Bolton: ‘Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won’

Bolton: ‘Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won’

Caitlin. It’s fascinating to see how it must have felt in the roo versus seeing it on television. It was interesting to see that split screen of President T sort of trying to say things that maybe a regular leader might either leader might laugh at or smile at. And Vladimir Putin was just dead eyed looking at hi not responding in any way. Ambassador Bolton, you’ve been o you know, you were in Helsinki, you were the national security a What do you make of what you saw from the president? I think, Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won. Trump didn’t come away with anyt except more meetings. Putin has, I think, gone a long to reestablishing the relationsh which I’ve always believed was his key goal. He has escaped sanctions. He’s not facing a cease fire. The next meeting is not set. Zelensky was not told any of thi this press conference. It’s far from over. But I’d say Putin achieved most of what he wanted. Trump achieved very little and I will say one of the thing I thought Trump looked very tired up there. I mean, very tired, not disappointed, tired. And we’ll have to reflect on what that means. Vladimir Putin said, I believe we’ve turned the page not referring to Ukraine, but bu do you know what he referred to and the U.S. Russia relationship. But what he really means is the Vlad Donald relationship. But that’s what makes this so extraordinary, though, he said, we’ve turned the page back to cooperation. He mentioned he was hopeful there would be sp cooperation between the United S and Russia. He mentioned maybe in the Arctic there would be cooperation. he said, yes, Ukraine deserves security guarantees. But we know what Putin believes, how he would secure Ukraine. He has a very difference of opin And he talked about how they hav a fantastic relationship and turn the page. The American president could hav maybe we will turn the page, maybe we can do all those things But first you have to end this w And he didn’t. He, in fact said the relationship was fantastic. So he went for a cease fire. He leaves with nothing. Putin got a flyover, a red carpet, a lot of handshakes and a lot of great state TV cove That’s all. I think it’s even deeper. He got out of the diplomatic pen three minutes. Yeah. Putin did. He’s got the ability. The fourth threat of sanctions, not issued. I think that’s why he came here, was to avoid sanctions aga and keep the economy while it’s rickety, And he’s allowed and permitted to keep the war with no political consequences back home on that. So I actually think, well, you m I understand that you said Trump didn’t lose. I actually think Putin came out more significant a winner because he has no sanctions, no economic or political, isolat And he keeps the war going for what he wants. And I sit here, we watch this. We’ve been waiting. I think I know less today than I when the started dirty former Moscow bureau chief. I mean, you’ve read Russian tea leaves for many decades. Yeah, well, I mean, he he hasn’t changed his position. I mean, he’s talking about root And he even if I understood that part correctly, seems to be saying that Presiden is trying to get to the crux of the issues It almost sounds as if maybe this is too much. But he convinced Trump of these root causes. And as we know, root causes are you know, in the in his view of the root c Yeah. So maybe I’m not given that warr The. Hi, everybody case, in terms of talking to your audience at home, if that’s the implication that they read into it, and it’s an affirmation of his p that’s that’s good. The thing that was interesting t just how artful Putin was at tickling Trump’s funny bo He talked. He took a shot at Biden, you know, and and then he said, I can confirm that the war wouldn’t have happe if Trump were there. That’s like music or music to that before music to Trump’s, to Trump’s ears. And, and, you know, you could he Trump, you know, you could sense that that was, landed well with him. And then he started talking about Russia, Russia, Russia. And he went all but I mean, Putin is what went you remember we went to Moscow in 2009 and Putin was talking to a president Obama and he said, you know, you’re an educated man I’m just an old security apparat Well, you saw some of the old security apparatus, just a country of oil. The longer I sit here listening to everybody, I’m wondering about the White House’s decision making and a lot of this, they had this lengthy meeting, in the small group. They skipped another meeting that would have continued it. They decided to come out to the press conference a little bit early. Maybe not quite as early as it was originally thought to And then they let Putin speak fi and they let Putin speak first about something that Putin descr an agreement. He said it was perhaps a startin So maybe there was something agr whatever that was hasn’t been communicated to European allies or Ukraine. It was not reiterated by Preside We know nothing now that we did four hours ago. I’m I’m just not understanding the White House’s decision making in setting this up this w because maybe there was somethin agreed to, but they clearly are not confide enough in that, that they were willing to say so at that podium. Do you think there was something actually