Washington: US President Donald Trump has hit out at Democrat Senator Chris Murphy for criticising the Alaska meeting, calling him “very unattractive” and “lightweight,” who makes it hard to reach a peace deal.
Trump’s statement comes after Murphy slammed Trump for humiliating America and described the Alaska meeting as a “disaster” and “embarrassment for the US.”
Murphy also claimed that the meeting resulted in Russian President Vladimir Putin getting “everything he wanted”.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump stated, “The very unattractive (both inside and out!) Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy, said ‘Putin got everything that he wanted.’ Actually, ‘nobody got anything,’ too soon, but getting close.”
“Murphy is a lightweight who thinks it made the Russian President look good in coming to America. Actually, it was very hard for President Putin to do so. This war can be ended, NOW, but stupid people like Chris Murphy, John Bolton, and others, make it much harder to do so,” he added.
Murphy, in his remarks on NBC News, said, “That meeting was a disaster, it was an embarrassment for the United States. It was a failure. Putin got everything he wanted. I mean, first of all, he wanted that photo-op. He wanted to be absolved of his war crimes in front of the world. He was invited to the United States. War criminals are not normally invited to the United States of America.”
Putin and Trump held talks at the Arctic Warrior Convention Centre in the early hours of Saturday (Indian time). Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US President’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff also participated in the meeting.
Both leaders said that they made progress in three hours of talks, moving closer to finding an end to the Ukraine War, but did not announce an immediate ceasefire.
“It’s not a done deal at all,” Trump told a Fox News interviewer after Friday’s summit in Alaska. “And Ukraine has to agree. President (Volodymyr) Zelensky has to agree.”
“We had a very good meeting today, and I think a lot of points were negotiated on behalf of Ukraine,” he said.
Following the meeting, Trump on Saturday held a telephonic meeting with the European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to brief them on his discussions with Putin in Alaska.
Trump has been vocal about his stance that Zelensky should move to end the war swiftly. He presented conditions that include Ukraine surrendering its claim to Crimea and agreeing never to join NATO.
On Sunday, he reiterated on Truth Social, “President Zelensky of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight.”
“No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!)…and no going into NATO by Ukraine. Some things never change!” he wrote.
Additionally, European leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Portuguese President Antonio Costa, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, will back Zelensky during his meeting with Trump.
European leaders are also concerned that the White House talks could become a stage for Trump to press Zelensky into considering the conditions that Putin outlined during their Alaska summit last week.
(IANS)
