Half-Baked Alaska: Trump, Putin, and a Failure Decades in the Making
Trump's capitulation to Putin over Ukraine is the most extreme expression of his predecessors’ failings.
Coming out of a US-Russia summit nearly a quarter-century ago, President George W. Bush offered what would prove to be a terrible misread of Vladimir Putin:
I looked the man in the eye. I found him very straightforward and trustworthy—I was able to get a sense of his soul.
In 2025, Americans don’t need to take a deep look into anyone’s soul to understand what Putin and Russia are all about. The cyrillic characters CCCP—USSR, emblazoned upon Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s sweater as he strolled into an Anchorage hotel, speak for themselves.
It’s easy to look at yesterday’s Alaska fiasco and make it about Donald Trump. There are certainly many Trump-specific aspects of the summit that rendered it especially bad: The decision to host a revanchist Russian leader in a former Russian colony. The corrupt intermingling of Russian financiers with Trump’s business associates-turned-presidential advisors like Steve Witkoff. The president’s effusive praise for Vladimir Putin (Trump loves to flatter foreign leaders, unless that leader is the democratically-elected president of Ukraine). The blathering about Trump’s domestic political grudges. The words “PURSUING PEACE” plastered in all caps across official signage while Russian forces continue to murder Ukrainians in their homes and in schools, branding so boldly dishonest that only someone like Trump could keep a straight face in front of it.
But it would be a mistake to look at Alaska and only see a Trump problem.
Trump is America’s id. He is dangerous and brutish. Yet he is not an aberration. Trump is simply the most extreme expression of his predecessors’ failings. Every president from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden indulged Putin with the pomp and ceremony of official meetings, even if none of those presidents would have selected Alaska—the centerpiece of what was once Russkaya Amerika—as the venue.
No US president should have met with Putin at all after Russian troops attacked Georgia in 2008, and certainly not after Russia invaded Crimea and Eastern Ukraine in 2014. The pageantry of an official meeting, even a handshake, with an American commander-in-chief is priceless for bad actors. It lets autocrats tell domestic and international audiences: “I’m legit.” Trump may have wanted a deal in Anchorage; Putin did not need one. Countless photographs alongside a beaming US president and the promise of another round of useless talks (“next time in Moscow,” if Putin’s invitation is accepted) were plenty for an old KGB hand looking to rehabilitate his international standing.
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The truth is that both Democrats and Republicans have desperately wanted to see post-Cold War Russia as a normal country with whom they could collaborate. Russia, even during the Yeltsin years, repeatedly dashed those hopes. While the United States and Europe celebrated the independence of the former Soviet republics, Moscow always saw those nations as less than fully sovereign, and these two worldviews were bound to clash.
Russia never stopped being an empire. American leaders were terribly late in realizing this.
President Obama forged ahead with a “reset” on the US relationship with the Kremlin even as Russian troops occupied Georgia and Moldova. He had harsh words for Putin after the seizure of Crimea and Donbas, but the forty-fourth president never supplied Kyiv with lethal aid.
Joe Biden also had nice things to say about Ukraine when he could manage to string the right words together. Unlike Obama, he delivered weapons, but only in fits and starts, never enough, and rarely on time.
Now, the world has Donald Trump. He says the wrong thing and he does the wrong thing. In the rare instances where Trump has helped Kyiv it was more happy accident than coherent strategy. Trump owns Friday’s shameful capitulation to Putin, but two-and-a-half decades of bad policy made it possible.
What’s needed now is a real alternative; for the United States to meaningfully support Ukraine against Russia. Yes, that means saying the right thing: to paraphrase the Hudson Institute’s Luke Coffey, the US should reaffirm that every inch of occupied territory, including Crimea, is as Ukrainian as Alaska is American. But more importantly, it means matching that rhetoric with action. It means members of Congress from both parties checking the president on his betrayal of Ukraine and doubling down on support for other European allies. It means that those European governments step up and do more for the Ukrainians and for themselves. And it means recognizing that Russia is both a hostile power and a weaker country than America—and acting accordingly.
P.S. Whether you agree or disagree, let’s continue the discussion—in the comments, and on a Zoom call. Yes, Zoom! I’ve recently announced new Zoom calls for paid subscribers so that we can have a real conversation. Check it out and please consider joining.
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I 💯 agree Garry,
I saw a man completely out of his depth, with advisors just as clueless as he is. Rubio fired all of the State Department experts (over 1,500 diplomats), the NSC has been gutted and Trump showed up with Witkoff (incompetent and possible Russian stooge) and Rubio, who looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
Additionally, Trump said if a ceasefire agreement wasn’t solidified, there would be hell to pay. Yet, all we hear are crickets. No sanctions, he didn’t even bother to reinstall the banking sanctions he released two weeks ago.
Moreover, he gave a mass murderer a platform, rolled out the red carpet, acted like he just saw his best friend for the first time in years, and like in Helsinki, he praised Putin and their friendship repeatedly. Who does this?? I’d call the affair: HELL-sinki: 2:0! Putin got the two things he needed: legitimacy and time.
Not to mention, Trump walked away saying it’s in Ukraine’s hands now. Thats it? A two hour meeting and a weak response? This doesn’t sound like a victory to me, it sounds very much like capitulation.
Furthermore, I just listened to several expert positions that claimed the meeting was successful. Is this how we measure success with Trump? He didn’t give away the store? There’s a reason for that, Trump is no longer in control. And you can’t make progress when one of the parties isn’t even invited to the SHOW!
Honestly, to me, this has all the same familiar hallmarks of the Surrender Agreement, I mean DOHA Agreement; and we all how well that worked out for the Afghans: unless of course, you were the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Bottom line; this negotiation was a distraction plain and simple, just as many of us suspected. It served no purpose other than to distract from Trump’s personal issues and a cratering economy, and the results speak for themselves.
Moreover, Putin controlled the stage, set the tone and showed Trump who was boss. He even addressed the press first, which is not only unheard of, but against protocol.
That said, the only good that came out of this spectacle is that Trump didn’t throw Zelenskyy under the bus in public (who knows what was said behind closed doors).
In addition, it appears this meeting just confirmed what our NATO and European allies already suspected; they can no longer trust the United States going forward, and will look to make separate security and economic agreements away from the United States. I wouldn’t be surprised if talk begins for the complete disbanding of NATO sometime into the future.
Finally, there is some positive news. The $50 billion in current arms sales to NATO and hundreds of billions in future military spending by Europe to our Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is all the leverage the Europeans need to keep Trump in line; for now.
Otherwise, it was a very productive meeting. I can’t wait for Trump to visit Moscow; I sure he and Putin will solve world hunger and Middle East peace! IMHO…:)
FYI: there was incredible news for Ukraine!🇺🇦in its defense of a lawless and depraved kleptocrat. Ukraine sank a cargo ship with Iranian drones headed to Russia and decimated an attack by Russia when Ukrainian forces infiltrated north of Pokrovsk, killing 500-1000 Russian special forces. Well done!
Trump and Putin are like twins separated at birth.
One was raised in the brutal KGB household, the other in the gilded mansion of American wealth. Both share the same instincts: domination through spectacle. Yet Trump’s corruption is softened by luxury, while Putin’s is sharpened by a deep Russian inferiority complex summed up in one phrase: “We’ll show you!”
Different upbringings, same resemblance. The battle of wills hides less than it reveals—their kinship is genetic, and unmistakable.