Many meetings, few accomplishments for Trump

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

Opinion
It has been a busy few days of diplomatic doings in Trumpworld, beginning with much fawning ado about substantive nothing and ending with much blathering ado about pretty much anything except the urgent matter at hand.
U.S. President Donald Trump began his whirlwind week in Alaska, where he literally rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin and applauded the arrival of the man perceived by most western leaders as a despot, murderer and serial liar.
While it was framed as a summit aimed at advancing prospects for an end to the war in Ukraine, the brief Alaskan encounter seemed to be more about optics and stage management, and produced nothing in the way of concrete action.
Set against 'ALASKA 2025' backdrops more reminiscent of the Golden Globes than a serious meeting between global leaders, the public portion of the Trump/Putin summit included a cacophony of shouted media questions and nothing in the way of direct responses. When one reporter asked Putin, 'Will you stop killing civilians?' the Russian leader responded with a smirk, a smile and a quickly diverted glance.
For his part, Trump — who, one need not be reminded, once boldly proclaimed he could/would end the war in one day after being re-elected — had precious little to offer in the aftermath of the closed-door sit-down.
After letting Putin speak first, about the meeting's neighbourly inclination and 'constructive atmosphere of mutual respect' and the possibility of an unspecified peace 'agreement' if the 'root causes' of the conflict could be eliminated, Trump boasted briefly that the meeting had been productive and that 'there were many, many points that we agreed on,' but said nothing about a ceasefire and did not even mention Ukraine by name.
After Putin mischievously suggested their next meeting should take place in Moscow, a flummoxed Trump wouldn't rule it out: 'Oh, that's an interesting one,' he said. 'I'll get a little heat on that one, but I … I could see it possibly happening.'
So much for a breakthrough by the man who keeps touting himself as a worthy candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Next stop: Washington, D.C., where the fondest hopes of those awaiting this week's visit to the White House by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were probably just that the meeting would be less of an embarrassment than the ambush that occurred last February.
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The Ukrainian president was this time dressed in a suit and tie rather than the military uniform that inexplicably offended Trump's circle of underlings, and was accompanied by several supportive European leaders.
While it's true the U.S. president treated Zelenskyy with considerably more respect than in their last combative encounter, it can't be said that Trump avoided launching into one of his trademark rants. Instead of blaming Ukraine for the war it did not start, the U.S. president went off on a tangent seeking to place the blame for the ongoing conflict on former president Joe Biden.
After veering wildly into a pledge to eliminate 'corrupt' mail-in ballots and voting machines from U.S. elections, Trump answered a Ukraine/peace-related question with a statement reminiscent of his infamous 'very fine people on both sides' observation after the 2017 white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Va.:
'I love the Ukrainian people, but I love all people. I love Russian people. I love them all.'
While many might be inclined to argue nothing was accomplished during Trump's whirlwind week of diplomatic dealings, this much is definitely true: it seems like several days since the focus of U.S. political media was solely on the Epstein files.