Two MAGA guests were schooled on the hype surrounding Donald Trump’s claims of driving a hard deal with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
Network anchor Abby Phillip was addressing President Trump’s widely panned Alaska summit for peace in Ukraine with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
She was speaking with former George W. Bush aide Scott Jennings and conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro on NewsNight. “But Scott, who could have thought, who could have guessed, that Vladimir Putin was not serious about peace with Ukraine, and that this summit was not going to produce the results that you and Trump thought it would?” the host said, rolling her eyes.
Trump, who had previously pledged to end the war in Ukraine on “day one” of his second term, had trumpeted that meeting ahead of time, telling reporters “we’re pretty close to a deal” for a ceasefire.
No deal has since materialized. At a subsequent press conference that lasted a matter of minutes, Trump and Putin made vague claims of an agreement but provided no details, took no questions, and made no mention of an armistice.
Critics have lambasted Trump for legitimizing Putin at the pageantry-filled summit. Russia has since pushed on with several major aerial attacks and drone assaults against targets in Ukraine, including British Council and European Union offices in the capital of Kyiv.
“Well, I think he thought he should try,” Jennings said during his Tuesday network appearance on Trump’s performance at the summit. “I mean, the alternative was not to try, so he tried, and now Putin is doing what many people thought was possible.”
Ahead of the Alaska meeting, Trump had said the alternative to a peace deal would be “very severe consequences” for Russia, adding the Kremlin would not be “doing business until we get the war settled” in what many commentators saw as a veiled reference to further sanctions against Moscow. No such measures have been implemented since then.
“It was entirely predictable,” Phillip said of Putin calling Trump’s bluff on threats of further consequences. “Everybody knew that this was what Putin was going to do. The only people saying that Trump was a genius and that this was going to be all totally different were folks like you two and Donald Trump.”
Shapiro then shot back by arguing that Trump deserves credit for not barring Ukraine from receiving further military support and not pushing Kyiv into a punitive peace with Moscow. “We’re ripping him for what, not being hawkish enough?” he said. “It’s kind of funny how the goal posts move every time Trump moves.”
“I don’t think the goal posts have moved, except that Trump has moved them,” Phillip replied, noting that, again, Trump had previously promised he could end the bloody three-year conflict in as little as 24 hours.
Trump, for his part, does not appear to be taking the fallout of the summit well, posting a catty Truth Social response to China’s largest-ever military parade this week, at which the leaders of both Russia and North Korea were in attendance.
“May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration,” the president wrote. “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and (North Korean leader), as you conspire against The United States of America.”
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