Give credit where it’s due: the European Union had effectively outmaneuvered Donald Trump in the past eight months. Trump badly wants to give Vladimir Putin everything Putin wants in Ukraine and in general. But EU leaders have stood strong with Ukraine and President Zelenskyy, and effectively shamed Trump on the world stage. Even if Trump made some splashy “deal” with Putin, it wouldn’t have gone anywhere because the EU (not to mention NATO) wouldn’t recognize the deal, and they would have effectively taken Ukraine’s side over the US’s side. The international press would have ripped Trump a new one as well. So what happened when Trump and Putin came face-to-face in Alaska last Friday? A whole lotta nothing. I mean, some notable things happened – America’s president looked weak, compromised and stupid on the world stage. But Trump was also boxed in from giving Putin what he really wants in Ukraine, so Putin settled for making Trump look like a f–king moron instead.
President Donald Trump has tried to put a positive spin on his “failure” of a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but things are not as rosy behind the scenes. Longtime Trump biographer Michael Wolff tells The Daily Beast Podcast that a member of the president’s inner circle texted him bluntly on Friday: “F–ked.” The insider did not elaborate. However, Wolff noted that it is clear that Trump left Alaska as the loser, and those in the president’s camp surely know it, too.
“Trump got f—ed,” he said, agreeing with The Washington Post’s assessment that the summit was more pomp than substance. “We got nothing out of this. This is, you know, this is really, really a loss for Trump, and potentially a loss for Ukraine.”
Trump, 79, raised eyebrows from the moment he arrived in Anchorage, starting with his team ordering U.S. airmen to roll out a red carpet to welcome Putin. Trump, after meandering his way to a meeting point, applauded Putin as he approached. F-35 fighter jets and a B-2 bomber completed a flyover. The men shook hands, smiled, and Trump invited the former KGB officer to take a ride inside the “Beast,” his presidential limo. Once inside, they smiled and waved out the windows. It was a grand welcome for a leader who invaded a U.S. ally, causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands and the displacement of millions more. And what, exactly, did Trump gain from offering this extravagant PR gift to the Kremlin? Practically nothing, Wolff says.
“It was a failure,” he stated. “There is nothing that [Trump] could say. So he decided to, and remember, he threatened, ‘If we don’t get a deal, I’m going to walk away. I’m going to do tariffs. I’m going to do, you know, all of this.’ No, he did not do that. Instead, he basically embraced Vladimir Putin.”
Critics of the president noted that he appeared “defeated” after emerging from his meeting with Putin. The two leaders briefly sat for what was billed as a “press conference,” but no questions were answered.
Podcast Co-host and Daily Beast Chief Content Officer Joanna Coles said that Trump’s relative silence at the news conference was particularly telling given that he is usually not one to pass up answering questions from shouting reporters. She added of Trump’s cuddling up to Putin: “It’s embarrassing and it’s dirty.”
Ultimately, though, Trump had not received assurances of a ceasefire, which is what he said he sought to achieve by scheduling the high-profile meeting. Sources told Axios that Trump called Zelensky to break the bad news while making the 3,500-mile trek home from Alaska on Air Force One, where Trump also sat for an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. Trump and Zelensky spoke for an hour and a half in what Axios’ source described as a “difficult” conversation. Other European leaders joined the call in its final half hour, but their reactions were not recorded in the report.
Apparently, in the closed-door meeting between Putin, Trump, their senior staffs, something happened which left various Trumpworld people feeling shattered and shocked. Maybe Putin whipped out his kompromat on Trump, or gave Trump’s staffers a glimpse of some of the photos the FSB has compiled of Trump’s many compromising positions. MSNBC host Antonia Hylton said on-air that: “A lot of the press corps that was there, they reported in the minutes and hours after the presser that they saw members of the administration, like Karoline Leavitt, look ashen, almost frightened after what they had seen behind closed doors.” Additionally, Trump’s dipsh-t staffers left sensitive documents behind in a copier in Alaska. Only the best people.
