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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump: "There's No Deal Until There's A Deal". Aired 7-8p ET
Aired August 15, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00]
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: They will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings and to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.
Incidentally, when the new administration came to power, bilateral trade started to grow but it's still very symbolic. Still, we have a growth of 20 percent. As I've said, we have a lot of dimensions for joint work.
It is clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential. The Russia and the U.S. can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high tech and in space exploration. We see that Arctic cooperation is also very possible and our international context, for example, between the far east of Russia and the West Coast of the U.S.
Overall, it's very important for our countries to turn the page, to go back to cooperation. It is symbolic that not far away from here, the border between Russia and the U.S., there is a so-called international dateline. I think you can step over literally from yesterday into tomorrow, and I hope that we'll succeed in that in political sphere.
I would like to thank President Trump for our joint work, for the well-wishing and trustworthy tone of our conversation. It's important that both sides are result oriented, and we see that the president of the U.S. has a very clear idea of what he would like to achieve. He sincerely cares about prosperity of his nation. Still, he understands that Russia has its own national interests.
Expect that today's agreements will be the starting point, not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back businesslike and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S.
And in the end, I would like to add one more thing. I'd like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that it should not -- the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities. And I said it quite directly back then that it's a big mistake.
Today, when President Trump is saying that if he was the president back then, there will be no war. And I'm quite sure that it would indeed be so. And I can confirm that. I think that overall, me and President Trump have built a very good, businesslike and trustworthy contact. And I have every reason to believe that moving down this path, we can come and the sooner the better to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.
Thank you. Thank you.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, thank you very much, Mr. President. That was a very profound. And I will say that I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on. Most of them, I would say a couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there, but 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 Zelenskyy and tell him about today's meeting. It's ultimately up to them. They're going to have to agree with what Marco and Steve and some of the great people from the Trump administration who've come here, Scott and John Ratcliffe, thank you very much.
But we have some of our really great leaders. They've been doing a phenomenal job. We also have some tremendous Russian business representatives here. And I think, you know, everybody wants to deal with us.
We've become the hottest country anywhere in the world in a very short period of time. And, we look forward to that. We look forward to dealing -- we're going to try and get this over with. We really made some great progress today.
I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir. We had many, many, tough meetings, good meetings. We were, interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. That made it a little bit tougher to deal with.
But he understood it. I think he's probably seen things like that during the course of his career. He's seen -- he's seen it all. But we had to put up with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax.
But what was done was very criminal. But it made it harder for us to deal as a country in terms of the business and all of the things that we'd like to have dealt with. But, we'll have a good chance when this is over. So just to put it very quickly, I'm going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened.
But we had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to. And there are just a very few that are left.
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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.
I would like to thank President Putin and his entire team, whose faces who I know in many cases otherwise. Other than that, who's whose faces I get to see all the time in the newspapers. You're very -- you're almost as famous as the boss. But especially this one right over here. But we had some good meetings over the years, right?
Good productive meetings over the years. And we hope to have that in the future. But let's do the most productive one right now. We're going to stop really 5,000, 6,000, 7,000 -- thousands of people a week from being killed. And President Putin wants to see that as much as I do.
So again, Mr. President, I'd like to thank you very much, and we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon.
Thank you very much, Vladimir.
PUTIN: Next time in Moscow.
TRUMP: Oh, that's an interesting one. I don't know, ill get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.
Thank you very much, Vladimir.
And thank you all. Thank you, thank you.
PUTIN: Thank you so much.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. We see there President Trump and Russian Leader Vladimir Putin shaking hands at the end of this summit of sorts.
We have been given no specifics as to what, if anything, was agreed upon. Putin spoke first and he thanked Trump for the joint work and the. Well, worth, well, wishing and the trustworthy tone of our conversation. Putin referred to.
He said, I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point. Not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but will also help us bring back business.
President Trump notably said no deal until there is a deal. And he said he would probably see Putin very soon. He referred to a starting point. So, despite the fact that President Trump called this an extremely productive meeting, and there's no reason to suggest that it wasn't, there doesn't seem to have actually been anything achieved, at least according to what the two men just said.
Jim Sciutto?
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It strikes me -- this phrase stood out to me. This may very well be the headline from Trump. We didn't get there, but we have a good chance of getting there. He didn't define what there is, but he did not announce any solid agreement, and he certainly did not use the word ceasefire.
And I -- and I suspect, as he described the issues that they discussed, he said there is still one big one. We didn't get there. And that may very well have been the ceasefire. TAPPER: Yeah, that's the one he wanted the most. That's the one he
wanted the most, clearly that he wanted a ceasefire. He wanted to come out.
