Donald Trump has been mocked after falling for Vladimir Putin’s flattery during their peace talks in Alaska.

The US president said his Russian counterpart had heaped praise on his first six months back in office, and even agreed with his widely-debunked belief that he actually won the 2020 presidential election.

But critics said Trump had been played by former KGB agent Putin as the talks broke up without any progress being made on a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.

Earlier, Trump had literally rolled out the red carpet for the Russian leader, who began the war in February 2022 by ordering the invasion of his eastern European neighbours.

Speaking to Fox News after the summit broke up, Trump said: “Vladimir said just a little while ago, he said ‘I’ve never seen anybody do so much so fast.’ He said, ‘your country is, like, hot as a pistol,’ and a year ago he thought it was dead.”

Reacting to the president’s comments on X, journalist and broadcaster Mehdi Hasan said: “Child-like behaviour from Trump. The guy told him exactly what he wanted to hear, and our narcissistic, thin-skinned, insecure leader lapped it up and then repeated it back to the state TV stenographers.

“Hard to fully comprehend how gullible and easily manipulated Trump is. Amazing.”

Child-like behavior from Trump. The guy told him exactly what he wanted to hear, and our narcissistic, thinskinned, insecure leader lapped it up and then repeated it back to the state TV stenographers. Hard to fully comprehend how gullible and easily manipulated Trump is. Amazing https://t.co/USlz2RsRaY

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) August 16, 2025

Elsewhere in the same interview, Trump even claimed that Putin agreed with his ridiculous conspiracy theory that he had actually beaten Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

He said: “Vladimir Putin said something, one of the most interesting things. He said ‘your election was rigged because you have mail in voting’. He said, ‘mail in voting, every election, no country has mail in voting. It’s impossible to have mail in voting and have honest elections’.

“And he said that to me because we talked about 2020. He said, ‘you won that election by so much.’”

His comments drew mockery on social media.