Ned Price

He was most successful in the skills that he learned in the KGB.

It's such an own goal.

Look, there have been a number of elements that have been useful to Ukraine in its efforts to defend itself against Russian aggression over the past several years.

Number one was the diplomatic, economic isolation and pressure that Russia has felt.

And just by inviting President Putin to U.S.

soil, by fetting him with this arrival ceremony that is not even reserved for our closest allies.

Can you think of the last time?

Has there ever been a time where there's been a B-2 flyover for any country, let alone one of our closest allies?

And with with that arrival ceremony, with the setup, as you said, President Trump undid so much of what dozens of countries around the world have worked for several years to put in place this political isolation, diplomatic isolation with sanctions imposed.

and other forms of economic pressure, this economic isolation.

And then you have the optics of it all.

What President Putin has coveted, especially since President Obama called Russia a, quote unquote, regional power in the waning days of his second term, is nothing more than to stand on the same plane as the U.S.

president, to stand side by side,

to be seen as an equal.

And in some ways, President Trump didn't make President Putin come off as an equal.

He made him come off as a superior.

Again, the pageantry, allowing him to speak first during the press conference, allowing him to set the rules for the press conference where they didn't take questions.

President Putin got everything he wanted optically.

He got everything he wanted in terms of the imagery.

But again, I am most concerned that he got everything he wanted substantively because he left Anchorage with President Trump firmly in his camp.