You know what I said about European leaders in the opening? Well, after Trump’s 90-minute call with Zelenskyy, Zelenskyy called his European allies and the whole posse is coming to Washington today. Zelenskyy is bringing France’s President Macron, Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finland’s Alexander Stubb, Italy’s PM Meloni, Germany’s Chancellor Merz, EU’s president and NATO’s secretary-general. They’re clearly outflanking Donny Dementia and letting him know that whatever he promised Putin in the closed-door meeting (the promises which apparently left Trump’s staffers ashen and shocked) will not hold and will not be recognized by them.
And finally, it’s absolutely amazing to see how few political reporters speak about Trump’s obvious physical decline. He looked half-dead after his meeting with Putin, but only a few sites have noted his swollen cankles and his inability to walk in a straight line.
Photos courtesy of Getty, screengrabs courtesy of PBS.
How delighted Putin must feel to finally have an American president underfoot and fearful. He’s never had it like that!
This country is under the thumb of that murderer. Because Trump is a greedy, hateful, envious fool with not ethics we are ALL in danger. This along with Newsom embarrassing him all week it may show some of his supporters how pathetic he is. Something most of already knew.
This was all a distraction from Epstein. And it didn’t work.
Seriously delighted with Gov. Newsom’s antics this past week. He’s edging into hero status.
God save America.
Or in this case, NATO will.
Trump wants to dispense with Article 5 (where fellow NATO countries come to the aid of a member in need). If this happens nobody is obliged to help out.
Article 5 has only been invoked one time and it was by the US after 9/11.
Good luck with that. Pedolph Shitler has pissed off all of the NATO countries, especially Canada.
“Pedolph Shitler” 😆😅😂🤣
Best nickname award
Putin is of the old Soviet Union. I’m sure he still has a lot of ways to get intel. I would venture to guess he has photos of Trump, his wife, and other member of that family. On Inauguration Day Russian media was showing some embarrassing pics of his wife. I remember seeing the clip and was shocked. The reporters were laughing.
He was made the USA a laughing stock. So congratulations MAGATs! Tourism is way down. I read that Nebraska (I think) will be bankrupt because all the immigrants farm workers have left.
Putin has all the dirt on the 🍊💩 stain and Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein got rich laundering money for dictators and despots. I’m sure he and Putin were well acquainted and who knows what Epstein gave him.
Sincere question: what kind of dirt could Putin possibly have that would upset Trump’s team and MAGA?
They voted for him after the p*ssy-grabbing comments about being entitled to sexually assault people;
they voted for him even after knowing he was a convicted felon for sexual assault and adjudicated for rape;
they voted for him after knowing that he was compromised by Russia;
they voted for him even though they knew Epstein was a close personal friend and they had to at least assume he’d be in the Epstein files;
they voted for him even after he and his family & team did all the things they ever blamed Hilary & Joe for (personal servers for top secret communications; children of the president getting rich off business deals made with foreign countries, etc.).
I can’t imagine the rumored pee-party photos or anything of that ilk will deter these folks. They know who he is, and they continue to support him.
So do we think Putin has evidence of Musk’s election interference? (e.g. the counties where, for instance, Amy Klobuchar won but Harris got literally 0 votes, etc.)
What else could have these folks quaking in their boots, because Trump has weathered every PR storm that would sink any other president?
Also…for sure this former KGB leader bugged the Beast while he was in it, right?!
I hope Trump’s team isn’t as dumb as he is and has done a thorough sweep…
Child rape. Trump’s Epstein stuff is as bad or worse as Prince Andrew’s. But, unless they release video on OnlyFans, they will claim the dems are lying.
I don’t think it’s election interference. The fact is, even if they cheated and even if we could prove it, the election results were certified and he was inaugurated. That’s not going to be reversed.
@Tuesday, of course I hope you’re right, that child rape is a line no one is willing to cross… and yet, look at how many successful Republicans and evangelical preachers are routinely caught raping minors (Matt Goetze for instance), and it still doesn’t bring about their downfall.
