President Donald Trump got rolled by Vladimir Putin at the Alaska summit, former CIA Director John Brennan told MSNBC's Eugene Daniels on Monday — but then the leaders of Europe sat him down and gave him what for.
That latter meeting, which was punctuated by some embarrassing moments for the president, saw a variety of U.S. allies reiterating their commitments to Ukraine's defense and pushing Trump to carry on with those made by his country.
"As the former spy chief yourself, what happened?" asked Daniels. "Because on up until Thursday he was saying — even Friday, when he was going to Alaska — saying, I want a ceasefire, period. And then he got in a car with Vladimir Putin, they drove a little bit, and then all of a sudden his mind changed. Former KGB agent talking to Donald Trump, and now his mind changed. What do you think happened there?"
"Well, I think first of all, Donald Trump is quite intimidated by Vladimir Putin," said Brennan. "I think he admires Vladimir Putin's strength and his will in terms of prosecuting this war, is very unfortunate to say."
Furthermore, he continued, "I think he realizes that he's not going to move Putin off of this position. Putin has thought through these issues for many, many years, and I think he was determined to get to Alaska and to lay down the law, basically, with Donald Trump. And so I think Donald Trump gave in to him. And so that's why he changed his position, claiming that a ceasefire is not important."
"Well, I'm so glad that German Chancellor Merz and French President Macron, in that session in the Oval Office today in the White House, said that, yes, a ceasefire is important," he added. "We need to be able to move forward with that in order for there to be some type of trust generated, that any type of negotiations will be serious. So again, I just think Donald Trump doesn't understand just how complex and complicated this issue is."
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