There is a reason career politicians survive in the toxic environment, something that Donald Trump fails to do. And that is being discreet. Social media applause and attention can ruin a story long before it is even being told, and that is something that regularly happens with President Trump.
Long before his meeting with President Putin. Trump hyped up everyone regarding the speculated results. And then once the meeting was over, even before the summit and its outcome could make the news, Trump’s tirade on Truth Social went viral.
Even the diplomats didn’t have the time to spin a story out of the summit before Trump called his own bluff and called the summit a failure. The diplomatic political fallout was evident.
The posts on Truth Social were laced with personal insults. These conspiracy-tinged musings and deflections from the original intent. These posts quickly became the story themselves and took over any progress claimed from the summit.
The Anchorage meeting was highly advertised as a potential breakthrough that everyone was waiting for in the ongoing war in Ukraine. However, nothing came out of the meeting. It didn’t produce any result. There was no ceasefire agreement signed or any concrete roadmap created toward peace.
Trump initially framed the event as “historic,” however, by the end he conceded in the aftermath, “We didn’t get there.”
New post (Trump says ‘we didn’t get there’ but touts progress as meeting with Putin ends without a deal to stop Ukraine war) has been published on Political Commentary – https://t.co/RjcdXGo2cJ pic.twitter.com/zSqWxo6OGP
— Latest Commentary – #LatestComments (@LatestComments) August 15, 2025
This admission raised questions if the summit had any purpose other than a symbolic photo-op or if this was another of Trump’s bits to make sure he gets a Noble peace prize?
Donald Trump then went on to his favorite ranting site, his social media platform Truth Social.
He then blasted Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who had called the talks a failure. Sen. Murphy also accused Trump of handing Putin a victory.
Donald Trump lashes out at ‘fake news’ and ‘fired losers’ after former NSA John Bolton calls US-Russia summit in Alaska a ‘win for Putin’, in an exclusive WION interview@AmbJohnBolton @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/EcKKP6WCPX
— WION (@WIONews) August 13, 2025
Trump fired back and branded Murphy “very unattractive (both inside and out)” and then dismissed him as a “lightweight.” Trust Trump to attack someone’s looks and give boxing metaphors to his critics when the nation is looking up to him for answers.
Trump also chided his former national security adviser, John Bolton, and called him a part of a chorus of “stupid people” who are blocking peace.
Meanwhile, Trump also suggested that Ukraine should “make a deal” with Russia. These remarks were largely interpreted as an effort to put pressure on Kyiv to give up to Russia and let go of their aspiration of being a part of NATO.
Trump announces that Ukraine will not get Crimea back and and no NATO for Ukraine pic.twitter.com/ti1ObEj7LN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 18, 2025
Then, Trump did something he always did. He posted a vague post on truth social and left the media scrambling to interpret it. And then this post again took the attention away from more serious matters at hand.
Trump posted a single word-“Bela”. This post was without any explanation. This cryptic post set off another set of online speculation. The theories ranged from a mistranslation of “white” in Russian to a reference to “trouble” in Turkish.
This further fueled the idea that Trump’s focus is always on theatrics and optics of the situation rather than the solution or diplomacy of politics. Trump’s meltdown on Truth Social is symbolic of the summit itself. It’s full of spectacle, with no substance, and deeply polarising.
Trump is claiming progress with Russia this morning. I am not sure what he meant by the post of a single word “Bela”. pic.twitter.com/djlz7JUsUi
— Eugene (@BreakingNews4X) August 17, 2025
Where Putin left Alaska projecting strength, Trump came back to Truth Social and raged. One became a successful leader of his country, and the other became a social media meme in an effort to show strength.
This outcome has reinforced doubts about whether his approach advanced U.S. interests or weakened them on the world stage.
