Fox News’ ‘brutal’ assessment of Trump-Putin talks stuns critics with just one word

US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin’s meeting in Alaska on Friday - intended to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine which Trump promised he’d secure on the first day of his second term - didn’t exactly go all that well, as the American was forced to admit they “didn’t get there” in terms of an agreement.

Speaking to reporters in a press conference after the talks, Trump said: “We've made some headway. So there's no deal until there's a deal.

“I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate. And I'll, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting.

“We had an extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left.

“Some are not that significant. One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.”

Meanwhile, Putin said of the meeting: “We’re convinced that in order to make the settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict.

“And we've said it multiple times, to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in the world on the whole.

“And I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we are prepared to work on that.”

And as reporters try to get a sense of what happened in the private talks (which lasted almost three hours), even conservative news channel Fox News didn’t think too highly of Trump’s performance.

Jacqui Heinrich, the channel’s senior White House correspondent, said on Friday: “It was just very unusual, atypical, and I think we’re all awaiting the readout because the way that it felt in the room was not that good.

“It did not seem like things went well, and it seemed like Putin came in and steamrolled, got right into what he wanted to say, and got his photo next to the president and then left.”

Heinrich’s report has gone on to stun Trump critics on Twitter/X:

Including California governor Gavin Newsom’s team:

And progressive platform Call to Activism, which said “Trump is not coming back from this”:

One account branded the whole affair “a state-sanctioned humiliation”:

Another referenced Trump’s continued push for a Nobel Peace Prize, writing that “Trump got totally played again” and that “they don’t give [out a] Nobel Prize for that”:

And a third said the whole thing “reeks of amateurism”, and that “when Fox News is saying Trump got steamrolled, you know it was bad”:

Putin joked during the press conference that the leaders' next meeting could be in Moscow, which prompted Trump to say he would "get a little heat for that one".

Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will meet Trump in Washington on Monday to discuss the latest developments.

Why not read…

• Trump’s ‘day one’ promise to Americans has been completely exposed
• 8 memes by Trump's government that prove administration is 'unserious'

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