After the damp squib of a summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Trump said that it was up to Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to work things out between them. It was never clear that Putin had agreed to such a meeting and it seems unlikely that he would. Then it was announced that Trump would meet with Zelenskyy at the White House tomorrow (Monday) again with no clear statement about what purpose it would serve, other than perhaps to tell Zelenskyy that he had better make a deal with Putin that gives up territory that Russia has already seized. He could just have easily conveyed that through other channels.
The map of the current state of affairs is below and the mood in Ukraine is strongly against such concessions.
But then we hear today that six leaders from the EU (the heads of Germany, France, Italy, Finland, plus the European Commission president and the NATO secretary general) are also flying to Washington to join the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting. It is not clear who initiated the creation of this larger group. If Trump had done so, the White House would have made a big deal out of it.
Zelenskyy is the one who is most likely to benefit from their presence. Recall the earlier disastrous meeting in which Trump and Vance publicly sandbagged him, teaming up like a pair of playground bullies to humiliate him, even demanding that he thank them for what the US had done. Zelenskyy may have suggested to the EU leaders that they come so that that experience will not be repeated. (I have the sense that on a personal level, Trump does not like Zelenskyy. It may be because Trump sets great store on appearance and Zelenskyy does not wear the ‘uniform’ of male political leaders of a dark suit, white shirt, and tie. Instead he wears dark casual clothes, even to the White House. Maybe Trump feels insulted by that. Who knows?)
It is also possible that the EU leaders invited themselves, alarmed by what they saw as Trump’s obsequious behavior towards Putin at the Anchorage meeting, and felt that they needed to be there to prevent him from putting pressure on Zelenskyy to capitulate to Putin’s agenda.
Whatever the reason, it is not clear what this meeting hopes to achieve. Trump could convey to them what Putin told him he expects in return for any ceasefire or other deal to end hostilities. But if these prove to be too much for Zelenskyy and the EU leaders to stomach, what then? Another press appearance in which nobody says anything of substance?
Andrew O’Heir writes that in Anchorage, the media that normally loves to cover Trump because he provides good TV, turned on him because he failed to deliver and ended up wasting the time of everyone who went there.
That helps explain the scathing reviews from the Trump-orbiting press corps: Not only was there no peace deal in Ukraine – which, not to be tiresome, was something Trump promised he would accomplish in one day – but, worse yet, our guy put on a bad show. Armies of commentators, reporters and photographers were hauled off to the 49th state expecting a vintage Trump performance, of the sort that has lubricated their industry for an entire decade.
What they got instead was inconclusive meeting that produced no agreement of any sort, followed by “an awkward press appearance”.
…What actually happened, and didn’t happen, between these so-called world leaders on Friday in Alaska wasn’t especially surprising, or all that difficult to understand. Donald Trump ran headlong into reality, in the form of an uncharismatic but implacable opponent who holds most of the cards, to use Trump’s favorite metaphor, and is in position to grind out a slow and painful endgame to this war, largely on his own terms. But he also ran into something else, which could be the outer limits of his diminishing ability to shape the narrative so it’s always about him.
No one expected Trump to grow a spine or display moral principles or “become presidential.” His low-key quisling turn was entirely in character, and not nearly enough to explain the media’s collective sense of betrayal. What the fading infotainment priesthood wanted, or rather needed, was vintage Trump theater: outrageous bluster, false claims, fatuous rhetoric, unfulfillable or alarming promises (with something or other about the future of Ukraine thrown in). Instead, they watched their main character deflate before their eyes, like a sad-clown balloon at the end of a long day at the theme park. Trump committed the only unforgivable sin of this era: He was small and boring.
While there are some truly ghastly things going on in the world both internationally (such as in Gaza and Ukraine) and domestically (with the crackdown on civil liberties and basic democratic rights), we are well into the period of Trumpian politics consisting largely of content-free theater that serves to distract the public from those harsh realities. While the media seem to be unfazed by the ‘content-free’ part, losing the theatrical aspect is what seems to upset them.
When I was a child, there were summits. The first one I really remember was the Camp David summit that laid the groundwork for peace between Israel and Egypt. I wondered then about the word “summit”, because where I lived, “summit” was what people said when they meant “something” -- “dust want summit to ate?” meaning “are you hungry?”, for instance. I was aware, being a kid who read a lot, that “summit” also meant the top of a mountain. This always seemed like a good word, because it brought to mind Edmund Hillary reaching the summit of Everest -- a long, hard slog, completely impossible without the work of a huge supporting team who did most of the work, with just a couple of people of commitment and will being pushed to the front to make the last, huge effort to achieve the goal.
What’s gone on between Trump and Putin isn’t a summit. It appears to be a walk in the park, and not even one of those interesting, consequential walks in the park like you get in spy fiction where two men (and it is always men) greet each other with “The weather is most clement for the time of year.” “Indeed, I hear it is unseasonably warm in Moscow also.” or similar. What it looks like is a walk in the park where one of the blokes is a predatory carer, and the other is a mentally disabled man who is about to be conned out of house and savings without realising it.
It will be interesting to see how Trump spins his utter failure in such a way as to continue allowing his base to delude themselves he has power and influence. I expect he won’t bother, but will instead just come up with some headline grabbing distraction, safe i the knowledge they’ll have forgotten again before the week is out.
Pending the meeting Putin had his army start a push near Pokrovsk to look strong. It now turns out it was yet another suicide mission, as the narrow 13-km salient is saturated by coverage from fiber-optic operated drones.
By Sunday evening the salient was collapsing and the spearhead unit is surrounded in two pockets.
Putin does not give a damn since the soldiers were completely expendable as seen from the perspective of the Kremlin.
The reports I saw also included the UK Prime Minister.
I suspect the European leaders look forward to the Washington summit the way you look forward to a colonoscopy. It is a necessary, but painful experience.
Maybe the Europeans have another peace proposal? E.g. Russia retreats from Ukraine and as a compensation gets back Alaska.
Lassi Hippeläinen @ 5
For Chrissake, don’t give Trump ideas!