Donald Trump loves to talk, especially about his supposed successes as a skilled negotiator and shrewd statesman. This time in Alaska, things were different.
By his standards, the “deal-maker in chief” kept his appearance before the gathered press remarkably short, lasting only four minutes.
After his three-hour meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin at a US military base near Anchorage, Trump said only that they had had an “extremely productive meeting.”
They had agreed on many things, he said, with only “one big thing” remaining.
“We haven’t done that yet. But there is a very good chance that we will get that done too,” Trump said in an effort to sound friendly. The US president did not elaborate further.
In fact, Trump made no mention of Ukraine by name. Only once did he refer to Russia’s war of aggression. “We will end the deaths of five thousand people a week. President Putin wants that too,” he said.
Trump also failed to mention that Putin, a former KGB spy, could achieve this goal immediately if he stopped the attacks on Ukraine.
Is Trump buying Russia’s narrative?
The guest from Moscow remained extremely polite and calm. Without batting an eyelid, he suggested that the “situation” in Ukraine was about Russia’s security.
It may sound strange under the current circumstances, Putin said, but everything that is being done to the “brotherly people of Ukraine is a tragedy for us, a terrible wound. That is why our country is seriously interested in putting an end to it.”
Putin gave the impression that Russia was under threat and had to respond to “provocations.”
This is a reversal of the facts, which he presumably also presented to Donald Trump during their talks in Alaska.
Many observers who closely follow the mood swings and erratic pronouncements of the 79-year-old US president believe that Trump picks up on and repeats whatever he last heard.
The question is, therefore, how far the Russian narrative will catch on.
Now ‘up to Zelenskyy’ to reach agreement with Moscow
Last Wednesday, it still seemed as if the US president was on the side of Ukraine, which is under attack.
According to Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Donald Trump had “largely” agreed with the West’s demands on Russia.
Merz had organized a virtual preparatory summit from Berlin and formulated five points for the negotiations in Alaska.
These included the demand that Ukraine alone should decide on its territory and the conditions for a ceasefire.
Trump did mention this demand in his brief statement. He said that in the end, “they” would have to decide, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the leaders of the major NATO countries.
Trump announced that he would call them immediately to inform them about the talks.
It is unclear whether he will be able to announce any concrete agreements with Russia during these phone calls.
On his way back to Washington, Trump told reporters that it was now up to Zelenskyy to reach an agreement with Moscow.
Trump curiously submissive towards Putin
After the meeting, Donald Trump told reporters he had a “fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir.” Before the meeting, he had described the Russian leader as a “smart guy.”
A few weeks ago, however, he also said that Putin talks a lot of nonsense and does not keep his promises, but instead intensifies his attacks on Ukraine after each of their phone calls.
However, during personal meetings with the Russian leader, Trump always seems to hold back.
No criticism, not even subtle, was heard from Donald Trump’s mouth. He is of course far less restrained with other state guests.
Trump followed Putin’s eight minutes of remarks and excursions into Russian-American history at the joint press conference with a kind of frozen smile.
He had already displayed the same expression in Helsinki in 2018. At that time, the two men came together for their first long summit meeting.
Trump talked himself into a corner and went so far as to say that he trusted the man from the Kremlin more than his own intelligence services.
Putin was not stingy with pleasantries in his remarks, praising the great prospects for cooperation between the US and Russia and politely thanking the Trump administration for its efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine.
However, he immediately added that the “roots of the conflict” must be eliminated. By this he meant Ukraine’s ties to the West, the membership of Eastern European countries in NATO, and NATO troops on its eastern flank.
Next stop: Moscow?
The bottom line is that few concrete results were made public. There was no mention whatsoever of a ceasefire or steps toward one.
Donald Trump had announced that if the Alaska summit was successful, there would be a trilateral meeting between him, Putin and the Ukrainian president.
But there was no mention of that following the talks. “We may see each other again soon,” the US president said vaguely.
The Russian leader then invited the perplexed Trump to Moscow in English. “That could possibly happen,” Trump said, even if he would face some criticism for it.
If Moscow were the next venue for talks it would make it almost impossible for Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend.
Before the summit, Trump had threatened Russia with “severe consequences” if Putin did not move toward a ceasefire.
Whether these consequences will now follow — meaning new, harsh economic sanctions against Russia’s business partners, such as India and China — remains unclear.
However, the US president hinted that “after what happened today, higher tariffs against China are unlikely.” Unfortunately, he did not elaborate on what had actually happened.
However, Trump is likely to be in a hurry to continue talks and efforts to bring peace to Ukraine. After all, the Nobel Committee will decide who will receive the Nobel Peace Prize at the beginning of October, in two months’ time.
Trump is desperate to win it. He made no secret of this in a recent telephone conversation with Norwegian Finance Minister and former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, according to Norwegian media reports.
The Nobel Peace Prize is traditionally awarded in early December in the Norwegian capital Oslo. Trump has already been nominated several times.
Even his former rival in the presidential election campaign, Democrat Hillary Clinton, said she would support him. But only if he achieves a “just peace for Ukraine.”
After the summit in Alaska, Trump still has a long way to go to achieve that.
This article was written in German.
