President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet to Vladimir Putin in his quest to reach a peace deal in Ukraine, but all he got in return was an invitation to Moscow and the promise of more talks.
Trump and the Russian president both gave remarks at the end of a more than three-hour, high-stakes meeting on Friday in Anchorage, Alaska, where they lavished praise on each other—but signaled little progress toward a ceasefire deal.
“Mr. President, I’d like to thank you very much, and we’ll speak to you very soon, and probably see you again very soon,” Trump told Putin while wrapping up their meeting.
“Next time in Moscow,” Putin responded in English in front of a crowd of reporters.
“Ooh, that’s an interesting one,” Trump replied. “I’ll get a little heat for that one, but I could see that possibly happening.”
It would be a remarkable concession from the president after their summit wrapped up with zero indication that any progress had been made beyond more talks, despite Trump greeting Putin on U.S. soil with a warm smile and even applauding him as he walked up.
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump conceded after insisting they had “really made some great progress.”
He also boasted that he has always had a “fantastic relationship with President Putin.”
While Trump tried to paint an optimistic picture for future talks, and argued that they did agree on many points (which he did not name), it appeared that the meeting had played out on Putin’s terms.
The Russian president was the first to speak during their joint ”press conference,” after which both men walked away without taking a single question from the press.
Putin claimed the negotiations were “quite useful,” but failed to outline once again what would get him to stop fighting in Ukraine.
Putin said it had been the president who proposed the meeting in Alaska, and shared how he greeted Trump as a “dear neighbor” on the tarmac.
He spoke about areas of cooperation where he hopes the U.S. and Russia could work together in the future.
“I expect today’s agreement will be a starting point not only for the solution of the Ukrainian nation but also will help us bring back business… and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S.,” Putin said, through a translator.
Without making a single public concession in the war after he invaded Ukraine in 2022, Putin can now fly back to Moscow with the images of him back in the U.S. for the first time since 2015, smiling and laughing with Trump.
The president walked away empty-handed despite previous empty threats to impose crippling sanctions against Russia and its partners.
Trump had said on Wednesday that there would be “very severe consequences” if Putin did not agree to end the war after their meeting Friday, but he made no mention of those consequences on Friday while admitting there was no deal.
“Putin achieved most of what he wanted. Trump achieved very little,” the president’s former national security adviser John Bolton said on CNN.
“I thought Trump looked very tired up there. I mean very tired. Not disappointed. Tired,” Bolton added.
Former CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, an Obama appointee, said it was hard for him to understand what the purpose of the summit was and that the fundamental test of success was not achieved.
Panetta said Trump somehow thought he could use the power of his personality, but it did not work.
“You don’t schmooze Putin. You’ve got to be tough with Putin,” he said. “Putin knows what he wants. Putin is not to be trusted, and you’ve got to be tough with him.”
Republicans in Congress were noticeably quiet immediately after the meeting wrapped up, but Democrats were quick to blast Trump and accuse him of giving Putin the upper hand.
“While we wait for critical details of what was discussed, on first take it appears Trump handed Putin legitimacy, a global stage, zero accountability, and got nothing in return,“ said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. ”Our fear is that this wasn’t diplomacy—it was just theater.”
