CSotD: Optical Aleutians
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Mellor sets the stage for last week’s Alaskan summit meeting with an homage to David Low’s classic Rendezvous. There are differences between Hitler and Stalin meeting over the corpse of Poland and Trump and Putin meeting over Ukraine, with the major difference being that Ukraine is not only still alive but defiant.
The other difference is that, while historians could provide an analysis of how Hitler and Stalin measured up, the imbalance between Trump and Putin was clear before the meeting even happened, and was made even more clear by the results of a summit which produced nothing.
Ben Jennings drew this cartoon before the summit took place, but it would be overly generous to credit him with the gift of prophecy, because nobody outside the MAGA universe had any other expectations for the meeting.
Trump had once bullied Zelenskyy for not having the cards, but, in Jenning’s depiction, the problem isn’t whether Trump had cards but whether he had any that Putin wasn’t already well aware of.
Trump fancies himself a great deal-maker, but his record of bankruptcies, legal losses and unkept promises make his self-image hard to defend.
Meanwhile, Putin came up through the ranks of the KGB and, however you feel about that group, they taught him a lot and his subsequent success indicates that he learned his lessons well.
Woldhek’s portrait of the pair sums up the meeting.
Hamlet cautioned Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass, and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. ‘Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.
However, an upright bass has no frets and Putin did indeed play upon Trump, a melody of his own choosing.
Moreover, just in case anyone didn’t get what had happened, the cancellation of the planned luncheon sent a clear message, translated here by Whamond for the benefit of those so thick-headed that they still didn’t get it.
We don’t know how the cancellation came about, though we do know what they were going to be served, since someone on Trump’s crack team left papers in the photocopier at the hotel.
This is called “an inability to get out of your own way” or, for our international readers, an “own goal,” and summarized things better than the press conference following the truncated meeting in which the KGB veteran further dominated the real estate developer.
In any case, reading between the lines, it seems likely the host would have followed through with the luncheon simply for form’s sake, if his guest had been willing to stay. It wouldn’t have changed anything substantive, but its cancellation spoke eloquently for how things had gone, and it seems highly unlikely that the US made the decision to call the luncheon off.
There were a large number of cartoons playing on the red carpet and Trump’s signature red tie, but Jennings did, IMHO, the best job of summing up the meeting, in which Trump welcomed Putin and Putin proceeded to walk all over him.
She adds a nice touch in that Trump continues to clap his tiny hands even after being trod upon, which is an eloquent commentary on his inability to admit he had suffered a humiliating public setback. You wouldn’t expect him to say he’d gotten his butt kicked, but, then again, it wasn’t as if the outcome were subtle.
Still, they could have had a polite, meaningless luncheon if Putin weren’t intending to send a message.
How much of a humiliation was the Alaska summit? Golding suggests it didn’t harm our national image because expectations were already set ahead of time, at least among world leaders if not the average person.
I used to work with a fellow who often said “You can bull**** the fans and you can even bull**** the refs, but you can’t bull**** the players.”
Case in point.
Somehow, I rather doubt this photo is going to be blown up, framed in gilt and hung in the Oval Office.
But the game continues, though Brookes doesn’t expect today’s meeting with Zelenskyy to garner the same front row pomp as was rolled out for the Alaska summit.
To start with, Dear Leader hasn’t many arrows in his quiver. He had, no doubt, expected to have some sort of master plan, agreed upon with his good friend Vladimir, to lay upon Zelenskyy so that he could play the peacemaker and impress the Nobel Committee.
(By the way, I strongly suspect that telling them you want the prize is the best possible way to ensure that you won’t get the prize.)
But the new wrinkle is that Zellenskyy’s not coming alone this time: French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte all said, “What a lovely idea! Mind if we tag along?”
So if Dear Leader had been planning to reheat and serve that unused filet mignon and halibut Olympia, he’s going to have to cut it up small and set out a few more plates.
Patrick Blower suggests that there won’t likely be the outrageous display of bullying that the world saw the last time Zelenskyy visited the White House.
There’s a difference between “The whole world is watching” and “The whole world is showing up,” and Dear Leader may find it more difficult to play the role of a smooth operator in front of such an impressive, perhaps intimidating, collection of negotiators.
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