00:00Well, for more on what the summit was like behind the scenes, we can cross to Anchorage, Alaska, and speak to David Smith, bureau chief for The Guardian newspaper.
00:08David, you were in the room for what was a very unusual press conference. Tell us more about it.
00:15That's right. And that room was divided with Americans on one side, Russians on the other.
00:20Huge anticipation. The principles emerged on stage standing behind those lecterns.
00:26Even though Vladimir Putin is the short-term man, he somehow seemed to be more in control, more the dominant figure.
00:35And it was Putin who spoke first at the press conference.
00:38I think many people will find it quite ominous that he talks about those root causes of the conflict.
00:43That is, Putin speak for his historical narrative that does not recognize the independence or integrity of Ukraine, something he pushes regularly.
00:53There was no pushback from Trump on that.
00:57Trump's own remarks were brief.
01:00He spoke for less time than Putin at one point, sort of said what a fantastic relationship they have,
01:06and was frustrating in how scarce his details were, saying that they'd agreed on many things, but there were still one or two outstanding points.
01:16I think all the reporters around me have then fully expected a long question and answer session.
01:23That's what we've become accustomed to with Donald Trump in all sorts of contexts.
01:28Even his last meeting with Trump in Helsinki in 2018, there were at least a couple of questions.
01:35But this time, to everyone's surprise, he just wound it up.
01:39Putin invited him to Moscow.
01:40Trump made a joke about that.
01:42And then they were gone, and all the shouting in the room, then there was somewhat consternation and puzzlement and people dashing to Fard.
01:50And it was an anticlimactic end to this summit, where people had traveled huge distances to be there.
01:59And then, obviously, we did get a bit more information from Donald Trump's interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.
02:06He kind of saved the exclusive for him, and, among other things, talked about that potentially planned meeting between Putin and Zelensky that Trump himself might attend.
02:17And, again, Trump said he thinks it's now up to Zelensky to get it done.
02:23And I think that also will be worrying language for observers in Europe.
02:28So a somewhat anticlimactic summit then.
02:30What reaction have we been getting in the U.S., notably from politicians?
02:36I think Republicans in Donald Trump's party remain broadly supportive.
02:43They're saying this is, again, the master negotiator.
02:47He's being a global statesman.
02:49He's bringing Putin to the table in a way no other leader could.
02:53They buy into some of this rhetoric that we heard, even from Putin, that this war would not have happened if Trump had won the 2020 election and was still president.
03:01But, on the other hand, there has been fierce criticism from some political pundits and commentators and analysts, and, indeed, from Trump's opponents in the Democratic Party.
03:12Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, criticized Putin for hosting the thuggish Putin, as he put it, and said, instead of standing with Ukraine and our allies, Trump had sided with a Russian dictator and legitimized him.
03:34And other Democrats echoed that rhetoric.
03:39There was a feeling here that Trump really ended Putin's global isolation here.
03:43He brought him back onto the world stage.
03:46This is a man who's been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
03:50And yet, Trump literally rolled out the red carpet, gave him a ride in the beast, the presidential limousine, and gave him the last word at that press conference.
04:02So, among Trump's critics, a sense here that the presidency itself was somewhat debased.
04:08All right.
04:09We'll be continuing to follow the fallout from this summit in the coming days.
04:12David Smith, thank you so much for bringing us that behind-the-scenes look at this summit from Anchorage, Alaska.
04:18That's David Smith, the bureau chief for The Guardian newspaper.
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