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To the extent that Donald Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin was about ending the war in Ukraine, the talks in Alaska were a fiasco for the United States: The Russian leader flew home after scoring a series of easy victories, leading to “pronounced gloating” in Moscow in the wake of Trump’s failure.
But it’d be an overstatement to suggest that the American president walked away completely empty-handed: Trump didn’t end the fighting, but he picked up some praise from Putin about the Republican’s own domestic political fights.
To hear Trump tell it, Putin echoed many of the American president’s favorite talking points. In his post-summit interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, for example, the Republican declared, “Vladimir said just a little while ago, he said, ‘I’ve never seen anybody do so much so fast.’ He said, ‘Your country is like hot as a pistol.’ And a year ago, he thought it was dead.”
Trump similarly cited Putin when attacking mail-in voting — because if there’s one person an American leader should turn to as an authoritative voice on election administration, it’s an unelected foreign dictator.
Putin apparently even told the Republican that the U.S. presidential election was “rigged,” reinforcing the obvious fact that Trump (a) is extremely gullible; and (b) incredibly easy to manipulate.
But as notable as these other examples were, there was a related instance that even more remarkable. NBC News reported:
Putin thanked Trump for the bilateral meeting this afternoon, and said that Trump was correct in saying that his war with Ukraine would not have begun had he been president in 2022 when the war got underway.
The Russian leader specifically said, in reference to one of his American counterpart’s claims, “I can confirm it.”
Trump, naturally, added soon after that this made him “very happy.”
While that reaction is hardly surprising, it’s worth appreciating just how little sense the exchange made.
Almost immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump boasted that the war wouldn’t have happened if he’d still been in the White House. But that was less of a boast than he probably realized: John Bolton, Trump’s former White House national security advisor, was among many observers who noted that Putin was unlikely to launch a full-scale invasion of a neighboring country during Trump’s tenure because at that point, he already had a White House giving Moscow everything it wanted — and there was no reason to upset that balance with an unnecessary war.
But complicating matters further, at the heart of the claim is a dubious assumption: Trump would have the world believe that Putin was so impressed with the awesomeness of Trump’s awesomeness that he wouldn’t have dared to do anything provocative with President Goliath in the White House.
The trouble for the American president is that recent events expose this claim as ridiculous.
If Trump’s strength is so intimidating, why did Putin intensify his military attacks in Ukraine after the Republican returned to power? If Trump’s power is so impressive, why has Putin spent the year ignoring the White House’s calls for a ceasefire?
Indeed, in Alaska, Trump vouched for Putin’s interest in “peace,” which was soon followed by Russia launching a new round of ballistic missiles and attack drones against Ukraine, killing at least seven people in Kharkiv. If Putin is so impressed with Trump’s might, how and why is this still happening?