Questions are being raised about what Vladimir Putin may have said that appeared to ‘spook’ members of Donald Trump‘s team after the two leaders met in Alaska.
It comes after advisers of the U.S. President were reportedly left ‘ashen-faced’ and ‘frightened’ following the two-and-a-half hour summit between the two leaders on Friday about the ongoing conflict.
Afterwards, Trump admitted he and Putin could not strike a deal on the crisis – with no immediate ceasefire or peace deal to end the war achieved.
The summit ended early, and the lunch scheduled to take place between Putin and Trump at the U.S. military base was cancelled.
At the press conference, the leaders did not take a single question from the room filled with the world’s journalists.
Describing the mood of Trump’s aides such as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff after the meeting, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Peter Alexander said their ‘eyes were wide’ and ‘ashen’.
‘What struck me was the looks on the faces of a lot of the American delegation,’ he said.
Leavitt ‘appeared to be stressed out and anxious’, he noted, while Witkoff ‘came into the room, then left quickly, then came back in’.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt gather ahead of a joint press conference by U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ‘appeared to be stressed out and anxious’ following the U.S.-Russia summit
But by the end of their three-hour meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, the leaders’ parting handshake was less chummy, according to a body language expert
‘Those were some of the sort of images that will stick with me as we leave here.’
MSNBC host Antonia Hylton also suggested that Leavitt looked ‘ashen’ and ‘frightened’ after what she had witnessed ‘behind closed doors’ as she emerged from Trump’s meeting with the Russian president.
‘A lot of the press corps that was there, they reported in the minutes and hours after the presser that they saw members of the administration, like Karoline Leavitt, look ashen, almost frightened after what they had seen behind closed doors,’ Hylton said on Saturday night’s episode of MSNBC’s The Weekend: Primetime.
‘What did that indicate to you?’ she asked former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, a guest on the show.
‘We should all be glad that we did not go to Alaska,’ McFaul responded, adding that Leavitt’s appearance after the meeting ‘suggests to me that this was a bigger disaster than they’re leading on to.’
A lunch of halibut and steak – scheduled for the two leaders after the peace talks – never took place as planned.
The menu of the meal was revealed among papers relating to the summit found in a hotel printer 20 minutes from the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where the historic meeting took place.
Monica Crowley, who was in charge of creating the programme for Russian leader Putin’s visit, was left red-faced after the eight pages including precise locations, meeting times and private phone numbers of government employees were found at Hotel Captain Cook
The menu shows they would have had a starter of ‘green salad with champagne vinaigrette’ followed by a ‘duet of filet mignon with brady peppercorn sauce and halibut Olympia served with buttery whipped potatoes and roasted asparagus’.
The highly anticipated meeting, that began around 3.30pm ET, ended abruptly after only two-and-a-half hours – despite the Kremlin spokesman previously saying he believed the talks could take at least six to seven hours.
Afterwards, in an extremely uncharacteristic move, Trump allowed Putin to speak first – at what had been billed as a bilateral press conference – and then didn’t answer a single question.
Sensitive documents revealed Mr Trump and Mr Putin were due to dine on halibut and steak
Donald Trump greets Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on Friday
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin pose for photos during a U.S.-Russia summit on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska
‘We didn’t get there,’ the usually ebullient president acknowledged, ‘but we have a very good chance of getting there.’
Their whole appearance before the world’s press lasted just 12 minutes.
The two leaders were all smiles as they came face-to-face for the first time since 2018, sharing a 20-second handshake before a B2 bomber and four F-35 fighter jets flew overheard in a spectacular military show.
But by the end of their three-hour meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, the leaders’ parting handshake was less chummy, according to a body language expert, as the two revealed they hadn’t yet struck a deal on ending the war in Ukraine.
‘After the overkill cordiality of his greeting ritual Trump’s grim expression and his tapping fingertips here suddenly gave him a tougher and less optimistic look,’ Judi James said.
‘The shake at the end came with the same extended hand and cocked thumb but there was also a hard-looking stare and Trump dropped Putin’s hand quickly this time.
‘No patting and no pulling him closer,’ she added.
Talking about the meeting, NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Alexander said: ‘This was not the way the president likes to do things – he likes to be the producer of this presidency.
‘He got that in the first half of the day, but when he was behind closed doors with Vladimir Putin, it looks like he didn’t come away with anything that he claimed he wanted.’
The Daily Mail contacted the White House for comment.
