President Donald Trump may have done more to help Russian President Vladimir Putin than he did to help Ukraine during the summit in Alaska on Friday, according to one analyst.
Trump said he intended to negotiate a ceasefire in the three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine during the summit. If Putin refused to agree, then he would impose "very serious consequences," including sanctions. Trump backed up his tough talk by staging a flyover of American bombers while he greeted Putin.
However, Eric Edelman, a retired foreign service officer, warned on Sunday that Trump's move backfired. Instead, Edelman suggested that Trump had "rescued" Putin from the international isolation he had endured since the war began.
Edelman joined The Bulwark's Editor at Large, Bill Kristol, on the outlet's Sunday podcast to discuss the summit.
"I think Trump may have thought that having a B-2 flyover accompanied by F-22s, the aircraft that, of course, were involved in Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran, was somehow suggesting a show of force to Putin," Edelman said. "I don't think that's how Putin saw it. I think he saw it as a mark of respect, actually. That's certainly the way it's being presented in the Russian press in the reaction to all this, which has been that this was an unqualified success for Putin."
"What it did was resuscitate him both domestically and internationally as a respected player on the international stage," Edelman continued. "This is very reminiscent of Kevin McCarthy going down to Mar-a-Lago in February of 2021 after Trump had left office disgraced by what happened on January 6th and his failure to stop the insurrection. That basically brought Trump back to life politically. That, in effect, is what Trump has done, I think, to Putin on both the domestic stage in Russia and on the international stage."
He added that the move could send a dangerous signal to countries America has sanctioned.
"It encourages countries like Turkey, for instance, to continue evading U.S. sanctions and sanctions on Russia, assuming that there will be no penalty for doing that," Edleman said.
Watch the entire episode below or by clicking here.