Subject: The Kabuki Theater in Anchorage
I WAS ALWAYS SKEPTICAL THAT ANYTHING positive could come out of a meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. The setup was too familiar. It was a repeat of previous Trump administration negotiations with the Taliban, conducted without the Afghan government present, which set the stage for the collapse of Afghanistan, the victory of the Taliban, and the flight of President Ashraf Ghani (and much of his government) when he saw the writing on the wall. In any negotiation, when the aggressor is legitimized and the victim is sidelined, the result will be not peace but disaster.

The Alaska summit followed exactly that script. After a few days of messaging, but apparently without the disciplined preparation that usually precedes these kinds of critical meetings, Trump expected to conjure a breakthrough. Instead, he walked away with little more than Putin’s smirk and the state media in Moscow reporting their leader’s success. Ukraine was once again asked to hold its fire while its future was negotiated by others.

Sir Lawrence Freedman’s careful analysis of the summit captures both the disasters Trump avoided and those he invited. Trump did not swallow Putin’s most dangerous proposals—such as handing over Donetsk in return for a ceasefire. But the meeting ended with Trump abandoning even the pursuit of a ceasefire and adopting Putin’s line that only a “final settlement” of “underlying issues” could end the war. That shift, sudden and improvised, was a gift to Moscow.

The optics made it worse. I was embarrassed to see the U.S. military used as a prop in what looked more like a movie set than a serious summit. Rows of F-22s and F-35s lined the tarmac as if to impress, while a joint cadre of Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel rolled out and swept a red carpet for Putin’s arrival and then saluted as the primaries passed them by. A staged B-2 flyover then thundered overhead. If it was intended to intimidate Putin, he seemed to take it as a tribute, and it framed Trump and Putin as equal world figures. The hearty handshakes, the exaggerated smiles, and the awkward hand-patting added to the gestures of a man who confuses theater with strength

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