And in fact, there are people in President Trump's orbit who have suggested publicly that if a ceasefire didn't come out of this meeting, the result should be immediately greater, tougher sanctions on Russia. And it does sound -- I interpreted what President Trump said the same way you did, Jim, which is the one thing that we thought we were going to get or something like that. We didn't get there.
What was your interpretation?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And as you heard there, one of the things we've been talking about is what would happen next. He just said we didn't get to business. We didn't get to any of those kind of economic deals.
He said that there was a number of points that we agreed on, but one big one that we couldn't get there on, which I also agree is likely to be the ceasefire there. But when you talk about sanctions, there was no indication from what the president said that sanctions would be next.
TAPPER: So, let's -- let's go to Kaitlan Collins right now. Kaitlan, the President Trump said there's no deal until there's a deal. And it does sound like the first part of that construct, is the most important. No deal. And it's notable that they didn't take any questions.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake. It seemed like for a moment he was going to let the Russian leader exit the stage and then take questions. But instead, both of them left after Putin proposed this idea of maybe next time they meet in Moscow. And Trump seemed to say, you know, I might get a lot of heat about that if that happened.
And obviously the questions about what that looks like. Jake, in terms of, you know, as were listening to this and as we were listening to the to the world leader, say, Putin saying that they came to an agreement, but being very vague and not laying anything out. And then Trump saying that they, a no deal, no, they don't actually get a deal. They're not reaching a deal yet at that point.
And make it clear, Jake, that they did not get the cease fire, that the president came to Alaska hoping to get.
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That was very much what he was coming here to do. He did not announce that here on stage. It is very uncharacteristic, as you know, for President Trump to not take questions.
And so that in and of itself stood out. And I will tell you, jake, a few of the officials coming in to the to the room looked a little bit stressed as they were coming in. Theres only so much that you can read into that.
And, Jake, so the key question there is what this looks like in terms of whether they came to an agreement. But as the president was listening to President Putin make his statements there, he was basically I flashed him a thumbs up to, you know, see signal. Did the meeting go well? What did you think? He kind of looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. Jake, and offered a little bit of a half- smile.
So, no real indication of what happened in this very lengthy meeting that the two of them had behind closed doors, but clearly not the expectation that President Trump was hoping for when he came here, though he did say he's going to leave here. He's going to call President Zelenskyy. He's going to call the other relevant NATO leaders. The question is what the next steps here look like, Jake.
TAPPER: Yeah. And again, not to put too fine a point on it. Diplomacy is very difficult. And it's probably no more difficult than it is with somebody like Vladimir Putin.
But President Trump saying no deal until there's a deal, and President Trump saying we didn't get there, but there's a good chance of getting there. That is a positive spin on a failure to get a deal. It is a positive spin on a failure to get results.
And that seems to be what we heard. Also, President Trump is one who likes to take questions from the press. And he walked out of the room without taking questions from the press.
COLLINS: Yeah, Jake, I think that says a lot about how this meeting went, essentially, and also the fact that they skipped the expanded bilateral meeting and Putin came out here, obviously, he always tends to start with a history lesson, as he did there, but it was relatively short as he was touting the relationship, talking about that, he said, "Good afternoon, neighbor" when he greeted President Trump on the tarmac here in Anchorage, Alaska.
But then going on, Jake, and I just want to note what we were listening to what Putin was saying, is that he was making very clear his position on this war has not changed. He was saying that they would like to bring it to an end. But he said the root causes are still there. That is a phrase that Putin has used time and time again since he invaded, as a reason for not bringing this war to an end.
And so, it did not sound like his mindset on this had shifted. And then he said he also wanted to make sure that there was security for Ukraine, that they could secure Ukraine. Obviously, he is the world leader, Jake, here who invaded Ukraine.
TAPPER: Yeah. And one other thing, Kaitlan, I thought it was interesting. Obviously. They both talked about this being the first step of a way of getting to some sort of deal of a way of getting to some sort of negotiated settlement. But President Trump is one who -- we often have a clear view into his inner workings of his brain for better or for worse. And he said, I'll probably see you very soon. Probably, he's doing a lot of lifting there. I mean, maybe they will.
Maybe they won't. It wasn't. We will see you in two weeks in Doha. It was probably we'll see you very soon.
COLLINS: Yeah. That was a telling sign as well, Jake, because the president was also saying the meeting could happen. A second meeting with Zelenskyy could happen so quickly that maybe it would happen here even in Alaska. Now, we had heard that was likely unlikely, just given how long it would take Zelenskyy to get here. But it was still an open question of whether or not they'd come out and say, were actually going to stay here for another 24 hours and see what this looks like.
