Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told Newsmax on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at his meeting with President Donald Trump expecting to discuss business deals, but Trump held firm, insisting that no talks on trade could begin until Russia agreed to a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Van Orden said Trump’s meeting with Putin in Alaska showed both U.S. military strength and Trump’s determination to secure peace before any economic discussions.
“Well, here’s the top-line thoughts you just witnessed. What 77 million Americans voted for and what the entire world collectively has been praying for. And that’s progress towards peace. A peaceful resolution to the Ukrainian war,” Van Orden said Friday on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”
The former Navy SEAL described the display of power that accompanied Putin’s arrival.
“Vladimir Putin stepped off that plane, and a B-2 bomber and some F-22s flew about 500 feet over his head. And that was showing Vladimir Putin that we have the ability to do things that you simply do not like. You simply cannot do that,” Van Orden said.
Van Orden added that Putin expected the meeting to turn into an economic discussion.
“That’s why Vladimir Putin brought his business guys. He brought his economics, his finance, his economic minister. He brought the guy that they call their investment envoy over. He thought that he was going to get into a business deal. But President Trump is holding his ground. There must be a ceasefire before we can start to even think about normalizing relations with Russia,” he said.
The two leaders met for nearly three hours, but the talks did not produce an agreement to pause Moscow’s invasion. Still, Trump said the meeting was “very productive.”
“There were many, many points that we agreed on. I would say a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite got there, but we’ve made some headway,” Trump told reporters afterward, standing in front of a backdrop reading “Pursuing Peace.”
Some liberal media outlets called the meeting inconsequential, but Van Orden pushed back against this characterization. “Remember when Biden went anywhere to talk to Putin to try to resolve this conflict? It didn’t happen. So this is why this is falling out in this sequence,” he said.
He likened the negotiations to arbitration. “A husband and a wife who are bitterly fighting out a divorce don’t sit down together in a room together; initially, you have a neutral arbiter. That’s what President Trump is doing,” Van Orden said.
Van Orden stressed that the stakes are global. “We’re talking about a conflict that has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and billions and billions of dollars being expended on ordnance,” he said.
“This is exactly how this should be proceeding,” Van Orden said. “And I give the greatest accolades to President Donald J. Trump for getting this stuff moving in the right direction for the first time in 3 1/2 years.”
“President Trump is holding his ground,” Orden added.
Information from Reuters was used in this story.
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