Trump-Putin Alaska Summit Ends With 'No Deal'

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Aug. 16, 2025

President Donald Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday ended with seemingly no progress being made on a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

From AP, "No deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine after Trump rolls out red carpet for Putin":

President Donald Trump failed to secure an agreement from Vladimir Putin on Friday to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, falling short in his most significant move yet to stop the bloodshed, even after rolling out the red carpet for the man who started it.

“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” the U.S. president said, after Putin claimed they had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.” Trump said he would call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders to brief them on the talks.

Trump, who for years has balked at American support for Ukraine and expressed admiration for Putin, had pledged confidently to bring about an end to the war on his first day back in the White House. Seven months later, after berating Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and stanching the flow of some U.S. military assistance to Kyiv, Trump could not bring Putin even to pause the fighting, as his forces make gains on the battlefield.

Trump had offered Putin both a carrot and a stick, issuing threats of punishing economic sanctions on Russia while also extending a warm welcome at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, but he appeared to walk away without any concrete result on ending the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

Putin delivered a calculated speech, overflowing with flattery, for about eight minutes, and Trump responded by rambling about nonsense for around three minutes:

This clip of Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich describing how Putin "steamrolled" Trump is going viral all over social media:

Fox News Reporter Jacqui Heinrich: 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 pic.twitter.com/eTu4SdfA13
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 15, 2025

Frankly, I'm surprised Putin thought he was safe to travel to the US considering all the assassinations of world leaders and negotiators Israel's been carrying out lately with the US's backing.

I'd love to know how he made that decision.

Trump just the other day repeated his line, "Obama gave [Ukraine] sheets and I gave them Javelins," seemingly oblivious to the fact that said escalation undoubtedly contributed to Putin's decision to invade.

NOW - Trump says that without his supply of Javelins to Ukraine during his first term, Putin would have reached Kyiv in 4 hours. pic.twitter.com/3thCx36OoI
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) August 11, 2025

Trump's attempt to end the war has gone nowhere because he doesn't want to cut off Ukraine and take the blame for their loss.

US aid to Ukraine under Trump has continued largely uninterrupted, yet the Russians have continued to advance on the battlefield.

Trump further escalated tensions with the DOJ recently announcing plans to auction off a $325 million Russian superyacht seized by the US under Biden.

That's a step more aggressive than the Biden administration, just as Trump's decision to send Javelins and other lethal aid was more aggressive than the Obama administration.

Trump claimed on the campaign trail he would be a peace president but instead he bombed Iran, gave full US support to the Gaza genocide, started a war with the Houthis (which the US swiftly lost), and in many ways has escalated tensions with Russia rather than cooled them.

One would hope this meeting would serve to lessen tensions, I'm assuming that's the only reason Putin agreed to it, but with Trump's erratic threats and evershifting "deadline" it's hard to believe we're any closer to peace.

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