I knew they had relocated DEAL OR NO DEAL to a tropical island. I had no idea they were doing new episodes on an Alaskan peninsula.
When I staggered home yesterday to find Roomie perched in front of our communal TV eagerly anticipating the press conference that was to provide details for the Trump-Putin summit he had bought hook, line and sinker into the hype that we were witnessing the second coming of Yalta. After all, even Hilary Clinton was ready to concede the Nobel Peace Prize to Fat Orange Jesus if he were to emerge with a win, a concession that had him flying into Anchorage on Gossamer wings.
Instead, what we got was tantamount to what a reality show like DEAL would have gotten from the old TCA. A couple of guys in suits spewing niceities at each other, few substantative details of what actually went on behind closed doors, and an urging to stay tuned for the next episode. Roomie appeared extremely disappointed by all of this, having never seen the kind of press conference hyperbole that I have. And even the real-time commentary from his favorite channel from someone that had boots on the ground couldn’t cheer him up, as STATUS’ Jon Passantino observed:
Following the meeting, Fox News’ senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich offered a blunt assessment of the Trump-Putin “press conference,” during which reporters were not allowed to ask questions. “The way that it felt in the room was not good,” she said. “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.”
That seemed to mirror the recaps offered up by some of Trump’s less favored news outlets, including this from the WALL STREET JOURNAL:
Summit Upshot: Both Trump and Putin said after their more than 2½-hour meeting Friday that their talks were productive but they provided few details. The two leaders appeared to be very friendly for most of their hours together in Alaska, beginning with a red-carpet greeting. However, that warmth seemed to evaporate at the brief press conference after the talks, where Trump appeared frustrated and tired.
And this somewhat more detailed account from Jim Tankersley and Ivan Nechepurenko of the NEW YORK TIMES:
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Alaska summit: Mr. Trump and American officials divulged few details on Friday about the substance of the nearly three-hour meeting at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage. The summit broke up ahead of schedule. After their first meeting with a few aides and a meal break, Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin were expected to meet again with a larger circle of people. The second session appeared not to take place, cutting short a summit Russian officials had said they expected to last six or seven hours.
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Putin’s comments: At a joint news conference after their meeting, Mr. Putin referred obliquely to agreements between Mr. Trump and himself, without elaborating, and added, “We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively and will not throw a wrench in the works.” The Russian leader also endorsed Mr. Trump’s oft-stated claim that if he had been in the White House, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022.
And it may just be that that last nugger may have been all that Trump was actually seeking in the first place. That certainly seemed to proven out during the post-mortem which Passantino conceded all but identified Heinrich as a traitor:
 (F)or Fox News viewers who continued to watch the network afterward, you would have thought Trump had just signed the Camp David Accords, with Hannity and other pro-Trump mouthpieces spinning the president’s flop into a foreign policy triumph. |
| “Mr. President, it’s a historic day and I know that Americans—I think this transcends political ideology,” Hannity gushed to Trump in a friendly one-on-one interview immediately after. Kellyanne Conway was equally effusive: “Look, everything came up Trump and the U.S. today.” And Jason Chaffetz added, “I think it’s a huge win for President Trump, for the United States.” |
And as only FOX NEWS’ Peter Pinedo chose to report this morning, Hannity received these other “exclusives” toward the end of his flaggelating sitdown:
Trump shared that Putin told him he believed the 2020 election was rigged because of the widespread mail-in voting, saying, “you can’t have a great democracy with mail-in voting. Without hesitating, Trump said that his advice to Zelenskyy after Friday’s meeting with Putin would be “make a deal.”
So let’s get this straight. This is a war that the presence of Joe Biden made possible, and it’s up to Zelenskyy to settle it. And as we learned from breaking news via Tankersley and Nechepurenko this morning, that offer is not going to be as generous as what Howie Mandel’s fictitious banker might have been inclined to make:
President Trump appeared on Saturday to split from Ukraine and key European allies after his summit with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, adopting Mr. Putin’s preference for pursuing a sweeping peace agreement instead of the urgent cease-fire Mr. Trump said he wanted before the meeting.
Doing so would give Russia an advantage in the talks, which are due to continue on Monday when President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine visits Mr. Trump at the White House. It breaks from a strategy Mr. Trump and European allies, as well as Mr. Zelensky, had agreed to before the U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska, and it provoked a chilly reception in Europe, where leaders have time and again seen Mr. Trump reverse positions on Ukraine after speaking with Mr. Putin.
So we get yet another photo op for a traveling leader to sit down with “FDR”–Freaking Delusional Racist–on U.S. soil, more than likely with the same hastily designed backdrop set that accompanied yesterday’s presser and FOX NEWS’ primetime coverage. Another chance for Zelenskyy to perhaps say thank you and wear a tie, lest he make the same faux pas that actually gave Beverly Hillbillies Elegy a few lines the last time he visited the crime cesspool known as Washington, D.C.
And within the hour the TIMES’ Steven Erlanger dropped a few details as to what contestant Zelenskyy may indeed be offered:
After his meeting with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump has dropped his demand for an immediate cease-fire and believes a rapid peace treaty can be negotiated, so long as Mr. Zelensky agrees to cede the rest of the Donbas region to Russia, even those areas not occupied by Russian troops. In return, Mr. Putin offered a cease-fire in the rest of Ukraine at current battle lines and a written promise not to attack Ukraine or any European country again, the senior officials said. They pointed out to Mr. Trump that Mr. Putin often broke his written commitments.
Assuming Zelenskyy’s polite and well-dressed, it could a potentially pivotal episode of the ongoing reality series that this presidency has become. But it sure sounds like we’re equally likely to be heading into a cycle of repeats. You’ve been warned, Roomie.
Until next time…