And while I don’t think there could be a reversal of the election, evidence of the scale of Starlink-assisted voter fraud there seems to be enough whispering about to at least be possibly credible, should at minimum be disqualifying in the future for anyone involved with it (eg Vance etc); put an end to “3rd term” proposals for Trump, and…frankly, while I hadn’t thought about it before, is unprecedented enough that certifying results so blatantly falsified and manipulated should, in a reasonable world, be grounds for reconsidering whether the information in front of Congress when it was certified was legitimate enough to hold until the end of the current term…
(I mean, if we didn’t have a bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court at least. That said, maybe some of the intel is on the off shore bank accounts of SC justices like Kavanauagh…)
But yeah, I just don’t think sex stuff – even rape – is going to be enough to bring him down. It’s a party full of pedos already, and so many of them are Christian nationalist white supremacists who believe women and girls’ (upon age of menstruation, not legal age of consent) purpose is to be sexually available to men and to bear their babies that I suspect even sex with older teens will not be enough to topple their support.
As horrifying as that is.
I think it has to be child rape. And not like teenage “well he thought she was older!” but young young. Because the MAGAts are all in for rape. Even underage rape. Has to be a very young child.
Providing a foreign country with Intel on the USA (Russia of course).
Americans are ultra patriotic. Selling or providing intel that endangers American soldiers and american citizens to a foreign entity as Russia would be high treason.
No American would forgive him for that.
I’ve always found it quietly telling that Russian agents hacked both the DNC and RNC databases, but we only ever saw the DNC material leaked. It’s not just Trump. It’s the entire party. There’s some dark sh*t in there, I’m betting, probably along the lines of human trafficking or their favorite projection, pedophilia. They’re doing the former out in the open now, sending immigrants to countries they don’t belong, but the latter, I think, might even break a few of the cultists, though not as many as I think most would like to think.
Otherwise, it’s probably traitorous subterfuge, which would be more of an issue where the military’s loyalty may be concerned.
Pizzagate was a projection on what he did. He ran teen pageants and modeling agencies which are covers for trafficking.
There have been more than a few lawsuits alleging he raped underaged girls but those got shut down when he was first elected in 2016.
Putin probably directly threatened Trump and his staff while giving him orders. I’m sure he has dirt on everyone, not just Trump. I’d be ashen too if I knew my life was at the mercy of those two people.
Ooh, good comment. What else would make these cretins “ashen?” Dirt, dirt, dirt. And I, for one, hope the dirt comes out. I always believed the whole golden shower thing, because you can’t make it up.
Maybe they were shown the actual golden shower tape. I’d be ashen too.
Could be something as simple as they have the names & addresses of every family member. Every single one..
It’s worse than that. Everyone has known that he has dirt on all of them for years and it hasn’t mattered. He could release all of it, it would be called AI deep fakes and ignored.
My best guess is that what scared everyone sh!tless was Putin telling them that thanks to Musk & DOGE, he now has backdoor access to the US Military and US Treasury systems. He can launch our nukes and tank our economy without lifting a finger.
I think you’re on the right track. Nothing about Trump would cause these people to be “ashen”, not even a child r*pe video by Trump or evidence of election interference by Musk etc. It has to be something along the lines of Putin showing compromised info/threatening these people and their families directly.
As an American I’m dismayed. The Russian president clowned the US president on American soil, a state that was once part of Russia. Now European countries are riding in like the Calvary into DC to clean up the mess Trump most likely made. To the 77 million who vote for Orange-zilla: thank you for installing a wannabe dictator into the Oval Office and empowering him to aid and abed all the US’s enemies, foreign and dometic.
the truly disturbing thing is that those very people are already making excuses — it’s Zelensky’s fault , it’s Biden’s war, Trump is at least “trying”….it is disgusting. We all know he is compromised but the indoctrinated refuse to admit they were wrong.
