New York Times reporter and "Donald Trump whisperer" Maggie Haberman said she was stunned watching the U.S. president greet Russia's Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to CNN on Friday after the two men met and began their summit, Haberman said that Trump places high value on how things "look" in terms of staging.
"This is the type of display of pageantry and grandiosity that he really likes," she noted. "They put this together very quickly. We should not lose sight of the fact that Putin has been accused of war crimes, and there are many, many people dead, and there is mass devastation in Ukraine. And so, you know, the president is meeting with Putin while he has had, by contrast, this really, really aggressive meeting with President Zelensky in the Oval Office."
Haberman explained that Trump has since softened his tone and agreed that arming Ukraine is his only leverage.
"But this was a really astonishing spectacle to watch, to your point. And it's on a military base in the U.S.," she continued.
CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins pointed out that the White House press pool reported that Trump and Putin were alone in the limousine, and there was no translator or note-taker.
See the clip below or at the link here.