Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General and former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army Mark Hertling responded to President Donald Trump greeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday in what was billed as a summit to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war.
Hertling, who often provides military analyst on CNN, wrote on social media on Friday: “This afternoon, I told @NicolleDWallace that I had a sense of ‘dread’ about what might happen in the Alaskan ‘summit.’ After watching the press conference, that dread has come to life.” He added, “This whole thing is despicable.”
This afternoon, I told @NicolleDWallace that I had a sense of “dread” about what might happen in the Alaskan “summit.”
After watching the press conference, that dread has come to life.
I’ll be joining @jrpsaki later tonight.
This whole thing is despicable.
— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) August 15, 2025
Days before the summit, Hertling wrote: “Watching the US prep for a critically important meeting with Putin in Alaska reminds me of students who realize they had an assignment a day before it is due. Hoping I’m wrong, but concerned about the diplomatic approach & the potential outcome.”
[Note: In 2018, Hertling co-wrote the Politico op-ed ‘Putin’s Attack on the U.S. Is Our Pearl Harbor,’ which urged the U.S. to respond accordingly to Russian interference in the 2016 United States election.]
Hertling is not the only highly decorated veteran who has voiced opposition to Trump’s warm welcome of Putin on U.S. soil. Retired Marine Lt. Col. fighter pilot Amy McGrath also criticized the Trump administration.
McGrath wrote: “I’m sorry but it’s hard to get over the picture of the airmen on their knees, in front of the Russian jet, rolling out the red carpet for a mass murderer. Just never thought I’d see that.”
Never again pic.twitter.com/0uFN5z5WOw
— We told you So (@terri4436166795) August 16, 2025
MAGA influencers including Charlie Kirk and Fox News star Laura Ingraham, neither with military credentials, say those who are critical of the meeting are “biased.”
Kirk wrote: “Anything the media says about the Alaska summit must be immediately discredited because they are mad Trump met with Putin at all.” And Ingraham responded to the negative feedback on X: “Anyone saying that the Trump-Putin meeting was a failure is ignorant, biased or both.”
Trump, who has continually threatened Putin with increased sanctions and worse if the Russian leader failed to agree to a ceasefire by certain dates, left the meeting saying a ceasefire was no longer the immediate goal.
“It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,” Trump posted on Truth Social.