And, Jake, I'll say, you know, when they were talking about the sticking points that they had agreed on some, there were still one big sticking point to Jim Sciutto point that they didn't go into detail onto what that one big sticking point is. There was a question going into this that we had heard from kremlin experts saying Putin is trying to buy himself time, and if he can make it look like he is trying to get to a deal with President Trump, maybe that would help kick the can down the road. Because all of this came about after Steve Witkoff went to Moscow last week, and they were on the verge of getting sanctions secondary sanctions put in place, for, for other nations.
You saw what happened to India last week when they were doubling the tariffs against India for buying and importing Russian oil. And so that was a question of whether or not Putin is simply trying to buy himself time here with no real desire to actually change what he's doing in Ukraine.
TAPPER: One of the most telling moments of the previous weeks, where we've seen President Trump express more frustration and anger with Vladimir Putin in the last month or so than we've seen in the entire preceding decade, at least publicly, from President Trump. He talked about having had a nice phone call with Putin, with whom he believes he has a special relationship. And I believe that Donald Trump thought that within a day of becoming president, he could call Vladimir Putin and Putin would end the war.
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That obviously didn't happen, but I don't have any trouble believing that he thought that that might a day of becoming president, he could call Vladimir Putin and Putin would end the war. That obviously didn't happen, but I don't have any trouble believing that he thought that that might happen. But in any case, he's telling his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, about this great conversation that he had with Putin. And the first lady says something about how she just saw on tv, how after their conversation, Putin bombed something like a retirement home in, in Ukraine, killing innocent civilians.
We saw a flash of anger with President Trump after that, he referred to Vladimir Putin's bullshit sis the word he used -- apologies for any anybody out there, offended by that word. And I'm wondering if you think Donald Trump leaves this high stakes summit where nothing was achieved and angry and likely to end -- to bring in more sanctions. COLLINS: You know, Jake, the president didn't seem angry when he came
out here. But one thing I've learned from covering him for eight years now, at least, is his view of something. His perception is often shaped by the coverage of it or subsequent conversations that he has when he's out of earshot of the Russians and he's talking to his aides on the plane back home, or he's on the phone with these world leaders, or he's on the phone with Zelenskyy himself who have been part of this. And if they use that moment and, you know, and those conversations that shapes his reaction to this, that is very much a possibility here, Jake.
But the other part of this is they were going into the summit. Aides were setting expectations low in recent days because they were fearful that they were not actually going to reach a ceasefire while on the ground here in anchorage. And so, obviously, though, the president himself made clear what he wanted, and it was that cease, he did not get that ceasefire.
And Russia, while the strikes have calmed down, some in the last two weeks, has continued to strike in Ukraine. Maybe not at the same level they had been, you know, in the last month or so, is that those moments were happening with the first lady. But obviously that is incredibly telling in and of itself. And so that is a key question here of how the president decides to handle this going forward. He said that he believed there was a 75 percent chance of success here, a 25 percent chance of failure.
And Anderson, you know, from listening or from -- Jake, from listening to the president there, we didn't get the chance to ask him questions to really ascertain how he felt about this and if he believes this meeting was a success, in his view.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yeah, Kaitlan, it's fascinating to see how it must have felt in the room versus seeing it on television. It was interesting to see that split screen of President Trump sort of trying to say things that maybe a regular leader might or other leader might laugh at or smile at. And Vladimir Putin was just dead eyed looking at him, not responding in any way.
Ambassador Bolton, you've been obviously, you know, you were in Helsinki, you were the national security advisor. What do you make of what you saw from the president?
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won. Trump didn't come away with anything except more meetings. Putin has, I think, gone a long way to reestablishing the relationship, which I've always believed was his key goal. He has escaped sanctions. He's not facing a ceasefire. The next meeting is not set.
Zelenskyy was not told any of this before 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 other 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.
COOPER: Vladimir Putin said, I believe we've turned the page, not referring to Ukraine, but more to -- do you know what it referred to or what was your sense?
BOLTON: I think the U.S.-Russia relationship. But what he really means is the Vlad-Donald relationship.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: 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 space cooperation between the United States 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 different opinion. And he talked about how they have such a fantastic relationship and turn the page.
The American president could have said, maybe we will turn the page, maybe we can do all those things. But first, you have to end this war. And he didn't. He, in fact, said their relationship was fantastic.
So he went for a ceasefire. He leaves with nothing. Putin got to fly over a red carpet, a lot of handshakes and a lot of great state TV coverage back home.
RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: I think it's even deeper. He got out of diplomatic penalty box. The three minutes are up. 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 again and keep the economy while its rickety, afloat. And he's allowed and permitted to keep the war with no political consequences back home on that.