agreed to tha It certainly sounds like there was something, but but the fact they wouldn’t a it says it can’t be very substan Yeah. I think maybe the answer to your questio there is no white House decision It’s just whatever they want to It’s hard under Trump, under the best of circumstances. I can attest to that. and I think today it broke down completely. I think when you say there’s no white House decision making proc you mean it’s just it’s whatever President Trump is thinking in that moment. And then people say, yes, sir. And that’s how it happens. I think, the mood in Russia after this is going to be close to eup I think in the United States it’ going to be confused, deflated. I think in Europe and Ukraine it’s going to be very depressed. I want to check in with Fred Pleitgen in Moscow to see what kind of reaction or this is getting there. Fred. Yeah, it’s getting wall to wall coverage, Anderson, here in in Russia. And as you can imagine, the Russian state media are pret with the outcome so far. One of the things it’s getting p again and again and again is President Trump saying that there could be a fol summit and President Putin then saying next time in Moscow. That certainly is something that the Russian press is sort of zeroing in on, generally saying that they believe that the meeting went very well for Vladimir Putin, obviously outlining the fact that Vladimir does not appear to have made substantial concessions to the US president, certainly not towards any sort o cease fire that might be imminen The fact that the Russian presid about the root causes of the conflict and that those need to be addres Russia’s security concerns as we That’s the exact same rhetoric that we’ve actually been hearing from Vladimir Putin since the beginning of the full on invasion of Ukrai And looking at how this evening unfolded, certainly, if you see some of the Russian o that we’ve sort of been monitori Anderson, that have been talking about this, like, for instance, the spokeswoman for the Russian foreign Ministry she said, look, people have been saying for the last three years that Russia is completely isolat and now they’re seeing President Trump roll out the red carpet for the Russian p on US territory, then saying that the US media was going crazy about all this. So certainly the Russians right treating this as a positive outcome for Vladim It was quite interesting to hear the Russian media actually did speak to some Russian officials that then came out of those meet And the Russian ambassador to the United States talked about a very positive atm The Russian defense minister sai that he was very upbeat after hearing about the meeting. So generally it seems as though and the Russian delegation, the mood is quite positive. But here as well, no one really knows what the agreements are that all were put in place by these two l That was agreed by these two lea But the mood definitely on the ground here in Russia, in Russian media, and it seems also in the Russian delegation, seems to be a very positive one. Fred, thanks very much. From fro from your system, you know, yeah. I want to pick up he did. Look, the president looked tired maybe a little. Also, I would slightly put it tired and irritated because you didn’t get what he y we all know he wants to go out there, announce that he had a winner. Every every day is you got to have put the headline you got to have headline points. Or if there had been a cease fir he would have come out and said, And I got it. Yeah. And I wonder, I mean, you were in the North Korea discussion. We all watch it. I wonder if there was actually a firmer red line. And he just and they couldn’t get to the place he wanted and he got stuck and kind of get to that fork in he refused to take. You know, I just I’m, I’m not going to be I think there may be a potential that while we’re hearing all these atmosphe or productive, all this, all that, my guess is a second meeting on the economic side was probably productive. Inside there, you’re at a logjam on some core because President Putin won’t give in and President Trump won’t give him what he wan The the the question I have is other leaders around the world irritate the pr He’s slaps he slaps, tariffs on Right. he punishes them now, time and time and time again he Putin with action and then he never does anything. And now Putin has kind of gotten an extension. For what? We don’t know for how long. We don’t know. But we know that every day is to his benefit at this point. So it’s concerning for section four sanction. Red lines have all been crossed and never, never a consequence. And he gets to continue the war. Yeah, I think the answer may be that Putin convinced him on certain things that were essential to Zelensky the Trump was being told, you got to advance Zelensky’s agenda on this. And Putin convinced him that that was not right, possibl the question of the security gua that he was just very clear on t But I think Putin, really got what he wanted from T And if Trump had been irate, he would have called things off. Putin has gotten to him. I think that’s very clear.

John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, said today it was clear who walked away victorious in today’s meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two leaders gave short statements after their high-stakes meeting today in Alaska. #CNN #News