U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin back to the United States for the first time since 2019 in style on Friday night, giving him a royal treatment but ultimately failed to get a ceasefire deal to resolve Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
After a nearly three-hour summit in Alaska, the two sides failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire deal to end Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Later at a truly bizarre so-called “press conference”, Trump called the meeting “productive”.
“There were many, many points that we agreed on,” Trump said at a joint press conference with Putin. “I would say a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite got there, but we’ve made some headway. So there’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Trump and Putin each spoke for a few minutes to reporters and took no questions.
Via translation, Putin spoke for eight minutes and discussed the geographic proximity of Alaska and how glad he was that Trump is president again.
“It is known that there have been no summits between Russia and the U.S. for four years, and that’s a long time,” Putin said through a translator “This time was very hard for bilateral relations, and let’s be frank, they’ve fallen to the lowest point since the Cold War.”
Trump then returned to one of his favorite talking points: lying that the 2020 election was rigged, despite no evidence to support his claims.
“He’s seen it all, but we had to put up with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax, but what was done was very criminal, but it made it harder for us to deal as a country in terms of the business and all of the things that would like to have dealt with,” he said.
Putin did, however, invite Trump to his country. “Next time, in Moscow,” Putin said, in English.
Trump treated Putin like royalty on Friday. U.S. Army soldiers were seen kneeling on the tarmac to lay out a red carpet at the foot of the stairs of Putin’s plane. Trump greeted him warmly as the two men shook hands. The two then walked to a podium for a photo, a B-2 stealth bomber and four fighter jets roared overhead in salute.
Trump invited him into his presidential limousine, known as the beast, and Putin climbed in. Putin could be seen smiling through the window as the car began to roll. According to White House officials, no interpreters were in the limo with them.
However, the summit ends with no peace achieved and no ceasefire agreed upon. At the end of the day, Putin was smiling and appeared confident, while Trump looked unhappy and upset.
“There’s no deal until there is a deal,” Trump said.
