Others will give Trump more credit. He always said this was going to be about listening – “feeling out” Putin, gauging his sincerity about peace. He played down expectations, saying it was about “setting the table” for a second meeting, this one with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Indeed, it’s difficult to see how much of consequence could have come out of a meeting that excluded the Ukrainian leader and Europe.
However, Putin could have pretended to make concessions. He could have thrown on the table a temporary ceasefire until a second meeting could be arranged. He could have publicly committed to meeting Zelensky. Trump could have secured some sort of pledge about returning the Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
This summit was always unusual because it was convened hastily and without largely pre-determined results. But as much as Trump might have played down expectations, if you are going to hold an event like this, people will expect you to walk away with something to show.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the end of their joint press conference in Alaska.Credit: AP
After the meeting, Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity he believed a deal was close. “It’s now up to Zelensky to get it done,” the president said. “And I would say the European nations have to get involved.”
Well, many would point out the Europeans are intimately involved, and say Zelensky should have been invited to Anchorage too.
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The danger for Ukraine is that Trump may have bought into Putin’s pretence of wanting peace. He came away saying as much. Previous US presidents have made that mistake; notably George W. Bush in 2001, who said he looked the Russian in the eye and saw his soul.
We might yet learn details about the apparent progress that was made in Alaska on Friday (Saturday AEST). You cannot discount the possibility this summit will pay dividends later. Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska who is sometimes at odds with Trump on multiple issues, said she was cautiously optimistic.
Vladimir Putin prepares to speak to the media after his meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska.Credit: Bloomberg
“It was also encouraging to hear both presidents reference future meetings, which I hope will include Ukraine,” she said.
On that point, Putin ambushed Trump at the end of the news conference, suggesting in English that their next rendezvous should take place in Moscow. Trump smiled and said it was a possibility but noted correctly that he would cop a bit of heat if he agreed to that.
The meeting also featured Trump’s trademark obsession: everyone wanting to do business with the United States. And both men sounded bullish about that prospect.
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It’s clear what Putin got out of this exercise: a global stage, a warm welcome and the prospect of thawing relations with the world’s biggest economy. What Trump got out of it is much less clear, at least for now.
On the way home, he confessed to Hannity that the Russia-Ukraine conflict was proving to be much harder to resolve than he imagined. “I thought this would be the easiest of them all, and this was the most difficult.”
Perhaps the one thing Trump took away from Anchorage was a dose of humility.
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