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So, I actually think -- well, you may I understand that you said Trump didn't lose. I actually think Putin came out of here more significant, a winner because he has no sanctions, no economic or political isolation, and he keeps the war going what he wants. And I sit here, we watch this. Weve been waiting. I think I know less today than I did when this started.
COOPER: Jill Dougherty, former Moscow bureau chief. I mean, you've read Russian tea leaves for many decades.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. Well, I mean, he hasn't changed his position. I mean, he is talking about root causes, and he even if I understood that part correctly, seems to be saying that President Trump is trying to get to the crux of the issues as well. It almost sounded as if maybe this is too much, but they had convinced Trump of these root causes. And as we know, root causes are NATO, you know --
COOPER: In the -- in his view -- DOUGHERTY: In his view.
COOPER: -- those are root causes.
DOUGHERTY: Yes.
(CROSSSTALK)
DAVID AXELROD, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: 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 position, that's -- that's good.
The thing that was interesting to see is just how artful Putin was at tickling Trump's funny bones. He took a shot at Biden. You know, and he said, I can confirm that the war wouldn't have happened if Trump were there.
BOLTON: He said that before.
AXELROD: Music to Trump's, to Trump's ears. And, you know, you could hear 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 -- I mean, Putin is what when you remember when we went to Moscow in 2009 and Putin was talking to President Obama and he said, you know, you're an educated man. I'm just an old security apparatchik.
Well, you saw some of the old security apparatchik.
EMANUEL: I'm just a country lawyer.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The longer I sit here listening to everybody. I'm wondering about the White House's decision making in 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, do the press conference a little bit early, maybe not quite as early as it was originally thought to be.
And then they let Putin speak first, and they let Putin speak first about something that Putin described as an agreement. He said it was perhaps a starting point. So maybe there was something agreed to whatever that was hasn't been communicated to European allies or Ukraine. It was not reiterated by President Trump.
We know nothing now that we did not know four hours ago. I'm just not understanding the White House's decision making and setting this up this way, because maybe there was something agreed to, but they clearly are not confident enough in it that they were willing to say so at that podium.
COOPER: Do you -- Ambassador, do you think there was something actually agreed to?
BOLTON: It certainly sounds like there was something, but the fact they wouldn't announce it says it can't be very substantial. PHILLIP: Yeah.
BOLTON: I think, Abby, the answer to your question is there is no White House decision making process.
PHILLIP: Right, just whatever they want to do.
BOLTON: 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 --
COOPER: When you say there's no White House decision making process, you mean it's just -- it's whatever President Trump is thinking in that moment.
BOLTON: 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 euphoric. I think in the United States, it's going to be confused. I think in Europe and Ukraine, it's going to be very depressed.
COOPER: I want to check in with Fred Pleitgen in Moscow to see what kind of reaction or coverage this is getting there.
Fred?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's getting wall to wall coverage, Anderson, here in in Russia. And as you can imagine. The Russian state media pretty happy with the outcome so far. One of the things that's getting played again and again and again is President Trump saying that there could be a follow up 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 Putin does not appear to have made substantial concessions to the U.S. president, certainly not towards any sort of ceasefire that might be imminent.
The fact that the Russian president spoke about the root causes of the conflict, and that those need to be addressed Russia's security concerns as well, that's the exact same rhetoric that we've actually been hearing from Vladimir Putin since the beginning of the full-on invasion of Ukraine.
And looking at how this evening unfolded, certainly, if you see some of the Russian officials that we've sort of been monitoring, 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 has completely isolated.
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And now they're seeing President Trump roll out the red carpet for the Russian president on U.S. territory. Then saying that the U.S. media was going crazy about all this. So, certainly, the Russians right now are treating this as a positive
outcome for Vladimir Putin. It was quite interesting to hear because, the Russian media actually did speak to some Russian officials that then came out of those meetings. And the Russian ambassador to the United States talked about a positive atmosphere. The Russian defense minister said that he was very upbeat after hearing about the meeting.
So generally, it seems as though in the Russian delegation the mood is quite positive. But here as well, no one really knows what the agreements are that allegedly were put in place by these two leaders that were agreed upon by these two leaders. 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, Anderson.
COOPER: Fred Pleitgen, thanks very much from Moscow.
Rahm, do you want to say something?
EMANUEL: You know, 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 he didn't get what he, you know, we all know he wants to go out there and announce that he had a win. Every, every day is you got to put the headline, you got to have headline points there.
COOPER: If there had been a ceasefire, he would have come out and said, we got it. We got it.
EMANUEL: 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 on kind of get to that fork in the road. And he refused to take it.
