At what was billed as an “historic” presidential summit, hastily put together in Alaska on Friday afternoon, the optics were as clear and overshadowing as the vast Chugach mountains glistening over Anchorage in the summer sun.

U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not reach a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine after talks in Alaska on Friday, as the two leaders offered scant details on what was discussed but heaped praise on one another.

In Alaska, military parader President Donald Trump literally had U.S. soldiers on their knees to roll out the red carpet for wanted war criminal Vladimir Putin, who Trump greeted with applause as Putin played him like a pawn.