The internet has eviscerated President Donald Trump over a photo portraying the president as a tough negotiator following his widely panned summit in Alaska with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
“The goal is peace,” reads the caption to the black-and-white image, posted to X by the official White House account, which shows Trump looming over Putin while pointing assertively at his chest.
The president left the peace summit with Putin without a deal to end the war in Ukraine and has shifted the responsibility for reaching a ceasefire to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The goal is always peace. pic.twitter.com/AvYjUYhh8B
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 16, 2025
Users in the comments section were having none of the White House’s gloating.
“You DON’T negotiate with the unprovoked aggressor,” one person wrote. “You don’t roll out the red carpet for the one who caused this war to happen. Period. Full Stop. This is Putin’s War. And, how dare you attempt to ‘bring peace to Ukraine,’ without [Ukrainian President] Zelensky’s presence? #EpicFail.”
“I’m a pedophile,” reads a speech bubble beside Trump’s head in an altered version of the photo, shared by hacktivist organization Anonymous, with “I’m a war criminal” hovering beside Putin’s. “You’re both a–holes,” a translator standing between the two leaders chips in.
The art of the deal pic.twitter.com/Uvv7dKMeVF
— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) August 16, 2025
Other ripostes proved even blunter.
“This is so pathetic,” one user wrote. “You’re trying to find a strongman photo like the one of Obama with Putin. But we see you with your big cheesy grin, happy as a pig in shit to be reunited with your war criminal. No one is buying what you’re selling.”
“You are a failure,” chimed in another alongside a split image of Zelensky with the word “hero” and Trump with the word “zero.”
You are a failure. pic.twitter.com/uZCFSc0xo0
— Peggy Gabour (@peggy_gabour) August 16, 2025
“Peace through submission hardly comes to fruition,” another wrote alongside a video of Trump clapping for Putin on a red carpet laid out for his arrival.
Trump’s online savaging follows after he met with his Russian counterpart at an Alaska summit Friday. Ahead of that meeting, Trump had told reporters he believed “we’re pretty close to a deal” for a ceasefire to the war in Ukraine—launched on Putin’s orders in February 2022, and which Trump had previously claimed he could end in as little as 24 hours.
— War Witch will hold this territory (@HRHTish) August 16, 2025
No such arrangement was reached. At a subsequent press conference that lasted only a few minutes, Trump and Putin made vague claims of an agreement but provided no details, took no questions, and made no mention of a ceasefire.
Critics have since lambasted Trump not only for failing to deliver on the stated purpose of his meeting with the Russian president but also for legitimizing the dictator’s standing on the world stage with a pageantry-filled summit complete with a red carpet, military flyovers, and a joint motorcade.
“The Art of No Deal,” as one X user so succinctly put it.
— TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) August 16, 2025
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