Two weeks before his Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump said that Russia’s war on Ukraine was disgusting: “Russia? I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting.” The killing of civilians, he said, “should be stopped”.

At the same time, he said he’d ordered a pair of US submarines to position near Russia in a move laden with menace: “We always want to be ready.”

Illustration by Dionne GainCredit:

Then, the day before the summit, he threatened to impose “very severe consequences” on Russia if it refused to stop the war. “I won’t be happy if I walk away without some form of a ceasefire.”

In particular, Trump had raised the prospect of imposing secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil. Tariffs of up to 500 per cent. The main targets would have been China and India, the chief consumers of Russian oil. This would be combat-crippling imposition for Putin. Why? Because it would choke the flow of Putin’s petrodollars, the enormous oil revenues that continue to finance the Russian war economy.

Even as he flew to Alaska to meet Putin, Trump told reporters on Air Force One: “I want to see a ceasefire rapidly. I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today.”

Yet there is no ceasefire. Not even any talk of a ceasefire. At the post-summit press conference, Trump did not utter the words peace, ceasefire, sanctions, or even the word Ukraine.

Asked later by an interviewer how he rated the summit, he answered: “10 out of 10”,........

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