Trump. Trump later referred to "tremendous Russian business representatives" at the summit and said "everybody wants to deal with us." In his Hannity interview, Trump indicated that Putin also tried to flatter him by saying the 2020 election he lost to Biden was 'rigged' and fanned baseless claims that the outcome was the result of widespread voter fraud. Trump rolls out the red carpet for Putin Putin received a warm reception in Alaska after years of being left out in the cold by western leaders. The summit began with Trump giving Putin an outreached hand, as the Russian leader walked down an intersecting red carpet on the tarmac to greet him. Trump clapped his hands in applause as Putin approached. They shook hands, patted each others' arms and walked together, posing for pictures on a platform with a sign reading 'Alaska 2025.' In the background: Military planes and personnel and green cloud-covered mountains. A reporter shouted "President Putin, will you stop killing civilians?" while Putin stood next to Trump on the platform. He gestured but didn't say anything. Trump and Putin rode together, without aides, to the summit in Trump's limousine. Gone was the frustration that Trump had expressed throughout the summer over Putin's reluctance to agree on a peace deal. 'I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir,' Trump said of his Russian counterpart as they shared a stage together in Alaska. Now what? Severe consequences? Secondary Tariffs? Another meeting? The lack of progress at the Trump-Putin summit raised questions about what comes next. Trump said he planned to speak with Zelenskyy and NATO leaders to brief them. He again talked about moderating a three-way meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy. And although he'd warned before the meeting that if Putin wasn't cooperative he would face 'severe consequences' and threatened tariff hikes on Russia's top trading partners, for now, he said he was letting China off the hook. "Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that,' Trump told Hannity. 'Now I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now, I think the meeting went very well." Trump's next moves will be closely watched to see if he maintains the friendly posture toward Putin that he took at the summit or takes a firmer approach. 'By framing it as a positive meeting, in his own mind, it takes the pressure off of himself to make Russia pay a price for continuing the war,' former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said. 'At least for right now.' Trump told reporters before the meeting that he was 'not looking to waste a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of money' negotiations and wanted to see the war quickly wrapped up. 'The wildcard now is whether Trump's actually going to get tough on Russia, or whether it's going to be in sort of endless talks and letting Russia stall for time,' said Salvo, managing director for the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund.