In fairness, it is not difficult to make Trump look like a f**king moron because he IS a f**king moron. But this time, the f**king moron outdid himself, giving the world’s most dangerous man a world platform and legitimacy; showing him around a U.S. military base very close to his own country, and allowing him access to The Beast. No doubt Russia now has far more detailed intelligence about that military base and the security measures in that vehicle AND several listening devices are now probably imbedded within. Just brilliant
Congress and the media now need to hear from Marco Rubio as to why his staffers were using public servers and printers in a hotel business center instead of bringing their own portable printer and other secure devices with them. And then he needs to resign
I actually thought that they met in Alaska so Trump could sell back Alaska to Putin.
But yes, you’re right about the bases. What a security nightmare. Was Palin there?
No sign of her. She seems to have disappeared lately, along with her crazy brood.
He wanted to show off his limo to Putin who obviously has his own. How stupid. Omg
“they saw members of the administration, like Karoline Leavitt, look ashen, almost frightened after what they had seen behind closed doors…” I think this has got to be bigger than compromising photos. Here’s my wild guess: Trump finances, Russia threatening to reveal to the world the intel docs sold by Trump stolen after he left the White House from his first presidency, Russia threatening American assets because of those docs, Russia threatening American, etc. Russia has hold and sway over the president and his administration that threatens the U.S. If there is ANYBODY with a SOUL left in the Trump Administration, they need to spill.
You just made my blood run cold…and I think you may be right…
They won’t spill, though. They’ve all hitched their wagons to Trump. And they’re as disgusting and self-serving as he is.
@mirren
Putin told Karolying he could make her baby disappear.
I love the finale season of the US. It’s better than an 80s soap opera.
It’s a scary watch for sure, I just can’t look away!
I don’t find this funny. For all the s*itty people in the country – the morons, the criminals, the billionaires, all of them content to vote Republican – there are still a lot of us who are decent people trying to do the right thing, trying to rear intelligent and thoughtful children, people who want to move forward. And by design or whatever, we have been outflanked. I do not enjoy watching my country circle the drain and I don’t find it joke worthy.
Agreed, @Betsy. It’s easy to make a joke at Trump’s expense, but when you look past that orange asshole and see all of the women, POC, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and innocent, vulnerable children who are just trying to have decent, honest livelihoods with basic human rights, it’s not so funny.
Agreed, @Betsy. It is not funny and shame on those who look at this as entertainment because many, who did not vote for him, are struggling – while trying to raise kids to do the right thing. Disgusting to see others relish in others’ misery.
I think Lurker was just sharing a bit of dark humor and didn’t intend to minimize the suffering of actual individuals in this country. With that said, it’s a good reminder that people are in different emotional stages and spaces right now.
Canadians are losing jobs because than orange ass is messing with the economy on a whim. He’s putting the world at risk of more war. So some dark humour is needed.
That was a joke, but let’s be real, the rest of the world will not forgive Americans easily for electing that monster a second time. There will need to be a lot of humble pie eaten once he’s gone.
🎯
I would love to see the before and after photos of Karoline. I want to see how ashen and shaken she was after that meeting. My guess is that Pooty spent some time humiliating Trump with a highlight reel of his most disgusting activities and then went down the line reading everyone’s family names and addresses. KL finally realized that the Epstein files are not a liberal sham, Donny is a compromised fool at the heart of it all and that she has sold her soul to the tune of full-blown treason. Oh, and that she is in way over her head and it’s too late to save herself.
Funny side note — Putin finished his remarks then got up and left before lunch was served.
Putin didn’t need to stay for lunch. He ate Trump for lunch as MVP predicted during the only debate Trump endured.
If Leavitt didn’t already know all that, I’d be surprised. I cannot imagine what she was that shook her.
I would find it more probable than not that Putin has career ending evidence of something KL has done. I could easily see him throwing that up as a warning to everyone on Trump’s team that he has the power to end them all.
The dynamics and body language between Trump and Putin reminds me of the video of Trump and Epstein. Trump can’t help but be attracted to sleaze and filth.
I’m confused because Karoline always looks ashen.