AXELROD: Well, you know --
EMANUEL: I just -- I'm not going to be -- I think there may be a potential here that while were hearing all these atmospheric words, productive, all this, all this, my guess is the second meeting on the economic side was probably productive. Inside there, you're at a logjam on some core issues because President Putin won't give in and President Trump won't give him what he wants.
AXELROD: The question I have is other leaders around the world irritate the president. He slaps. He slaps tariffs on them. Right? He punishes them.
Now, time and time and time again. He menaces Putin with action. And then he never does anything. And now Putin has got him gotten himself an extension. For what we dont 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.
EMANUEL: Four section -- four sanction red lines have all been crossed and never, never a consequence. And he gets to continue the war.
BOLTON: Yeah, I think the answer may be that Putin convinced him on certain things that were essential to Zelenskyy that he that Trump was being told, you got to advance Zelenskyy's agenda on this. And Putin convinced him that that was not right. Possibly on the question of the security guarantees that he was just very clear on that. But I think Putin really got what he wanted from Trump.
And if Trump had been irate, he would have called things off. Putin has gotten to him. I think that's very clear.
PHILLIP: Yeah. I mean, I think that just thinking back to the beginning of this, Putin walking off the plane to a round of applause from the president of the United States, Trump was a very eager participant in resetting this relationship, the personal relationship between the two of them. And if there's anything that comes out of this, it's that. It's that they're back. It's Vlad and Donald again, and they're back hand in hand to move forward.
What's not clear, though, is what that actually will end up meaning for Ukraine, because it seems that from what both of them said, looking at my notes here, a lot of comments about the future of the U.S.-Russia relationship, the future of the Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin relationship, not a whole lot about the future, really, of Ukraine. When Putin talks about security guarantees, we don't know what he means by that, really. And those details are critically important for Ukraine's future.
COOPER: It's interesting though. Sorry. Ambassador Bolton, you the other night on my broadcast, you were talking about, well, maybe one of the things Vladimir Putin might try to do is broaden this out. And, you know, dangle, you know, new START talks, something like that.
Had he done that, that would have been something the president could have come out and said, were going to have, you know, were going to start new talks on the future of nuclear weapons. That would have been something, a headline. He didn't even get that.
BOLTON: Yeah. Well, it's also what he said. Theres not a deal until there's a whole deal back in Cold War days when there were Soviet U.S. talks, they would refer to bilateral issues between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and regional issues. Conflicts in Africa, conflicts in Asia.
I think Putin may have gotten back to that. And Ukraine is a regional conflict, but he was talking mostly about bilateral issues. And if so, I think that's a big win for him.
COOPER: Jill?
DOUGHERTY: And there is a little hint of that. I saw some video with the Russian ambassador who was interviewed quickly by Russian reporter, and they were talking.
[19:30:03]
It was very hard to hear him, but he said basically some issue on visa issues, which would be part of the relationship. So minor, but, you know, getting them back into the embassies,
restoring the relationship, visas, et cetera, this could be something --
KING: Stuff that for three years has been off the table, stuff for three years, has been no --
(CROSSTALK)
DOUGHERTY: Reestablishing the relationship has nothing to do with Ukraine.
EMANUEL: The U.S., I mean, the economic piece of this what they all the potential that was there that was supposed to be held kind of back. That may be where the progress is because of the U.S.-Russian relationship and Ukraine is basically kind of still in that treading water with no progress, which means that's not good for Ukraine because he has no he slipped the noose on the sanctions number four time and he gets to continue his war unencumbered.
AXELROD: I'll tell you what. Its clear why there was a delay in them coming to the stage, because you and I both know, and you know as well to ambassador, they were spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to spin a nothingburger into filet mignon, and they never got there.
COOPER: It's going to be rare. You never had to do that. Did you? You never had to do that.
AXELROD: I like burgers.
COOPER: Okay.
An hours long historic meeting, a brief joint news conference will decode more of what exactly this could all mean for Ukraine and Zelenskyy, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:35:51]
TAPPER: And we're back trying to digest a truncated press conference here in Anchorage just moments ago, in which President Trump and Vladimir Putin each made brief remarks, didn't take any questions and left. The president came away without the Ukraine cease fire. He was seeking to spare the thousands of innocent lives that are lost in this horrible war. Russia attacking Ukraine.
He alluded, perhaps, to that when he said that there was one area that they wanted to achieve and quote, we didn't get there. Both sides said the talks were productive, but beyond that, we're still trying to learn more. Right now, about what happened behind closed doors. Still some outstanding questions in terms of whether or not president Trump is going to impose more sanctions, whether he agreed to lift sanctions, what happened behind closed doors?
