Former Under Secretary of Defense Robert Wilkie told Newsmax on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's arrival in Alaska was a study in contrasts — and a calculated show of force by President Donald Trump.
Appearing on "American Agenda," Wilkie described the scene on the tarmac at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson as "telling." Putin, he noted, touched down in what he called "essentially a cargo plane," while the U.S. president arrived aboard the iconic, massive Air Force One.
But it was what surrounded Putin on the ground that Wilkie said delivered the real message: "He has to walk through a gauntlet of F-22s and F-35s, aircraft that the Russian army cannot match."
According to Wilkie, this was no accident. "President Trump is the master at setting the table," he said, calling the display a deft piece of political theater aimed at underscoring America's military might and putting the Russian leader on notice before talks even began.
Once the talks began, Wilkie predicted that Putin would try to employ what he dubbed the "double Fs" — "flattery and filibuster" — to steer the conversation away from what Trump wanted to discuss most: an immediate ceasefire to the war in Ukraine.
Instead, Wilkie said, Putin would likely bring up topics such as the [Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] arms control talks, cooperation in space, and other broad issues to "obfuscate and distract the president's attention from the issue at hand."
"Putin is playing with a generally weak hand," Wilkie added.
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