With fighter jets, a red carpet and a hopeful slogan — “Pursuing Peace” — plastered on the wall, President Donald Trump welcomed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for a summit in Alaska on Friday whose results remained entirely unclear once it abruptly ended.
After meeting for nearly three hours, the two men emerged to proclaim progress. But they exited their scheduled news conference without explaining what, exactly, they have achieved.
One thing that was evident: There was no deal made. And the ceasefire Trump said he wanted in place when the summit ended was far from becoming a reality as he increasingly put the onus on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “make a deal.”
“There were many, many points that we agreed on – most of them, I would say,” Trump said at the news conference, speaking after Putin. “A couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway.”
“There’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump pronounced.
