‘Putin clearly won’: Pundits say meeting was ‘bad for Americans’ after Trump’s ‘no deal’ Alaska summit
Pundits — including some from Fox News — believed U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to be “steamrolled” by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the world leaders’ summit in Alaska.
The highly anticipated meeting in Anchorage on Friday ended after around three hours with little clarity. Both leaders suggested progress had been made on talks about the future of the war in Ukraine but neither disclosed details during their joint appearance in front of the world’s press where neither took questions from journalists.
Putin spoke first, an atypical move for statements with the U.S. president on U.S. soil, touting the “agreement that we’ve reached together.”
While Trump called the meeting “extremely productive” and said the pair made “great progress,” he emphasized no agreement had been reached: “There’s no deal until there’s a deal.”
Former government officials and commentators seemed to overwhelmingly agree that Putin walked away from the meeting triumphant.
John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser during his first administration, told CNN that Putin came off victorious: “Trump did not lose but Putin clearly won.”
“Putin achieved most of what he wanted and Trump achieved very little,” he told the network.
Bolton then said Trump looked drained: “I thought Trump looked very tired up there. I mean, very tired. Not disappointed, tired.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom also remarked on Trump’s energy levels on X, writing in a style that he’s been using recently to troll the U.S. president. “TRUMP JUST FLED THE PODIUM WITH PUTIN — NO QUESTIONS, NOTHING! TOTAL LOW ENERGY. THE MAN LOOKED LIKE HE’D JUST EATEN 3 BUCKETS OF KFC WITH VLAD,” the governor wrote.
MSNBC host Jen Psaki, who is the former White House Press Secretary for Joe Biden, said the meeting similarly appeared to be a “big victory” for Putin, who was greeted warmly in Alaska by Trump.
“For a decade now, Vladimir Putin has been isolated on the world stage,” Psaki said, noting Russia’s ousting from the G8 in 2014 and the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Putin in 2023. “Today that isolation ended and he was welcomed back on U.S. soil.”
She added: “That is the big victory for Vladimir Putin today.”
Fox News’ Senior White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, who was reporting from Anchorage, said the Russian president “steamrolled” his U.S. counterpart.
“The way that it felt in the room was not good. It did not seem like things went well. And it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say and got his photo next to the president and then left,” Heinrich said.
