JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska (AP) — First came the red carpet, then the warm handshakes, friendly smiles and military planes flying overhead.
Finally, President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin climbed into the back seat of Trump’s presidential limousine, casually chatting like reunited friends as they were whisked away to talks about the future of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Putin basically showed that Russia is on equal terms with the US right now. He got red carpet treatment, was applauded by President Trump, and he then spoke first in that news conference. Very unusual for a visiting head of state to be allowed to do that. When he said what he had to say, he left. He controlled the narrative during the whole summit.
I heard that standard diplomatic protocol is the longest serving diplomat speaks first.
If I’m not mistaken, Trump has been talking first when meeting with European leaders, who definitely have been in office longer.
but europe is composed of a bunch of natostans. they’re not really sovereign nations.
This was a powerful illustration of this fact.
Hmmm, interesting
Who remembers Trump saying he would end the war day 1?
This has been the longest 2 weeks in history.
adversarial leader who launched the largest land war in Europe since World War II
You’re on a roll, AP, don’t forget to leave out the uncomfortable bits.
Did they forget to say unprovoked?
Not even “full scale invasion”, just “war”
What kind of abrupt ending for the two in the same limo?
Not the one we were all hoping for.
Removed by mod
No one’s more homophobic than a liberal who thinks they’ve found an “acceptable” target
They both got out of the meeting what they wanted.
Putin got to further erode NATO and the West, while Trump got a distraction from the fact he’s a nonce.
This all sounds like Putin slid an envelope across to Trump, and after Trump looked at the pictures inside, Putin asked…“Do we understand each other now, Donald? Good.”
And then the meeting was over.
Probably a white box just like Maxwell received
Trump: Vlad, stop killing Ukrainians.
Vlad: No.
Trump: No body told me this would be hard.
He just tells him how pretty he is .
That wasn’t Putin. They sent a body double.
