President Donald Trump released a garbled mess of a video praising Russian President Vladimir Putin for a “very productive meeting” a day after they failed to reach a ceasefire deal in Ukraine.
In the bootlicking, propaganda-style clip, which Trump posted to his Truth Social account Saturday, somber music accompanies snippets of the world leaders’ meet-and-greet in Anchorage, Alaska, including footage of their respective planes arriving, shaking hands, and walking in slow motion spliced over with images of American flags.
The growly voice-over Trump recorded to accompany the video was equally puzzling, beginning, “I would like to thank President Putin and his entire team” before segueing into Trump’s comments at their joint press conference.
At the conference, Trump declared that he and Putin would stop “thousands” of people from being killed, The Guardian reported.
Closing out the video, Trump says, “We will speak to you very soon and will probably see you again very soon.”
In recounting the meeting in a debrief with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump kept his recap of the conversation vague, opting instead to insist that it was a “10” out of 10 success while in the same breath blaming former President Joe Biden for the talks not turning out better.
Trump claimed that Putin “respects our country now” under his leadership. He added, “He didn’t respect it under Biden, I can tell you that,” claiming that Russia’s war with Ukraine “would have never happened” if “we had a competent president.”
As for the next steps in securing a ceasefire, Trump laid the responsibility at the feet of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Now it’s really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done,” Trump told Hannity. “And I would also say the European nations have to get involved a little bit. But it’s up to President Zelenskyy, and if they would like, I will be at that next meeting.”
Russia launched its full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022.
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