Bolton: 'Trump did not lose, but Putin clearly won'

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, 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? 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?

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. Zelensky 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.

Vladimir Putin said, I believe, we've turned the page, not referring to Ukraine, but more to, do you know what to refer to?

Or what was your sense? I think he meant the U.S.-Russia relationship, but what he really means is the Vlad-Donald relationship.

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 very defensive 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 a flyover, a red carpet, a lot of handshakes, and a lot of great state TV coverage back home. I think it's even deeper. He got out a diplomatic penalty box. Three minutes were up.

Putin did? 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 it's rickety, afloat. And he's allowed and permitted to keep the war with no political consequences back home on that. 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 for what he wants. And I sit here, we watch this, we've been waiting. I think I know less today than I did when this started.

Jill Jody, former Moscow bureau chief, I mean, you've read Russian tea leaves for many decades.

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,

let's be clear. In his view, those are the root causes.

Yes, so.

NATO.

I thought it was extraordinary.

Not good. And that warrants the case, hi everybody. And that warrants the case. 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 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.

That's like music to Trump's ears. And you could hear Trump, you could sense that that landed well with him. And then he started talking about Russia, Russia, Russia. And he went all that. I mean, Putin is what,

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 apparatchiks.

I'm just a country lawyer.

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

in 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.

Ambassador Bolton, do you think there was

something actually agreed to? It certainly sounds like there was something, but the fact they wouldn't announce it says it can't be very substantial. I think, Abby, the answer to your question is there is no White House decision-making

process.

Right, it's just whatever they want to do. 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... 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?

Yes. 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. I want to check in with Fred Pleitgen in Moscow to see what kind of reaction or coverage

this is getting there, Fred. Yeah, it's getting wall-to-wall coverage, Anderson, here in Russia. And as you can imagine, the Russian state media are 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 is completely isolated 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 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.

I understand. Fred Plankin, thanks very much from Moscow. Ram, did you want to say something?

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 day is you got to have put the headline, got to have headline points on there.

If there had been a ceasefire, he would have come out and said, we got it, we got it.

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, you get to that fork in the road and he refused to take it. I just, I'm not going to be, I think there may be a potential here that while we're hearing all these atmospheric words, productive, all this, all that, my guess is the second meeting on the economic side was probably productive. Inside there, you're at a log jam on some core issues because President Putin won't give in and President Trump won't give him what he wants.

The question I have is other leaders around the world irritate the president. He slaps tariffs on them. 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 gotten himself an extension for what we don't 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.

Four sanctioned red lines have all been crossed and never a consequence, and he gets to continue

the war. Yeah, I think the answer may be that Putin convinced him on certain things that were essential to Zelensky, that Trump was being told, you gotta advance Zelensky'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 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.