President Trump said on his flight to Alaska that there would be "severe consequences" if Russian President Vladimir Putin didn't agree to a ceasefire during their meeting Friday. "I'm in this to stop the killing," the president said on Air Force One. But Putin did not agree to stop the fighting, there were no consequences, and by Saturday, Trump had abandoned the idea of a ceasefire altogether. The result, Peter Baker writes in a New York Times analysis, is that Putin has been given a free pass to keep waging his war on Ukraine indefinitely, without fear of penalty.
"Even in the annals of Mr. Trump's erratic presidency, the Anchorage meeting with Mr. Putin now stands out as a reversal of historic proportions," Baker writes. A former US ambassador to NATO under Barack Obama said Trump's longtime priority changed fast after the friendly tarmac greeting, chatty limousine ride, and brief sessions. "He got played again," said Ivo Daalder. "For all the promises of a ceasefire, of severe economic consequences, of being disappointed, it took two minutes on the red carpet and 10 minutes in the Beast for Putin to play Trump again."
Skipping the ceasefire step makes the peace talks based on Ukraine turning over territory it controls to Russia, per the Times. The tough new sanctions Trump had threatened to impose on Russia, complete with deadlines, appear to be off the table, as well, per a CNN analysis by Stephen Collinson. "Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now," Trump told Fox News later Friday.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
