A Dud and Embarrassment
Why was the Alaska summit so infuriating? The sting won’t easily dissipate even in our bifurcated politics.
Surely, even with expectations lowered, seeing Donald Trump kowtowing to Russian President Vladimir Putin, rolling out a red-carpet welcome for a leader facing war crimes for cruelty to civilians during his invasion on Ukraine, strained credulity.
Yes, recognizing that no effective ceasefire was possible was more than disappointing. But claiming significant, unclear “progress” was a stretch for a watching world. Putin hadn’t blinked in the face of more threats; only Trump was folding on support for an ally, on the defense of sovereignty and democracy itself. That the shelling of Ukrainian civilians continued even on the same day showed that Putin, an unserious negotiator for “peace,” was running public relations circles using Trump.
Calling the world to a stage in Alaska to announce, well, nothing was galling, if expected, and shunning Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from having a seat at the table was outrageous from the start.
The takeaway is more war, more time for Putin to shuffle his diplomatic feet while launching more missile and drone attacks, reset his land forces, and seek to swallow yet more of Ukraine.
It was angry making to watch Putin dangle business and status to peacemaker Trump to win more time for war. The outcome was predictable; the execution was embarrassing, fodder for criticism in Ukraine and ridicule in Moscow. It apparently is up to Zelenskyy to make his own peace, just as it has been to make a defense, without the world’s greatest would-be dealmaker.
Trump told Fox’ Sean Hannity that despite not reaching an agreement on yesterday, he touted the summit as a success, ranking the meeting a 10 out of 10, “in the sense that we got along great.” Spin won’t keep bombs from falling.
The World as Chessboard
Well beyond the punditry about how Trump had proved successful once again at getting attention turned from unreleased the Jeffrey Epstein files or rising consumer prices, just how does a clearly unsuccessful, poorly planned summit even help Trump — never mind the rest of the world?
The unfortunate answer hovers around promoting an image of Trump as guy so powerful that he — and Putin — are rarified beings who can remake the world order in an afternoon. It’s an outdated leadership model that should carry its own unsubtle ridicule.
Indeed, the only good news of the day was that no ceasefire agreement means no Nobel Peace Prize for a president who cannot distinguish aggressor nations like Russia from its victims. Trump’s desire to rise above conflicts, to see himself as peacemaker, to cut back on weapons and intelligence support for Ukraine, only guarantees an extension of this war.
Trump couldn’t even have someone write out intelligible remarks for a “press conference” that made no announcements, took no questions or even waited for Trump to call Zelenskyy with the bad news. Rather than say openly to cameras that Putin had refused to move off ceasefire-killing assertions that Ukraine is a part of Imperial Russia needs to be cleansed of notions of democratic self-rule and kept free of security arrangements, Trump went out of his way to praise Putin and team. Trump meandered through his resentments about “the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” rather than point out Putin’s negotiating intransigence.
Rather than looking presidential, Trump looked like a guy conned at the street three-card monte table. Attempts to buoy the visit on Fox aside, rather than sound like the powerful leader of the Free World, Trump came across as someone who had just been played.
If there was no deal, a powerful Trump would have announced the start of the new round of sanctions that he had threatened. Instead he hinted at business deals that could come with Putin if only he could get by this little problem of getting a ceasefire and security for Ukraine.
Would a powerful Trump have offered the same presidential limousine ride to Zelenskyy, his supposed ally? No, Trump had publicly trashed Zelenskyy at the White House for not being subservient enough. He treated Putin with more respect than he treats most European leaders, who are forced to praise him publicly before bowing to tariffs or arms sales agreements or airplane gifts.
Trump forgets that we hire our president to represent American interests, not his own.
The Alaska summit was not only a dud, but an embarrassing resistance of Trump’s responsibilities to Ukraine, America and democracy.
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