John Bolton, President Trump’s former national security advisor, doubled down on his view that the president’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska will not result in a peace deal.
“I don’t think there’s a peace deal anywhere in the near future,” Bolton told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Friday.
“As long as Putin is advancing on the battlefield, even if it’s three yards in a cloud of dust, he’s not going to give up anything if he can get away with it,” he added. “And I think here, I think the White House has lowered expectations precisely for the reason that it’s too complicated to handle here.”
Trump is meeting with Putin after greeting him at the airport earlier on Friday, shaking hands with the Eastern European leader. Days before the meeting, the White House lowered expectations around the talks, calling the historic meeting a “listening session” and “feel-out meeting.”
Trump this week also promised European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he would not negotiate giving up any Ukrainian territory with Vladimir Putin.
“They’ll be discussed, but I’ve got to let Ukraine make that decision. And I think they’ll make a proper decision. But I’m not here to negotiate for Ukraine. I’m here to get them at a table,” Trump said on Friday about Ukrainian territories.
Bolton, in his Friday CNN interview, continued to criticize Trump strategy on the Russia-Ukraine war.
“And I think the real measure of what we do here is to consider the failures of the past three and a half years, to have a strategy on our side to do what was the stated position of every NATO member, the full restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.
Bolton previously argued that the meeting is benefiting Russia.
Putin’s visit to Alaska is first time on U.S. soil since 2015.
“I think Putin has the initiative here, and I think his — what he’s going to try to do is show to Trump that he has a peace plan and that it’s sincere, even though I don’t think it will be,” he said on Wednesday on CNN’s “AC360″ with Anderson Cooper.