Nick Paton Walsh has been gauging reactions so far in Ukraine. He joins us now from Kyiv.
Nick Paton Walsh, your thoughts?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake, I mean, it's interesting obviously now because there will follow a phone call from President Trump to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, I suspect probably not here in the middle of the night and also with European allies too.
So, we'll probably hear more details of what was discussed in that. It may also be that some sort of framework or some sort of idea for what may follow, might be imparted in that, although I have to say, listening to Trump's mood and comments, it sounds to some degree like he's not particularly hopeful that much of that is a starter. I mean, obviously with negotiations like this, the last bits, the bits you don't get the agreement on are the tricky bits. And this could be the amount of land Putin gets, or it could be the ceasefire which the U.S., Europe and Ukraine want to be the starting point of negotiations.
I think many here will feel a slight sense of relief from seeing what just transpired there. We did not have the two leaders cook up a deal that's entirely in Russia's favor, and then present it like a win for the world. And that appears to be something far from their reach. In fact, there'll be some element of relief, certainly.
But as we've just seen, one Ukrainian MP comment on social media, Putin has again bought himself time a significant amount of time potentially too, because they haven't even set a date for the meeting they think they're going to have, which may continue to progress this nascent diplomacy. No indication either, too, that these secondary sanctions are supposed to kick in last week, this was sort of a last ditch attempt that they're actually going to follow. Maybe we will have European pressure for that to happen in the days ahead.
But also some of the phraseology Putin used I think will leave many here chilled that he's not remotely changed his position or had to feel he had to back down. He called Ukraine a brotherly nation. That's not a statement of love or a place that he's tried to occupy through force, killing its civilians over three and a half years.
Plus, I should tell you, actually, just as that meeting ended, we've just had here an air alert going on in the east of the country. Very common. But throughout that meeting, towns in the east were being hit by drone strikes.
Putin also said that the root causes of the war have to be eliminated, and there has to be -- a peace has to be brought. Now, when he says root causes must be eliminated, that is exceptionally ominous to Ukrainians because he's essentially saying that their military defense has to be eradicated. Going back to the maximalist goals of demilitarizing, this entire country.
So, no indication there at all that things necessarily calming on Putin's part, or he's willing to offer concessions from what we could see there. And I think there are many Ukrainians who saw the red carpet laid out, the ride together in the Beast. And that sense of rehabilitation on the global stage for Putin and ultimately very little results.
This is a process that's clearly going to continue to roll on. And for Ukrainians, there's probably a sense of relief that something isn't going to get forced down their throats from a press conference has already been decided without them being there. But its going to take weeks, potentially, for sanctions to kick in. And it was clear that those sanctions were having pressure on Vladimir Putin from China and India, his two main energy customers. And so, I think many here will be deeply worried about what Putin uses that time for, because the progress on the front lines now, Russia's making a significant and turning incremental gains and something more strategic now, Jake.
[19:40:06]
TAPPER: All right. Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv, Ukraine, thanks so much.
Let's go to Matthew Chance. He is in the news conference room at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Before I ask you what you're hearing from the Russian delegation, Matthew, I am wondering if you could translate for our viewers when President Putin talks about wanting to address the root causes of this conflict, which he talked about in his opening remarks, his only remarks what exactly is he referring to? Is he referring to the idea that, well, actually, there is no such thing as Ukraine that is Russian territory?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I mean -- I mean, that for me was the key phrase of President Putin's remarks because it's exactly the same formulation that is used time and again, you know, that the conflict is about root causes that have to be addressed. And he said he was convinced that those root causes, again, you know, had to be sorted out. And what he's talking about there is the threat that he perceives Ukraine poses to Russia. It's why he's annexed four regions of Ukraine, even though he hasn't entirely conquered all of them.
It's why he's called for regime change, denazification, he used to call it. Now he calls it regime change in Kyiv. He wants Zelenskyy gone, and he wants to make sure that Ukraine does not join a powerful military alliance like NATO.
I mean, the way it's sort of characterized by many observers of, of the conflict is that he wants to subjugate Ukraine. He wants to make sure it is under sort of Russia's thumb for the foreseeable future. He doesn't necessarily want to conquer all of the territory, but he wants to make sure it's an obedient, you know, kind of vassal state of Moscow.
And so, the fact that he repeated that phrase again here in that pretty short statement to the world's media, with President Trump standing next to him, I mean, it said to me that he had made absolutely no compromises whatsoever. And certainly, there was -- there was no, description, no detail on any compromises he may have made. The four regions is annexed. He's always wanted all of those. He still does.
