President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a press conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, August 15, 2025.
Yesterday, Friday August 14, 2025, Donald Trump, President of the United States, greeted Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, to a US military base in Alaska with a red carpet, applause, and a flyover of the B2 bomber.
Trump's agenda was a make-up meeting with Putin. Earlier this year Trump was mad at Putin because Putin wasn't helping Trump get his Nobel Peace Prize for ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump discovered that Putin doesn't care what Trump thinks of him if Putin gets to do what he wants - which is to reconstitute the USSR, starting with taking as much of Ukraine as he can.
Trump realized he is the submissive in their relationship and reached out to Putin to patch things up and apologize for being mad at him before. (of course I made that up, but it could be true...I mean, 'some people' say it's true.)
At the end of the meeting Trump essentially threw up his hands and said it's up to Zelensky now.
Which is exactly how Putin wanted things to end. He gets to keep bombing Ukraine and will eventually get some territory from Ukraine.
Trump is not a top-notch negotiator.
Or, considering his love of Putin, maybe Trump got exactly what he wanted.