Trump’s Attempt to Flex for Putin Is Already Backfiring

President Donald Trump wanted his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week to be a grand display of power in an attempt to pressure the Russian autocrat into a ceasefire.

Instead, for some, it came off as an act of fealty to one of the world’s most detested leaders.

“Look at what happened on Friday. U.S. military personnel, in uniform, literally were on their hands and knees rolling out a red carpet for the most murderous dictator of the twenty-first century,” Democratic Representative and former Army Ranger Jason Crow told Face the Nation on Sunday.“Somebody who has kidnapped and is holding prisoner tens of thousands of Ukrainian children. Somebody who started this whole war.… This is a historic embarrassment and defeat for U.S. foreign policy,” he concluded.

Those on the center-right reacted similarly.

“I think Trump may have thought that having a B-2 flyover accompanied by F-22s, the aircraft that, of course, were involved in Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran, was somehow suggesting a show of force to Putin,” former ambassador and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelmantold The Bulwark’sBill Kristol. “I don’t think that’s how Putin saw it. I think he saw it as a mark of respect, actually.… What it did was resuscitate him both domestically and internationally as a respected player on the international stage.”

Russian politicians and media cast a celebratory light on the summit.

“Putin gave Trump nothing, but still got everything he wanted. Trump finally listened to his demands,” an anonymous Russian foreign policy official told The Guardian.

“Western media are on the verge of completely losing it,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova declared, prior to the summit. “For three years they told everyone Russia was isolated and today they saw a beautiful red carpet laid out for the Russian president in the U.S.”

The contradictory reactions to Putin’s visit—dismay from liberals and conservatives alike, rejoicing from pro-Putin Russians—only reaffirms that the Russian president has the leverage here, not Trump.