Trump has been owned by the Russians his entire adult life, so nothing about this comes as a surprise. The people I’m actually disappointed by and who made me lose faith entirely in this country are our various alphabet intelligence agencies, who for some reason couldn’t figure out a way to neutralize this threat before he ever reached within spitting distance of legitimate power. The propagandistic media I grew up with led me to believe they were powerful and smart enough to do something. Either they’re grossly incompetent or they don’t actually care the way I thought they did, and real patriotism doesn’t exist when up against personal self interest.
THIS! This right here! The alphabet agencies have always skewed right — what an opportunity to implement their rightwing agenda.
Global intelligence agencies have always known the dirt on Mango. He’s been the useful idiot for decades — Putin wasn’t the only autocrat salivating at the thought of using Trump as a means to more power.
Greedy, dangerous people.
I think enough of leadership at those agencies are conservative enough personally to not see the danger of Fox and nationalists. The FBI (andi think the CIA used to) recruits heavily at Mormon schools because they’re used to taking orders from a central figure, and were seen as less likely to have substance problems/possible blackmail in their background. Who the agencies support politically was set in the 60s and 70s, and it’s not the dirty hippy democrats. I can’t believe that they basically shrugged off the Russian op thing, but I think it’s white guy blindness combined with thinking he was too stupid to do real damage.
I remember when Trump met with Putin in person in his first term, he came out of that meeting looking spooked. I think that was right around the time of the pee pee dossier.
Laughing at the staffers coming out looking “ashen” with fear. Yeah you can play at being “tough bullies” in Washington, but you really do not know what you’re doing or who you’re dealing with.
It was already over at the handshake. Trump shook hands palm up, he never does that.
“only a few sites have noted … his inability to walk in a straight line.”
Watching 🟠 Clapping Seal toddling along the red carpet like a drunk sailor trying to find his footing on dry land after months of rolling along to high waves was a sight to behold. Isn’t there anyone in the medical community who can pull the plug? Not that the Divan Hillbilly is better qualified — in addition to being a puppet of the broligarchy.
Was it Tapper’s day off or did he lose power and hence couldn’t watch this?
Putin must have *a lot* on the whole family, as most of them have been to Moscow. Probably in addition to things on (former) cabinet members, high-ranking rethugs etc etc. Be it debts, sexual proclivities, or drugs.
As far as I’m concerned, Jake Tapper is one of the tools of the GOP, as are so many talking heads who exist to further the cause of the American fascism.
Soon we can turn off the lights.
Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived with Putin wearing a CCCP sweatshirt. Translated, CCCP is the Russian language version of USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Putin wants everyone to know that he’s reassembling the old Soviet Union and he’s starting with Ukraine. And he won’t take NO for an answer. Putin delivered his message and then dissed Dementia Don and his amateurish staff by departing before lunch. Zelenskyy and the European leaders arrive, today, to try to clean up Trump’s clogged, overflowing toilet of a mess. Good luck with that. I hope they’re bringing their mops.
I don’t think it was personal intel that spooked the Trump folks. I think that Putin delivered a very clear “Do this or else” plan that includes a detailed plan to move westward in Europe using military aggression and nuclear weapons if he has to. The U.S. is becoming an axis power aligned with Russia for no other reason than we do not have intelligent people running the country. We’re potentially looking at a world war. And that’s why so many world leaders jumped on a plane to get here. They’re terrified too.
Yeah all those leg-humping troglodytes thought they were kissing dumpty’s ass and currying his favor while laughing at and taunting the left. They were LOVING it. But they just found out who their REAL boss is, and that they and their loved ones will all be killed without blinking an eye if they step out of line now.
I think it was both that spooked him.
We’re not going to be on the good side this time during this upcoming world war that seems to be inevitable. We are now part of the axis of evil and it will be our former allies that we will be fighting against. That is why all of the European leaders are rushing here to try to stop it. The American populace will pay the price. Some really hard stuff coming our way.
