Trump-Putin summit starts on red carpet, ends in confusion

Friday’s summit in Alaska began as a superpower spectacle, then abruptly ended without any indication of what was achieved or where things go from here.

Why it matters: President Trump didn’t get the ceasefire he came for, or the public commitment he wanted from Vladimir Putin to meet next with Volodymyr Zelensky. The leaders scrapped a planned lunch and departed early — but not before both declared the meeting a success.

Between the lines: It’s not hard to see why Putin likely left Anchorage satisfied. Images of Trump applauding as he walked down the red carpet were beamed back to Russia, and around the world.

• “They spent three years telling everyone Russia was isolated, and today they saw the beautiful red carpet laid out for the Russian president in the U.S.,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova noted.
• For now at least, Putin seems to have reset a relationship with Trump that had been splintering. Their brief joint press conference was short on substance but long on mutual praise.
• And Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that new oil sanctions for Russia — which were imminent until Putin proposed the meeting — were now probably off the table for a few weeks.

The other side: Trump insisted that progress was made on a number of issues, though not on the “biggest” one, without offering any specifics.

• En route to Alaska, Trump told Fox “I won’t be happy” if Putin doesn’t agree to a ceasefire.
• But afterwards, Trump said he was happy. “I think the meeting was a ten,” he told Hannity.
• Still, Trump was somewhat downbeat during the joint appearance. While Putin claimed an unspecified “agreement” had been reached, Trump brushed that off and said “we didn’t get there.”

Friction point: The inconclusive outcome might be most vexing to the party that was not in the room.

• Trump told Hannity it was now “up to President Zelensky to get it done,” and later said “Russia is a very big power, and they’re not.”