As far as we're aware, he said there was an agreement. No detail was made about -- about any agreement. In fact, that was contradicted by President Trump, who said there is no deal until there is a deal. And so we've all been left here sort of pretty bewildered about what the what actually sort of was discussed behind closed doors.
But clearly, we are at the -- we're not at the end of this process. If anything were at the were at the start of it. So, let's see what comes out after these conversations with European officials and of course with the Ukrainians in Kyiv.
TAPPER: Matthew, are you hearing anything from the Kremlin? Is Dmitry Peskov or any of the spokespeople or any of your sources in the Kremlin talking about what happened behind closed doors there? Because obviously not to put too fine a point on it, but the first part of there's no deal until there's a deal is there's no deal.
CHANCE: Yeah. I mean, this this, this clearly no deal. Here, and in terms of what the kremlin officials have said, they scurried off out the side door of this press conference room. As soon as they possibly could, and didn't give any of us a chance to speak to them. They've not been answering any of my text messages. I understand from the Russian press pool, which is just sort of outside here that Peskov and Putin and the other, you know, kind of members of the Russian delegation, they're hightailing it out of out of Alaska as soon as possible.
And so, you know, look, were not expecting to hear from them until much later, probably over the weekend. At this point or maybe even next week. Let's see. But certainly, they haven't made any comments before they left.
TAPPER: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you so much.
CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS", joins me now.
Fareed, thanks for joining us. So, President Trump called the meeting extremely productive. He definitely tried to put a positive spin on, let's be frank. He was trying to bring peace and end a war. I mean, there's nothing wrong about his goal.
But it does appear that there really wasn't anything concrete achieved. No ceasefire, no sanctions relief or sanctions imposed. We don't really know where we are other than Putin got himself a summit in Alaska. What do you make of what we just saw?
FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Yeah. I think you have it right, Jake. Look, the atmospherics of the entire summit were somewhat cringeworthy. The fact that Putin was being welcomed, welcomed on American soil, the fact that Trump gave him literally a red carpet treatment, the kind he has rarely given to any, you know, Democratic ally of the United States.
[19:45:09] You can tell that Trump thinks Putin is, you know, is an equal, is this big shot on the world stage, and he's been treated by the rest of the west as a kind of pariah. I mean, he can't go to Europe because he'd be arrested.
So, there was a lot of the atmospherics that were cringeworthy. But I will say, on the most important thing at least for me, it was positive that there was no deal. I think everyone was worried that there was going to be a deal in which Trump was going to make major concessions. I don't think anyone thought Putin was going to make any concessions. The fear was that Donald Trump was going to cave in the various ways, sell out Ukraine, sell out the Europeans. And he didn't do that.
And so I think, you know, I'm at least relieved. Now, when you watch it, what you saw was Putin had clearly decided his strategy was he was going to make no substantive concessions of any kind, but he was going to really amp up the flattery of Trump. So, he says, if Trump had been president, there would have been no war, which is easy for him to say.
Now, Trump should get the Nobel Prize. He's amazing. All that, you know, his cheap and easy rhetoric for Putin. But he laid that on thick. But at the end of the day, he made no concessions. So, Trump comes back empty handed. But, you know, in a way better to come back empty handed than to have given away, you know, a quarter of Ukraine.
TAPPER: Right. And I'm sure that there are a lot of people breathing easy, in Ukraine, because of that. I wonder if you think with no apparent concrete progress at the summit, at least none that was announced. Is there an upside for President Trump?
I mean, he can say he tried for peace. And that's not nothing. But there's also the flip side of that, which is Putin might leave here bolstered both domestically and on the international stage. No?
ZAKARIA: Well, Putin has gotten a lot in the sense that he got the recognition, he got the stage, he got the invitation to the United States. He also got the delay of all kinds of new sanctions that Trump had threatened. Remember, Trump had said deadlines and he said if there isn't a ceasefire, Putin doesn't agree to these terms. There will be consequences. There will be severe consequences.
None of that appears to be happening. And in fact, Foreign Minister Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said he expects sanctions to be lifted as a result of this. Now, he said that a little earlier, so we don't know where that is. But yeah, there's no -- it's hard to spin this in a positive direction if you believe that, you know, it is important to preserve Ukraine as an independent sovereign state.
But it wasn't a disaster. And again, I will give Donald Trump credit for this. That presumably Putin stuck to his guns and Trump didn't concede. It's possible there is some framework that was discussed that he now needs to take to the Ukrainians and the Europeans. But Donald Trump tends to be fairly indiscreet.
So, if there is such a framework, if anything substantive was agreed on, we will know in the next hour. It is it is inconceivable to me that Trump will be able to keep that quiet. He will -- he will feel the urge to boast. So the fact that, at least so far, we haven't heard much leads me to -- to your conclusion that, you know, really, at the end of the day, there's nothing to show for.