We’re the largest economic and nuclear superpower of the modern world. It won’t just be Americans who pay the price of our failures. It’ll be the world.
The US becoming an axis power aligned with Russia. Yeah, it’s that bad. I’m surrounded by people who watch fox and listen to certain conservative radio shows. I don’t listen but I can only imagine they are somehow still touting this as a win and half the country is truly thinking Trump really did something here by meeting with Putin. It’s alternate reality bad. except it’s apparently all our realities now, the one we have to live in.
I don’t think Trump has a clue what he’s dealing with when it comes to Putin. He is completely out of his depth. God help the world.
I think Trump, the idiot narcissist, probably once thought he could control Putin to some extent. I think Trump, the idiot narcissist whose dementia is running away with him, has lost the plot entirely.
Trump has always thought, or certainly acted like he thought, he was the smartest person in the room. I don’t know if he’s ever going to have a come to Jesus moment, and realize he’s not even the smartest person in the room when he’s alone. But you do have to wonder if, in his more lucid moments, he realises he is totally over his head.
I absolutely think Trump knows he’s in over his head. He’s always known and his insecurity has been on display since the 80s. I feel like insecurity and an inferiority complex is at the heart of everything he does.
The problem is, he’s always been able to get by and continually fail up despite his ignorance. It’s been horrifying to behold such incompetence, ignorance and amorality not only not be dismissed but be celebrated and elevated.
@sueinorleans – I hope Trump has a literal coming to Jesus moment very soon in which Jesus tells him, “You aren’t getting in here. You can take your golden escalator down to hell.”
Trump has failed in everything that he has attempted in life. He won’t listen to people who know what they are talking about because he thinks that he knows everything about everything.
I truly think that Trump thought that Putin would help him take over the world. It’s going to be other way around – we will be forced to help Putin do that because of what he personally has on Trump and Putin has threatened him. We will do all the work and will take the most punishment from the rest of the world for it.
This
@Sue, my nightly prayer
In alternate universe where these staffers are intelligent, I might credit them with enough intelligence to realize the full implications of what Putin said or of something that happened, but we are in a much darker place where the inmates are running the asylum and I do not think the losers in the Republican Party are bright enough to understand what they have done to the country. I agree with those who think these slow witted traitors were shown something that was either traumatizing to them – evidence of Trump’s darkest crimes, maybe – or something that terrified them personally – like evidence that Putin has had people in their homes, that they know more about these people than they might wish. They are too stupid and too self-involved to care otherwise.
There are no good Republicans. None.
This country used to be ran by thoughtful Rhodes scholars not so long ago. Now just a bunch of idiots.
Thank you for this post. I hadn’t thought about the very real possibility of targeting + frightening WH staffers, cabinet members, Republican politicians, etc.
We’re “F–ked”
Yes. One of the most tedious regular comments online about watching the chaos of this terrible administration is ‘’pass the popcorn’. It’s not a bloody movie. Life and death is at stake.
He came off looking like a pathetic loser because that’s what he’s always been. His money was always just there to convince people otherwise.
Putin is pushing for the speedrun collapse of the United States. My guess is he’s trying for a clean sweep, with our economy crashing and pulling China and Europe’s down with it, giving him to avenue to grab up assets and rebuild the USSR. I have to give the man credit: he’s very good at what he does. A shame he couldn’t have been anything else but the monster he is, else he might have risked doing something good for Russia in all the years he’s been in power.
Your last sentence. So true, so sad.
China will be fine. They aren’t tied to the U.S. and are the real superpower now. China will also control Putin without issue.
It’s the U.S. at risk here. No other country is so stupid as to elect a compromised moron as head of state.
The thing about kompromot is that Putin has incriminating true evidence, but the Russians are also very good at fake “evidence.” Evidence of things that didn’t happen, but could’ve. Not just sexual, but also financial, political, security, etc.
Hell – Trump and his people use unsecured phones. They’re evil and sloppy – it’s a candy story for Russia.
Poor Ukraine. Poor us. Poor world.
We are indeed “F–ked”