The reviews continue to come, and they are only getting worse for a president who flew off to the frontier in search of a gold Scandinavian prize, only to return looking like a haggard old man defeated at his own cynical game. That Putin defeated Trump in upstaging the man on the world stage, U.S. soil, even, was easily foreseeable. But what is increasingly noted is perhaps one of the lone MAGA unforgiveables – he looks old and used up, according to the Daily Beast’s David Rothkopf, and that just cannot happen in front of MAGA fandom. “Mr. Cankles” and all the commensurate questions now look to be inevitable.
From Rothkopf’s analysis:
“Trump framed himself as the host of the summit. But Putin was the center of attention, the person who spoke first at the post-event press conference, the one who was clearly setting the rules going forward.”
Well, one can be really cynical and say that the guy with the most “kompromat” over the other guy gets to set the rules. And maybe Putin does, and maybe he did, but the rules themselves weren’t so much the problem as the guy who couldn’t match the moment. It wouldn’t have mattered who went first if Trump closed out with a bang and, well – he didn’t. Of the whimper:
“There was a pathos to the whole event because if you watched closely, particularly during the closing press conference, it appeared Trump understood this as well. He was low-energy. He seemed defeated. He was going through the motions. In fact, in a predictable irony, the 79-year-old Trump appeared to be just the president he asserted Joe Biden would’ve become had he been reelected, too old for the job, not up to the challenge, more elderly than he has ever appeared to be while on the world stage.”
Ask Jeb Bush what it is like to be labeled “low energy.” Or ask Joe Biden just how strongly the “elderly” characterization sticks. Despite the fact that Xitter was abuzz with MAGAs talking about the “strength” it takes to make the 20-hour there-and-back trip to Alaska, it was on the way home that Trump took no questions from the press, reportedly talking to European leaders and President Zelensky. You will note that there is no news coming from that all-important side of the equation. Nothing was accomplished. And 20-hour trips don’t mean much when you have a bed to sleep on the way back. He looked terrible.
It is one thing to come back looking exhausted after a hard-fought victory, it is quite another to invest those 20 hours and get an ass handed to you at the end. And the internet let Trump have it:
Ben Jennings @BJennings90 @officialinews_ on #Trump #Putin #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaUSSummit #AlaskaSummit – political cartoon gallery in London original-political-cartoon.com
— Political Cartoon Gallery (@politicalcartoon.bsky.social) 2025-08-15T19:26:41.948Z
There won’t be a cease fire or peace because Putin is smarter than Trump, and smarter than Trump’s administration. Putin always gets what he wants from Trump — ALWAYS! Ask yourself — why is Russia the only country in the world that Trump hasn’t put tariffs on?A fucking embarrassment.
— 🪷MsGrumpyBunny🪷 (@msgrumpybunny.bsky.social) 2025-08-15T20:28:58.470Z
Rod Emmerson @rodemmerson on #Trump #Putin #AlaskaSummit #TrumpPutinSummit #RussiaUkraineWar #RussiaUSSummit – political cartoon gallery in London original-political-cartoon.com
— Political Cartoon Gallery (@politicalcartoon.bsky.social) 2025-08-16T19:44:50.798Z
You get it.
But to get back to the real “it.” MAGA doesn’t really care about Ukraine. They only want Trump to continue to trigger the left – that is literally their entire platform, such as it is. Meanwhile, Trump’s entire id is caught up in continuing the grift while perhaps talking someone into the Nobel Peace Prize, something that one thinks he may be willing to buy for a billion dollars right now, and yet it is no closer. Neither the triggering nor any prize will go to the guy barely getting down the steps at the end.
No, the Peace Prize goes to people with the strength and stamina to get deals done. Unfortunately for Ukraine, the administration appears to be too lazy and short-sighted to have done the requisite work ahead of time to seal a deal. Instead, they got nothing except exhausted. And that is unforgivable, no matter how many Xitter posts praise Trump’s “hard work.” Hard work that yields nothing but sleepiness equates to little more than sitting at home scrolling through the phone. Perhaps his time could’ve been better spent.
Either way, Trump had best rest up because the low-energy thing is a death knell, especially for someone weak-kneed and swollen-ankled.
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Failed. Failing. Continuing to fail … Same old. Same old … failure.
Yes. And.
Lost. Loosing, Continuing to lose… Same old. Same old … loser
And here’s the punchline:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08/16/world/trump-putin-meeting-alaska
So that was Putin’s “win.” It doesn’t matter, Trump is the loser, as you say.
I wouldn’t expect MAGA to care about Ukraine. But take a look at this:
“A strong majority of Americans across the political spectrum sympathize more with Ukraine than Russia in the ongoing war: 62% of respondents express more sympathy with Ukraine than Russia, including 58% of Republicans and 76% of Democrats. At the same time, just 2% of respondents said they sympathized more with Russia in the conflict, including 4% of Republicans and 1% of Democrats. Republicans (20%) were more likely than Democrats (7%) to say they sympathized with neither side, while equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats (5%) said they sympathized with both sides equally.” Quite a disparity.
Well, that was a year ago. Here’s the latest:
LAWFARE, August 14, 2025: “For First Time, Most Americans Want to Back Ukraine for ‘as Long as It Takes’ “
Oh, the irony of that last cartoon! While Putin does have the theoretical right as a political leader to nominate someone for a Nobel Peace Prize, as the leader of a country which initiated an unjustifiable attack on a neighboring nation (not to mention being the individual who personally ordered said attack), there is no way that the Nobel Committee would give his nominee the time of day.