TAPPER: Right. I mean, he did say, just to quote him, 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.
I assume we all here on the panel think that that one that's most -- the most significant would be the ceasefire. But President Trump also said that he's now going to call, NATO leaders and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.
What do you see happening next? President Trump did talk about they would talk soon and probably would see each other again soon. There was some idea floating that the next summit might even be in in Moscow. Although he acknowledged he'd get a little heat on that one, although he didn't say no.
What do you think happens next? And what message would it send if Trump were to go to Moscow for the next summit?
ZAKARIA: Well, that would be a terrible idea, because the entire way that Trump has handled these negotiations from the start has been to make preemptive concessions to the Russians before the negotiations began. Remember what Putin's main demands. He wants to keep all of Ukraine that he has conquered. In fact, he wants a bit more.
[19:50:00]
Trump initially basically conceded that, Pete Hegseth as well. He wanted that NATO -- guarantee that Ukraine will not be a member of NATO. Trump has said that's -- that's going to happen. He wanted to be sure there would be no American troops on Ukrainian soil. Trump has said that.
Then he gives him the summit in the U.S. the next thing would be to give him a summit where he can play host and peacemaker. But we've gotten nothing back from Putin and it's been a, you know, a series of unilateral concessions to Putin. And it's not clear yet what, the United States, the West is getting.
So, I'm all for making a deal. I'm all for compromise. I'm all for ending the war.
But if the strategy of preemptive concessions to Vladimir Putin has never worked in the past and is unlikely to work now, what we need is pressure on Putin, military pressure through military aid to Ukraine. Thats what will get his attention.
TAPPER: Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much.
Anderson, back to you in D.C.
COOPER: Jake, thanks a lot.
Here with me now is Leon Panetta. He served as former defense secretary and former CIA director under President Obama. And he was President Clinton's chief of staff.
Secretary Panetta, I mean, you have seen a lot of these kind of global world leader meetings, these kind of summits. Did anything come out of this? Have you seen one quite like this?
LEON PANETTA, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: Look, Anderson, I think -- I think the fundamental test for this summit was pretty clear that the president had to get a ceasefire. Thats at the top of the list. And he himself said he needed to get a ceasefire and that they ultimately, if they got a ceasefire, they would then establish a negotiation between Ukraine and Russia to work out the issues on territory and on security.
That would have been a successful summit. That did not happen. There was no deal. There was no "there" there. There was no ceasefire.
So, it's pretty hard for me to understand. Just exactly what was the purpose of this summit because whatever I thought was the fundamental test of success was not achieved.
COOPER: In fact, I want to play something the president said Wednesday when asked by a reporter about what would happen if this was not a successful summit. Let's just play that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to. Stop the war after your meeting on Friday?
TRUMP: Yes, they will. Yeah.
REPORTER: What will the consequence be?
TRUMP: There will be consequences.
REPORTER: Sanctions? Tariffs?
TRUMP: There will be -- I don't have to say. There will be very severe consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Secretary Panetta, we certainly did not hear on that stage with the president, was face to face with Vladimir Putin anything about any kind of consequences or any kind of failure? He's certainly not characterizing it as a failure. He did say, you know, there's not a deal until there's a deal. He said some progress was made up.
I mean, is he now in a position, a position where he just ignores, you know, his promise on Wednesday that there would be severe consequences? Does he just ignore that? What do you do if you're president of the United States now? PANETTA: Anderson, I think I think the fundamental problem here is the way that President Trump thought he could make progress with Putin he really felt that because of their friendship, that he could basically schmooze Putin, do the red carpet, have him drive together towards the summit.
COOPER: And that ultimately, by the power of Trump's personality, that somehow he could get Putin to agree to a ceasefire. For all of those of us who've dealt with Putin, that's not the way to deal with Putin. You don't schmooze Putin. Youve got to be tough with Putin.
Putin is a tough actor. Putin knows what he wants. Putin is not to be trusted. And you've got to be tough with him. Youve got to come down. Youve got to implement sanctions. Youve got to provide weapons to the Ukrainians.
That is being tough with Putin. That's what Putin understands. It's the power of force.
And Trump somehow thinks that he doesn't have to resort to that kind of tough action, and that he can do it through the power of his personality. And frankly, that's not working.
COOPER: Yeah. Secretary Panetta, I appreciate you joining us.
[19:55:01]
Thank you.
Coming up next, we're going to get reaction from the Senate as we await the departure of President Trump. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: I'm Jake Tapper, along with Anderson Cooper in Washington.
